SummaryHenry locates his birth mother, whom he believes can save Storybrooke, which is a town of fairy tale characters that do not remember their lives in the fairy tale parallel world.
SummaryHenry locates his birth mother, whom he believes can save Storybrooke, which is a town of fairy tale characters that do not remember their lives in the fairy tale parallel world.
I really love this series. The character developments are done to perfection. I cannot stand the wicked witch which means great casting. Cannot wait to see the season finale. Wish they would have continued Once upon a time in wonderland. I liked that show too. Love the Disney Characters.
It's a decent show, with all the favorite characters wrapped into one CF'd story line. It tickles my inner child.
However, at times it's extremely predictable and cliche. Others, there are some serious major inconsistencies with story line, "rules" established in the world, with forced exceptions when convenient to keep the plot moving. Emma's character personality has almost completely devolved into whiny, insecure mother, but then suddenly has her life together during the second half of the season, though nothing has really changed. They hadn't quite reconciled all of the issues in the first half. Snow is, as usual, drippingly sweet with very, very little character development. She just kind of exists, occasionally has some short-lived, shallow crisis blown out of proportion, but suffers no real complex experiences or emotions.
In general, the idea of the show is great. The general story line is entertaining, and hits all the nostalgic points. The dialogue, however, is a little lackluster, a little hackneyed, and often forced. Interactions between Emma and Hook are almost laughably bad, and hard to find believable. But the show is redeemed by some interesting plot twists, star performances, as well character development in other characters and relationships, like Rumpelstiltskin, Regina, and even Henry.
Overall, it's an okay series; it passes the time. But there are just so many glaring flaws, so many convenient plot twists that ignore pre-established conventions and timelines to call it an amazing series.
I hope you like going in circles with the same predictable outcomes and characters because that's what you are in store for. The show is really repetitive with nothing really going anywhere and characters that play out more like a cheesy soap opera rather than a gripping fairy tale character.
Once upon a time, ABC was in talks with an amazing creator named Bill Willingham, whose comic series "Fables" is a long line of brilliance, mature exploration of character and fairy tale tropes blended into a modern setting. It is hands down one of the best series I have ever read, and it's still going (at least into 2015 when the story comes to a close).
At some point, those talks fell through. Then, half a year later, ABC announces Once Upon a Time, based on the same basic conceit as the Willingham comic from Vertigo (DC). I'm sad it's not Fables, but I'm excited at the idea.
Then, I watch it. I tried. I really did. It's so watered down, trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator, with annoying leads (though I liked Jiminy Cricket and I liked Rumpelstiltskin for what they were worth). It had a less-intriguing premise. It was far too soft and Disney-fied. They basically took this amazing mature story and tried to make it have mass appeal to the family audience. Already not what I wanted, but hey, I like a good family show on occasion, so I stuck it out.
And the writing ****. The plotting, the dialogue, the generic tropes done with a straight face, bland as could be. The kid is obnoxious. Snow's 'daughter' is obnoxious. Snow is less interesting than a bottle of Ambien (and it's sad, too, I loved the actress in Big Love).
Jiminy and Rumpel are the only reason this review didn't get a '0'.
If you want something that's actually good in this vein, go read Fables. Or watch Grimm.