Fairy Tale Stew: First Thoughts on “Once Upon a Time”

(But first… last chance to see The Dark Room this afternoon! Come out and have as much fun as we do!)

I had my eye on ABC’s new drama Once Upon a Time since I read about it in the newspaper this summer, so when my mom emailed me to tell me I should watch it, I figured, why not?

Well, actually, I figured, I don’t have cable, I don’t think it’s fair to watch full TV shows online illegally, and I don’t want to shell out on iTunes for episodes I don’t even know if I like. But then it turned out that CTV offers free streaming video of its shows, provided you’re willing to wait until the day after the episode airs. CTV, I’m totally willing.

My short-but-sweet review is this: I wish I were more impressed with this show. But I’ll probably keep watching for a few more episodes just to give it a fair chance*, because pilots tend to suck.

Once Upon a Time takes place part in our world, part in the Shrek/Into the Woods-like world where all the popular fairy tale characters co-exist. But the evil queen (Lana Parrilla) has put a curse on everyone that traps all the fairy tale characters in the town of Storybrooke, Maine in our own reality, where they don’t remember who they really are. The only person in town who knows what’s going on is Henry (Jared Gilmore), Evil Queen Regina’s 10-year-old adopted son  in this world. He enlists the help of his unwilling birth mother, our protagonist Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison), whom he believes to be the daughter of Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Prince Charming (Josh Dallas), destined to break the curse and restore order to the world.

First of all, it would be a lot easier to like this show if I got to piece together what was going on along with Emma. Instead, half the scenes take place as flashbacks to what happened in fairy-tale land, so I already know the answers to questions she’s still puzzling over. I feel distanced from her thanks to this;  I feel distanced from Henry because despite his conniving to bring Emma to Storybrooke, he doesn’t actually have a plan beyond that; and I feel distanced from the Evil Queen, Snow White, etc. because I spend more of my time wondering if I’m supposed to know whether they remember their storybook selves than empathizing with them. This last is also a trust issue: I can’t tell what’s a careful clue and what’s just sloppy writing, because the show has moments of both.

I also can’t help but find most of the production values and themes to be, well, cheesy. The acting is great, but that can’t rescue the incredibly one-dimensional queen or Rumplestiltskin from their pantomime evil. And I actually want to root for them — I want to enjoy the queen’s scenes as much as I enjoy Emma’s, to see her as a worthy and complex antagonist. I want to share the feelings of injustice that drive her, to make this story mean more than just, “Oh, what obstacles will the good guys face before they finally succeed in restoring the status quo?” I want a grab-me-by-the-lapels reason that this lady would choose to sacrifice all she did for her new life. And I know we’ve already got several scenes where the queen says outright, “I can’t be happy here, but I could be happy there,” but just saying it doesn’t make it interesting or compelling. Show me.

The great pleasure of a show like this is — or should be — allowing the viewer to make connections for him or herself, to speculate on how these quirky characters slot into the familiar fairy-tale roles. That’s what makes re-imagined mythologies like Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, Diana Wynne Jones’s Eight Days of Luke and The Game, and Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series and Kane Chronicles such pleasures to read.

And maybe that’s part of my disappointment. I’ve seen all the aspects of this plot done before — and done better. Re-imagined life-in-fairy-tale land? Into the Woods makes it emotionally and intellectually challenging, but still witty and clever. The power of stories vs. reality? The Neverending Story, both movie and book, is a tough act to follow. Funny riffs on Disney-inspired fairy-tale clichés? Hello, Shrek.

I also balk at some of the underlying choices. Don’t get me wrong: I really appreciate that three of the major characters in this show are women. I mean, I really, REALLY, REALLY appreciate it. But… this kind of narrative has so much potential for diversity, in both the casting choices and the stories that make up Fairy Tale Universe. Instead, we get Whitey McWhite Western Europe culture ville — the only two even quasi-salient characters of colour are both black guys who act as someone else’s servants. Heck, by this point, I’m used to seeing diversely populated fairy tales — check out Brandi and Paolo Montalban in Cinderella, for example. Why is everybody white?

Last but not least — and this usually doesn’t bother me in TV or film — but some of the editing weirded me out. In particular, I noticed a lot of places where the camera cut to a different angle mid-scene, to show a character’s reaction or whatever, and it was pretty obvious that the previous focal character was no longer in the same position or place he or she had occupied right before the cut. Or maybe it’s just me.

Anyhow, despite these misgivings, there are three reasons why I’ll give the next few episodes a chance:

1) I’ll happily watch all the rest of this stuff if it means I can also watch Jennifer Morrison finally get to play a character who solves her problems with a chainsaw. Her scenes are such a joy, and the scenes between her and Ginnifer Goodwin make the show. Actually, I admit to wanting to applaud when I read what reviewer Daniel Fienberg had to say about that badassery on HitFix. (If you’ve read this blog, you’ll know the line I mean when you see it.)

2) Despite its flaws, the series has potential for tons of interesting stories and cool ideas. There are only a couple plot points that rouse my mild curiosity right now (so… who is the sheriff, really? And who’s Henry’s father?), but there could be so many more! And maybe we’ll get more interesting dirt on Regina, and more insight into Emma, and more development of the relationship between Snow White and Emma. And maybe we’ll deal with whether it’s right to send Regina back to Fairy Tale land when/if she’s actually much better suited for real life. And…

After all, in fairness, I wouldn’t have watched Star Trek: the Next Generation based on “Encounter at Farpoint”; the House and The X Files pilots interested me only after I’d already become a fan of the show by watching later episodes. Pilots by their natures are clunky and full of boring exposition. Things often get better.

3) It’s a TV show my mother will talk about that isn’t Touched By an Angel.

* Then again, that’s what I said about House last year, but I actually just gave up on it wholesale. So.