TV Review: Once Upon A Time, S4, Ep01
Continuing Premiere Week reviews with Once Upon A Time. Another series I always intend to review every episode of, and I've consistently falling off with. I'm really going to try to do better this year. People have asked what I thought of the second half of season three, the "Wicked is Coming" storyline. Overall, I enjoyed it. I thought there were some rough spots and the occasional weak episode (what long-form drama doesn't have those), and I thought that they closed the door a little too neatly on Oz as a whole. I enjoyed Rebecca Mader's turn as Zelena / The Wicked Witch, and thought that by giving us her backstory so early in the arc, they gave her a lot more to play with than they ever gave Robbie Kay as Pan in the first half of the season.
But enough of that -- that should be enough nattering to keep any season 4 premiere spoilers from showing up in the Facebook link. Of course, for those of you seeing this on your LJ friends' feed, I'm going to hide my actual thoughts about the premiere behind the usual cut.
Alright, let's get the obvious issue out of the way: as someone who has never seen Frozen (other than "Let It Go" on Youtube), how did I feel about the addition of those characters to the mix after a summer of hype about it? I'm actually okay with it. I don't feel the premiere being an Elsa-centric episode was any more intrusive than season two's premiere being Philip-Mulan-Aurora-centric episode was. The show is built partially on the premise that just about any Disney property (or public domain legend/myth/tale) can show up and be integrated. Sometimes, those characters are one-and-done (Hansel and Gretel; Cinderella for the most part); sometimes they become solid supporting characters for a short period (The Mad Hatter, Mulan, Ariel, Tinker Bell) and sometimes they're nothing more than a cameo (Pongo!). In my opinion, I don't think we're in danger of the Frozen cast replacing the main cast any more than Pan or Zelena did during their arcs, and I think people should just calm down and see where this story leads us. Because I certainly noticed that while Elsa had the flashback, the majority of the Storybrooke scenes were spent moving the characterizational cliffhangers from the season 3 finale forward. Final "Frozen" thoughts: I'm interested to see how Anna's journey to the Enchanted Forest plays out -- and my theory is that the explanation for why Elsa was in that vase is that Rumple accidentally imprisoned the wrong Snow Queen and somehow didn't know it. (Or possibly he imprisoned the wrong one on purpose, because letting Elizabeth Mitchell take over Arendelle benefitted him more than imprisoning her. Yes, I'm calling it that Mitchell is playing Hans Christian Andersen's more evil Snow Queen, even though it will likely be weeks before we see her.)
Now, back to the main cast.
RUMPLE AND BELLE: Nice touch that they are removed from the action, since Elsa has emerged from his vault -- although she doesn't seem to recognize his picture in the newspaper so much as she recognized the pendant on the counter in front of him. I am very happy we got the classic Belle and Beast dance scene, with the theme music, although they looked a little stiff in the dance itself. Prior to the dance, we got a lot of foreshadowing: Rumple's speech at Neal's headstone just cries out for "how is he going to fall off the 'be good for love' wagon this time?" and Belle's mention of a house that just mysteriously appeared in town during the last curse screamed of "set up!" I doubt we'll find out who owned that house, or the stuff in it any time soon ... but how cool was it that the box on the table turns out to be a hiding spot for Master Yen Sid's magical hat? Speaking of that: I don't really think we'll be seeing Mickey Mouse and company on ONCE any time soon, as some people are already decrying on EW.com and TVLine. I think we will see, perhaps in season 4B, perhaps not until season 5, a human version of the Sorcerer's Apprentice tale. My own theory (and I've seen others say this already) is that they'll conflate Master Yen Sid with the other pointy-hatted sorcerer in Disney's animated canon: Merlin. It makes sense, and hints that Camelot borders the Enchanted Forest have already been made with Lancelot appearing in season two and mention of Merlin and Excalibur in season three. As for where Belle and Rumple are headed relationship-wise: there are bumps ahead. Sooner or later, she has to find out he lied about the dagger he gave her, and that will need to be resolved. He's already pulled the dagger back out to open Yen Sid's box/hat. Also: the look on Rumple's face as the hat was revealed: worry? concern? I'm thinking temptation, as in "oh, maybe I can use this object of vast and unimaginable power to rescue me from the curse of that other object ... but until I know for sure, maybe no-one should know I have either one...." Between the dance and the hat, Rumple and Belle had the two "OMG" moments of the episode, IMHO.
