What I've Been Watching: ABC's Once Upon a Time
This previous October saw the premier of two TV series based around the concept of "fairy tale characters/creatures in the real world". The first of these was ABC's Once Upon a Time, the second was NBC's Grimm. I'll be focusing on the former, as that's the one I have the bigger issues with.
For those who haven't been watching the series, the premise of Once Upon a Time is that there is, or was, a universe where all the characters from fairy tales were real - Snow White, Cinderella, King Midas, Rumpelstiltskin, Red Riding Hood, etc. And at some point in the past, the Evil Queen from Snow White decided she was tired of being on the loosing side, and cast a spell sending everyone in the kingdom/kingdoms to a world where she would be the winner. Said world turns out to be ours. Nice.
So now all the fairy tale characters are living in our world, specifically in the town of Storybrooke, Maine (really, guys?). But, of course, just about everyone has had their memories erased, so they don't know that they're actually fairy tale characters. The only ones who haven't lost their memories are the Queen, now Regina Mills (okay, that's at least a little clever), mayor of Storybrooke, and the main protagonist, Emma Swan (great, another female lead with the surname Swan), who's secretly Snow White's daughter. Of course, since Emma was born shortly before the whole world shift, so she's lived her whole life in the real world, and thus knows nothing about the fairy tale world.
Okay, I'm not going to sum up the whole series here. If you're really interested, go look the show up on Hulu - most of the episodes are free.
I'm not going to lie; I'm not enjoying this series, for a number of reasons.
First is the premise: fairy tale characters in the real world. Now, don't get me wrong, I think it's a good idea. It's one of the reasons I like the comic book Fables so much - seeing fairy tale characters interacting in the real world. My problem is with the mass mind wipe. In Fables, a good bit of the drama comes from all the history between the characters: the Big Bad Wolf is the sheriff, Prince Charming has to live with his three ex-wives (yes, he married Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella), the witch from pretty much every fairy tale is one of the town members. In Once Upon a Time, we don't get any of that.
Second is the characters themselves. They're not the fairy tale characters - they're Disney characters. This is made quite clear with the dwarfs from the Snow White story - they actually have names like 'Doc' and 'Grumpy'. Apparently dwarfs in the fairy tale kingdom are named for their dominant characteristic. The stupidity of this was made clear with the short-lived dwarf, 'Stealthy'. (though how he got this name, I'm not sure, because he was stupid enough to walk through a courtyard with lit, stationary torches. Anyone who's ever played a Thief game would know better)
But more to the point, almost all of the characters are just boring. Snow White/Mary Margaret Blanchard is sweet and loving and demure and a friend to all living things (no, I don't care that she whipped out a sword in the first five minutes of the pilot, she isn't an active character outside of flashbacks); the Queen/Regina is Evil, a fact that will be shown with all the subtlety of a sledge hammer almost every time she's on screen; Emma is just a bland every-woman, who's only reason for sticking around Storybrooke was "the mayor pissed me off". I'd mention more, but those three are pretty much the only characters who have had any time to be developed; all the other characters have either been kept around long enough to establish their alter-ego and have their special episode, or are restricted to background appearances. Yes, the Prince/David has a slightly bigger role, but his plot line has been resolved by him deciding "I'm okay with cheating on my wife because I'm in love." Because apparently divorce doesn't exist.
You might be wondering why I'm harping on the characters so much. Well, I wouldn't have as big an issue with this if one of the show's creators hadn't said "We don't want this to be a mythology show...It's about characters and characters first." The problem is that the creators worked on Lost, so they obviously know how to write a good mythology. Apparently that's all they're good at. By having the characters forget their pasts, they've become static - they can't move forward, and they can't move back.
That's not to say there's nothing about the show I don't like. Robert Carlyle as Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold is great, mostly because he, unlike the Queen/Regina, actually seems to enjoy being the bad guy. And the flashbacks to life in the fairy tale world are great. Exploring how the characters got to where they ended up is entertaining. Seeing those characters in the real world, only without any of their emotional baggage, is just boring. Honestly, it's like the show has two sets of writers - one for the flashbacks, composed of skilled writers who want to explore the characters, and one for the present day stuff, consisting of hacks who are either too lazy, unskilled, or afraid of pissing off Disney to actually develop their characters. And as an aspiring writer, that offends me.
I could probably go on for a while, but would probably devolve into ranting. I might post more if I feel like it, or there's significant interest. I also know I probably won't be changing anyone's minds about this show. If you like it, fine. If you haven't seen it, give it a watch. At lest it shows there are still people working in the film/TV industry who care about telling a story, rather than just making yet another reality TV show.
