Once Upon a Time

Soap Opera Fairy Tales!

So... last year, there were two new shows available to watch on two big channels that heavily featured fairy tales as part of their plot.  The first one I heard of and saw commercials for was Grimm which was created by the some of the people who helped write Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.  In fact, it sort of looked like a detective show (a la Angel) about a person from a long line of monster hunters (a la Buffy the Vampire Slayer).  It wasn't too far off the mark from what was promised and I figured I'd like it more than the other fairy tale-based TV show that was also being made that year.

That other show turned out to be Once Upon a Time... or as my friend and I call it OUaT or as I think I'll call it from now on... OUT.  Seems fitting for some reason.

So, OUT is a fantasy-drama series created by the guys who created TRON:Legacy and Lost, Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz.  It's about a town, Storybrooke, Maine where all of the residents are actually fairy tale characters cursed into our world by the Evil Queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves... who is also trapped in our world and the mayor of the town.  It's mostly centered around the only person who can break the curse, a bail bonds-woman named Emma Swan who happens to be the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming.  She's brought to the town by her son who was adopted by the mayor/Evil Queen as an infant.

Every episode has the same style. There are two plots. One takes place in our world while the other takes place in the fairy tale world, which is usually a character's history, retelling the fairy tale in a unique way.  Oddly enough, even though the Evil Queen took away all the happy endings with her curse, the fairy tale plot does not end happily. Whereas, the real-world plot is usually fifty-fifty in terms of happy endings.  I feel that's false advertising on the part of the writers.  If the Queen took away all the happy endings, then why are there so few in the fairy tale world to begin with? Shouldn't everyone be happy and dancing in the fairy tale world?

NO! I DON'T MEAN LIKE IN MIRROR, MIRROR!!!

Instead, everyone seems fairly miserable in the fairy tale world.  Every story about love ends with them losing their love (except Snow White and Prince Charming in the end).  Even Cinderella loses her prince in the fairy tale world!  Hell, they even give you a reason for why Grumpy is grumpy!

Of course, when I first saw the series was airing on ABC, I was intrigued, but pensive.  See, ABC is connected to Disney.  So, I was terrified that the show would have a lot of Disney connections and not refer to any of the more interesting fairy tales.  There are a lot of fairy tales and Disney's only scratched the surface.  On one hand, the show does include Rumpelstiltskin (my favorite character).  On the other hand, the show has Jiminy Cricket and the Mad Hatter... and there are rumors that the upcoming season will have Mulan and Peter Pan.

You did read that right.

Now, I've had a friend ask me what Jiminy Cricket has to do with Disney.  It's a very simple explanation.  Anyone who's read the original Pinocchio or at least the translation can tell you right off the bat what's wrong with Jiminy Cricket being mentioned in any non-Disney version of Pinocchio.  You see, he's not in the book at all.  Well, okay, I'm fibbing a little. There is a cricket in the book.  Pinocchio kills it.  If you need further proof, look at the name.  Jiminy is not Italian.  Pinocchio and Gepetto are.  Understand yet?

Jiminy is a pure Disney character.  They might as well include a dog named Pluto for all the subtlety.

Peter Pan isn't even a real fairy tale either!  Then again, Wonderland isn't a fairy tale either.

What do they all have in common? They're Disney movies!

Do I like the show? Yes. It's good and I've been rewatching it and looking forward to the premier on Sunday night.  That doesn't mean I don't recognize it for what it is... It's not Fairy Tale! Lost!... it's Lost meets Disney animated canon.

My favorite character is Rumpelstiltskin and I do like the way his story arc went last season. I can't wait to see how the new season goes.  I've liked the actor that plays Rumpelstiltskin in a lot of his previous movies, but I've never really seen him act like he's having this much fun with a role.  He gets to show off his range as he goes from scary businessman to batshit insane to loving father to every permutation in between. It's a blast to watch!

Sweet dreams!