EMMA AND HOOK: Nicely played, writers. Hook feels like he's being ignored, and CaptainSwan 'shippers surely wanted more movement on that relationship in the premiere than they got. So Emma's line about "be patient" was aimed at much at the audience as it was at Killian. Emma got to be her bad-ass self (even if her magic proved useless against the snow monster) and also got to restate for the audience her whole purpose on the show: to return the "happy endings" to Storybrooke's citizens -- all of them, not just the "good guys." Hook got to try to be heroic, but he individually was not the focus of the episode, so of course he got knocked over. (In fact, it was not lost on me that ALL of the swashbuckling men in that scene -- Charming, Hook and Robin -- got knocked on their butts pretty completely, leaving Emma, Marian and Regina to do the heavy fighting).
HENRY: One of the moments of the episode that bothered me: Regina looks like she's on the verge of going dark, and no-one thinks to send the one person in Storybrooke capable of handing Regina an ultimatum she can't reject after her? I did like that they gave the kid the "duh, why didn't we think of having me talk to her last night" type of line a few scenes later, but really, writers -- how did Henry not immediately go running after his mother?
REGINA-ROBIN-MARIAN: Love triangles are messy, and I'm still of the opinion that there were a dozen other ways to introduce conflict (and delayed audience gratification) into the Regina-Robin relationship without bringing Marian back from the dead. Still, now that it's done, I'm hoping it will open up not just solid scripting for Robin (his "talk" with Regina tonight was very well-played, Sean Maguire walking that line between Love and Honor with real tension and anguish) but that it will help add depth to Regina's redemption arc, which was bound to be full of "two steps forward, one step back" moments regardless of Marian's presence. On that front, we knew at some point Regina would have to blatantly save Marian's life in order to win her over, so it's nice that they got that out of the way early (at the same time showing that on this show, the female characters really are the strongest ... not that we don't love our swashbucklers). Also intrigued by Robin's comments that he was ashamed of something in his past, that he'd not always been a good guy -- you know this will be followed up on, and that we'll get an actual Robin-centric episode some time this season. I still hope the love triangle will resolve sooner rather than later (with Marian willingly sacrificing herself to save Robin and/or Roland?), and not with this being the inciting incident that has Regina go Full Evil. At this point, that's not an acceptable character arc for her. Speaking of "one step forward, two steps back..."
SIDNEY!: So, so good to see GianCarlo Esposito back on Once. I know we're not likely to see a lot of him (busy man, he is, and thus falls into the same realm as the Hatter, Dr. Whale, Tinker Bell, Mulan and Red as characters we don't get to see as much of as we should), but man was he used effectively this episode. It's like he never left the character. It's the first time we've seen him since the Curse was lifted and everyone remembered who they were, so it was great to see him playing the Love for Regina that he had in his Genie-centric episode in season one. It was also so sad to see how easily Regina tossed him back in the Mirror, how she really does still view him as a tool (even moreso than Jamie Dornan's Huntsman) ... but the saddest moment had to be when Sidney said "I knew you had a purpose for me, that you hadn't just forgotten me for all these years," when the look on Regina's face so obviously says that is in fact what she did (even if the fans hadn't).
TEAM 7: Okay, we only got two of them this time out, but I do love the dwarves. Grumpy's CRIES OF ALARM AT WHAT'S COMING have just about become his defining character trait. Lee Arenberg is great with them, but man I think we need a new Grumpy-centric episode and perhaps some development with Nova. And it's always nice to see Walter/Sleepy fall asleep on the job. But I have one burning question: How in the world does Grumpy look at the giant snow monster and not realize it looks NOTHING like the woman they almost ran over when Sleepy fell asleep at the wheel?
THE KNAVE: Oh, come on! Admit you saw Michael Socha's name listed with the main cast and then were disappointed he wasn't in the episode at all. I cannot possibly be the only one anxious to see how Will is going to return to Storybrooke and how that return will affect Robin and the Merry Men (with whom Will Scarlet parted on less-than-amicable terms). Plus, I mean, Michael Socha = YUM.
