100 Reviews: 62
Hey, it’s better time than I was making for a while.
OUaT: 1x08: Desperate Souls
While I understand why this was on the recommended list of episodes to revisit, I’ve never been very fond of it. I remember being *really* disappointed in it on first watch, and while time has helped it out somewhat it’s still kind of...bland. I find all the twists of this episode to be really obvious from a mile away and that was especially annoying when this ep first aired because it has all the feeling like it should be epic and surprising but really isn’t.
It does kind of foreshadow how all the good guys on the show are really just tools of those with greater will, which will be a running theme through especially the first season and almost as much s2. But again, it’s undercut by just how obvious what’s going on it and yet the characters continue to be surprised.
The FTL stuff is especially bad at that. As soon as you have ‘random stranger who gives main character an info dump that happens to be the answer to the main character’s problem’ it’s pretty obvious there’s a twist/catch, especially when said main character is Rumple and we know where he ends up. And especially with the way this series is structured that flashbacks are sort of to explain some piece of the puzzle, not necessarily an evolving story within the flashbacks. I do also suspect some of the blame goes to whoever cast Brad Dorif as the old Dark One, because...it’s Brad Dorif; decades now of watching genre shows has programmed me to if not suspect him on sight, at least not be at all surprised when he turns out to be evil.
However, the expanded backstory we have on Rumple (and Bae) now, does kind of give it a little more weight in some places. Especially the taunts about if Bae isn’t Rumple’s kid, which in light of what we now know about Mila would have cut pretty deep and maybe almost justifies how a self-proclaimed coward like Rumple snapped and killed the Dark One just because he said mean things. Like I said, I called the “twist” about the old Dark One setting himself up to die at Rumple’s hand way back in the story, but I’ve never entirely bought how it ends up coming to pass.
The Storybrooke stuff...I want to like it a lot, but again it was obvious to me early on that it was going to end up however Gold wanted it to, Emma may technically have a say but it’s not going to be anything he didn’t predict as soon as he started down this path. And as much as I can like manipulative bastards, in this case I just find it...not dull exactly because everyone was acting in character with some interesting growth through this, but more than a little less than interesting. I have always said I find Gold far more interesting than Rumple and that holds true here, but he’s still a touch too obvious (maybe it’s a Dark One trait) for my taste.
I don’t really have much to say. It is a better episode than I remember it (I suppose once I’ve seen it, it obviously should be predictable so the fact that it was always so counts less against it) but it’s just not that great. Lowered expectations might have played a factor too, I kept expecting it to surprise me on first watch but now I can take it on its own merits; which are okay but nothing special.
Next time:
It’s kind of random right now, so I can’t say.
Suggestions are still welcome
OUaT: 1x08: Desperate Souls
While I understand why this was on the recommended list of episodes to revisit, I’ve never been very fond of it. I remember being *really* disappointed in it on first watch, and while time has helped it out somewhat it’s still kind of...bland. I find all the twists of this episode to be really obvious from a mile away and that was especially annoying when this ep first aired because it has all the feeling like it should be epic and surprising but really isn’t.
It does kind of foreshadow how all the good guys on the show are really just tools of those with greater will, which will be a running theme through especially the first season and almost as much s2. But again, it’s undercut by just how obvious what’s going on it and yet the characters continue to be surprised.
The FTL stuff is especially bad at that. As soon as you have ‘random stranger who gives main character an info dump that happens to be the answer to the main character’s problem’ it’s pretty obvious there’s a twist/catch, especially when said main character is Rumple and we know where he ends up. And especially with the way this series is structured that flashbacks are sort of to explain some piece of the puzzle, not necessarily an evolving story within the flashbacks. I do also suspect some of the blame goes to whoever cast Brad Dorif as the old Dark One, because...it’s Brad Dorif; decades now of watching genre shows has programmed me to if not suspect him on sight, at least not be at all surprised when he turns out to be evil.
However, the expanded backstory we have on Rumple (and Bae) now, does kind of give it a little more weight in some places. Especially the taunts about if Bae isn’t Rumple’s kid, which in light of what we now know about Mila would have cut pretty deep and maybe almost justifies how a self-proclaimed coward like Rumple snapped and killed the Dark One just because he said mean things. Like I said, I called the “twist” about the old Dark One setting himself up to die at Rumple’s hand way back in the story, but I’ve never entirely bought how it ends up coming to pass.
The Storybrooke stuff...I want to like it a lot, but again it was obvious to me early on that it was going to end up however Gold wanted it to, Emma may technically have a say but it’s not going to be anything he didn’t predict as soon as he started down this path. And as much as I can like manipulative bastards, in this case I just find it...not dull exactly because everyone was acting in character with some interesting growth through this, but more than a little less than interesting. I have always said I find Gold far more interesting than Rumple and that holds true here, but he’s still a touch too obvious (maybe it’s a Dark One trait) for my taste.
I don’t really have much to say. It is a better episode than I remember it (I suppose once I’ve seen it, it obviously should be predictable so the fact that it was always so counts less against it) but it’s just not that great. Lowered expectations might have played a factor too, I kept expecting it to surprise me on first watch but now I can take it on its own merits; which are okay but nothing special.
Next time:
It’s kind of random right now, so I can’t say.
Suggestions are still welcome