Short TV Review: Once Upon A Time
So for my first review of the 2012 - 2013 television season I have decided to start with one of my favorite shows, Once Upon A Time. First of all I have to ask, how many of you actually want to type Once Apon A Time, is it just me and my phonetic spelling? It might just be me.
If you felt you like you were watching a Quinton Tarantino movie when you reached the end of the episode you are not alone. If you didn’t then I am alone, which I really hope is not the case. I really thought for pretty much the whole episode the Sleeping Beauty story was being told as something that happened in Fairytale Land before the curse. Clearly I was wrong about that.
I am not really sure how I feel about this episode. Acting wise everyone was awesome and spot on. I mean I spent the whole opener pretty much with tears in my eyes because of how emotional everyone was when the curse was broken. Writing wise though, I don’t know I think it was a little all over the place which is why at the end of the episode I was going, what the heck!
Let’s get down to brass tacks though. We will start with the story of Sleeping Beauty, aka one of the most interesting departures from the classic fairytale ever. I say interesting because I am not sure if I liked it or not. Keeping in mind that my only knowledge of Mulan and Aurora are from what I know from the Dinsey cartoon I was just really that into the fact that Phillip and Mulan were sporting feelings for each other. I mean I get it, they worked side by side for 28 years, but that is not something that really had to happen. Unless the village where everyone is hiding out in only has children in it, there had to be some other male around that Phillip could have palled around with, just saying. Then the very non-committal “I love you,” Phillip said before he got soul sucked, sigh. When you are about to die the least you could do would be to make a choice, at least I think so.
The far more interesting part of the episode was everything that was happening in Storybrook. Why the heck did Whale get everyone all worked up to go after Regina? I mean I would have gone after her too but why him? It will be very interesting to see what his story is going to be.
Rumpelstiltskin and Belle did not get enough screen time as far as I am concerned, but their story was my favorite one from last season so I might be biased. First of all, mad props to Belle for calling Rumpel on his BS, because really he did manipulate his word with her. So not cool. Thank god she came back though. I do not think I could go through her leaving him again. That would have been too much.
Especially given what happened with Emma and Snow! I have to say, I understand why the writers did what they did, but I am completely and utter furious about what they did. Snow, Charming, and Emma finally remember who they are and they get ripped apart within less than 48 hours. It’s just so wrong. However, this will make for very interesting story telling for the rest of the season so I applaud their efforts to get the story arch out there right at the start of the season.
I was kind of hoping that writing this review would help me to clear up my feelings about this episode but it has not.
Episode Rating: B+
Reasoning: Good emotional acting but the writing left me feeling like the episode was just not well organized.
Originally published at Artistic Blunders