Random Thought: With access to pretty much all of Disney's animated and live-action properties ... how is it Kitsis, Horowitz and company have not yet connected Killian Jones with the events of Treasure Island?
Also, did I miss another cameo by Bambi? I thought I saw someone tweet about it before I watched the episode, but I didn't catch it if it was there.
But enough of that -- that should be enough nattering to keep any season 4 premiere spoilers from showing up in the Facebook link. Of course, for those of you seeing this on your LJ friends' feed, I'm going to hide my actual thoughts about the premiere behind the usual cut.
Alright, let's get the obvious issue out of the way: as someone who has never seen Frozen (other than "Let It Go" on Youtube), how did I feel about the addition of those characters to the mix after a summer of hype about it? I'm actually okay with it. I don't feel the premiere being an Elsa-centric episode was any more intrusive than season two's premiere being Philip-Mulan-Aurora-centric episode was. The show is built partially on the premise that just about any Disney property (or public domain legend/myth/tale) can show up and be integrated. Sometimes, those characters are one-and-done (Hansel and Gretel; Cinderella for the most part); sometimes they become solid supporting characters for a short period (The Mad Hatter, Mulan, Ariel, Tinker Bell) and sometimes they're nothing more than a cameo (Pongo!). In my opinion, I don't think we're in danger of the Frozen cast replacing the main cast any more than Pan or Zelena did during their arcs, and I think people should just calm down and see where this story leads us. Because I certainly noticed that while Elsa had the flashback, the majority of the Storybrooke scenes were spent moving the characterizational cliffhangers from the season 3 finale forward. Final "Frozen" thoughts: I'm interested to see how Anna's journey to the Enchanted Forest plays out -- and my theory is that the explanation for why Elsa was in that vase is that Rumple accidentally imprisoned the wrong Snow Queen and somehow didn't know it. (Or possibly he imprisoned the wrong one on purpose, because letting Elizabeth Mitchell take over Arendelle benefitted him more than imprisoning her. Yes, I'm calling it that Mitchell is playing Hans Christian Andersen's more evil Snow Queen, even though it will likely be weeks before we see her.)
Now, back to the main cast.
RUMPLE AND BELLE: Nice touch that they are removed from the action, since Elsa has emerged from his vault -- although she doesn't seem to recognize his picture in the newspaper so much as she recognized the pendant on the counter in front of him. I am very happy we got the classic Belle and Beast dance scene, with the theme music, although they looked a little stiff in the dance itself. Prior to the dance, we got a lot of foreshadowing: Rumple's speech at Neal's headstone just cries out for "how is he going to fall off the 'be good for love' wagon this time?" and Belle's mention of a house that just mysteriously appeared in town during the last curse screamed of "set up!" I doubt we'll find out who owned that house, or the stuff in it any time soon ... but how cool was it that the box on the table turns out to be a hiding spot for Master Yen Sid's magical hat? Speaking of that: I don't really think we'll be seeing Mickey Mouse and company on ONCE any time soon, as some people are already decrying on EW.com and TVLine. I think we will see, perhaps in season 4B, perhaps not until season 5, a human version of the Sorcerer's Apprentice tale. My own theory (and I've seen others say this already) is that they'll conflate Master Yen Sid with the other pointy-hatted sorcerer in Disney's animated canon: Merlin. It makes sense, and hints that Camelot borders the Enchanted Forest have already been made with Lancelot appearing in season two and mention of Merlin and Excalibur in season three. As for where Belle and Rumple are headed relationship-wise: there are bumps ahead. Sooner or later, she has to find out he lied about the dagger he gave her, and that will need to be resolved. He's already pulled the dagger back out to open Yen Sid's box/hat. Also: the look on Rumple's face as the hat was revealed: worry? concern? I'm thinking temptation, as in "oh, maybe I can use this object of vast and unimaginable power to rescue me from the curse of that other object ... but until I know for sure, maybe no-one should know I have either one...." Between the dance and the hat, Rumple and Belle had the two "OMG" moments of the episode, IMHO.