For those who haven't been watching the series, the premise of Once Upon a Time is that there is, or was, a universe where all the characters from fairy tales were real - Snow White, Cinderella, King Midas, Rumpelstiltskin, Red Riding Hood, etc. And at some point in the past, the Evil Queen from Snow White decided she was tired of being on the loosing side, and cast a spell sending everyone in the kingdom/kingdoms to a world where she would be the winner. Said world turns out to be ours. Nice.
So now all the fairy tale characters are living in our world, specifically in the town of Storybrooke, Maine (really, guys?). But, of course, just about everyone has had their memories erased, so they don't know that they're actually fairy tale characters. The only ones who haven't lost their memories are the Queen, now Regina Mills (okay, that's at least a little clever), mayor of Storybrooke, and the main protagonist, Emma Swan (great, another female lead with the surname Swan), who's secretly Snow White's daughter. Of course, since Emma was born shortly before the whole world shift, so she's lived her whole life in the real world, and thus knows nothing about the fairy tale world.
Okay, I'm not going to sum up the whole series here. If you're really interested, go look the show up on Hulu - most of the episodes are free.
I'm not going to lie; I'm not enjoying this series, for a number of reasons.
First is the premise: fairy tale characters in the real world. Now, don't get me wrong, I think it's a good idea. It's one of the reasons I like the comic book Fables so much - seeing fairy tale characters interacting in the real world. My problem is with the mass mind wipe. In Fables, a good bit of the drama comes from all the history between the characters: the Big Bad Wolf is the sheriff, Prince Charming has to live with his three ex-wives (yes, he married Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella), the witch from pretty much every fairy tale is one of the town members. In Once Upon a Time, we don't get any of that.
Second is the characters themselves. They're not the fairy tale characters - they're Disney characters. This is made quite clear with the dwarfs from the Snow White story - they actually have names like 'Doc' and 'Grumpy'. Apparently dwarfs in the fairy tale kingdom are named for their dominant characteristic. The stupidity of this was made clear with the short-lived dwarf, 'Stealthy'. (though how he got this name, I'm not sure, because he was stupid enough to walk through a courtyard with lit, stationary torches. Anyone who's ever played a Thief game would know better)
But more to the point, almost all of the characters are just boring. Snow White/Mary Margaret Blanchard is sweet and loving and demure and a friend to all living things (no, I don't care that she whipped out a sword in the first five minutes of the pilot, she isn't an active character outside of flashbacks); the Queen/Regina is Evil, a fact that will be shown with all the subtlety of a sledge hammer almost every time she's on screen; Emma is just a bland every-woman, who's only reason for sticking around Storybrooke was "the mayor pissed me off". I'd mention more, but those three are pretty much the only characters who have had any time to be developed; all the other characters have either been kept around long enough to establish their alter-ego and have their special episode, or are restricted to background appearances. Yes, the Prince/David has a slightly bigger role, but his plot line has been resolved by him deciding "I'm okay with cheating on my wife because I'm in love." Because apparently divorce doesn't exist.
You might be wondering why I'm harping on the characters so much. Well, I wouldn't have as big an issue with this if one of the show's creators hadn't said "We don't want this to be a mythology show...It's about characters and characters first." The problem is that the creators worked on Lost, so they obviously know how to write a good mythology. Apparently that's all they're good at. By having the characters forget their pasts, they've become static - they can't move forward, and they can't move back.
That's not to say there's nothing about the show I don't like. Robert Carlyle as Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold is great, mostly because he, unlike the Queen/Regina, actually seems to enjoy being the bad guy. And the flashbacks to life in the fairy tale world are great. Exploring how the characters got to where they ended up is entertaining. Seeing those characters in the real world, only without any of their emotional baggage, is just boring. Honestly, it's like the show has two sets of writers - one for the flashbacks, composed of skilled writers who want to explore the characters, and one for the present day stuff, consisting of hacks who are either too lazy, unskilled, or afraid of pissing off Disney to actually develop their characters. And as an aspiring writer, that offends me.
I could probably go on for a while, but would probably devolve into ranting. I might post more if I feel like it, or there's significant interest. I also know I probably won't be changing anyone's minds about this show. If you like it, fine. If you haven't seen it, give it a watch. At lest it shows there are still people working in the film/TV industry who care about telling a story, rather than just making yet another reality TV show.