EMMA AND HOOK: Nicely played, writers. Hook feels like he's being ignored, and CaptainSwan 'shippers surely wanted more movement on that relationship in the premiere than they got. So Emma's line about "be patient" was aimed at much at the audience as it was at Killian. Emma got to be her bad-ass self (even if her magic proved useless against the snow monster) and also got to restate for the audience her whole purpose on the show: to return the "happy endings" to Storybrooke's citizens -- all of them, not just the "good guys." Hook got to try to be heroic, but he individually was not the focus of the episode, so of course he got knocked over. (In fact, it was not lost on me that ALL of the swashbuckling men in that scene -- Charming, Hook and Robin -- got knocked on their butts pretty completely, leaving Emma, Marian and Regina to do the heavy fighting).
HENRY: One of the moments of the episode that bothered me: Regina looks like she's on the verge of going dark, and no-one thinks to send the one person in Storybrooke capable of handing Regina an ultimatum she can't reject after her? I did like that they gave the kid the "duh, why didn't we think of having me talk to her last night" type of line a few scenes later, but really, writers -- how did Henry not immediately go running after his mother?
REGINA-ROBIN-MARIAN: Love triangles are messy, and I'm still of the opinion that there were a dozen other ways to introduce conflict (and delayed audience gratification) into the Regina-Robin relationship without bringing Marian back from the dead. Still, now that it's done, I'm hoping it will open up not just solid scripting for Robin (his "talk" with Regina tonight was very well-played, Sean Maguire walking that line between Love and Honor with real tension and anguish) but that it will help add depth to Regina's redemption arc, which was bound to be full of "two steps forward, one step back" moments regardless of Marian's presence. On that front, we knew at some point Regina would have to blatantly save Marian's life in order to win her over, so it's nice that they got that out of the way early (at the same time showing that on this show, the female characters really are the strongest ... not that we don't love our swashbucklers). Also intrigued by Robin's comments that he was ashamed of something in his past, that he'd not always been a good guy -- you know this will be followed up on, and that we'll get an actual Robin-centric episode some time this season. I still hope the love triangle will resolve sooner rather than later (with Marian willingly sacrificing herself to save Robin and/or Roland?), and not with this being the inciting incident that has Regina go Full Evil. At this point, that's not an acceptable character arc for her. Speaking of "one step forward, two steps back..."
SIDNEY!: So, so good to see GianCarlo Esposito back on Once. I know we're not likely to see a lot of him (busy man, he is, and thus falls into the same realm as the Hatter, Dr. Whale, Tinker Bell, Mulan and Red as characters we don't get to see as much of as we should), but man was he used effectively this episode. It's like he never left the character. It's the first time we've seen him since the Curse was lifted and everyone remembered who they were, so it was great to see him playing the Love for Regina that he had in his Genie-centric episode in season one. It was also so sad to see how easily Regina tossed him back in the Mirror, how she really does still view him as a tool (even moreso than Jamie Dornan's Huntsman) ... but the saddest moment had to be when Sidney said "I knew you had a purpose for me, that you hadn't just forgotten me for all these years," when the look on Regina's face so obviously says that is in fact what she did (even if the fans hadn't).
TEAM 7: Okay, we only got two of them this time out, but I do love the dwarves. Grumpy's CRIES OF ALARM AT WHAT'S COMING have just about become his defining character trait. Lee Arenberg is great with them, but man I think we need a new Grumpy-centric episode and perhaps some development with Nova. And it's always nice to see Walter/Sleepy fall asleep on the job. But I have one burning question: How in the world does Grumpy look at the giant snow monster and not realize it looks NOTHING like the woman they almost ran over when Sleepy fell asleep at the wheel?
THE KNAVE: Oh, come on! Admit you saw Michael Socha's name listed with the main cast and then were disappointed he wasn't in the episode at all. I cannot possibly be the only one anxious to see how Will is going to return to Storybrooke and how that return will affect Robin and the Merry Men (with whom Will Scarlet parted on less-than-amicable terms). Plus, I mean, Michael Socha = YUM.
Random Thought: With access to pretty much all of Disney's animated and live-action properties ... how is it Kitsis, Horowitz and company have not yet connected Killian Jones with the events of Treasure Island?
Also, did I miss another cameo by Bambi? I thought I saw someone tweet about it before I watched the episode, but I didn't catch it if it was there.