Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time, in a land far away…

Uh, no. Actually it was 28 years ago, in the Enchanted Forest.

 

I just finished the first season of ABC’s new show Once Upon a Time. Its pretty savvy, I have to say.

28 years ago, The Evil Queen unleashed a curse upon the entire Enchanted Forest. It was her last and final attempt to taker her revenge on Snow White and in doing so she ripped away the Happy Endings of everyone. Now they’re all living in Storybrooke, a small town in Maine, unaware of who and what they are and what they have lost. For 28 years, time has not moved forward in this town. The watch tower’s clock remains stopped.

Only one person can break the curse, Snow White and Prince Charming’s daughter Emma, who was saved from the curse and sent ahead to our world. A woman now, she does NOT believe in fairy tales, and would never have come to Storybrooke, if not for the son she gave away for adoption ten years ago: Henry.

Henry believes in the curse, and he goes to find his mom so she would come and break the curse and free everyone. Raised by The Evil Queen, who is now Mayor, he is a sweet boy and worms his way into Emma’s heart.

So far it sounds like a typical fairy tale, if a little bit more complicated. Well, its much, much more than that. Each episode goes back and forth between telling a tale in the Enchanted Forest of a character and a story about that character in Storybrooke. Its a beautiful contrast, plus it makes everything so much more intricate.

Not to mention everything (usually) comes back and relates in someway to the main story of Snow White, which is a little bit different than the one Disney told us. For one, Snow White is kick ass. I totally loved the episode when she decided to kill the Evil Queen all by herself. She even decked Prince Charming, whose ridiculous name, actually has an explanation and the guy can fight. For another, Red Riding Hood? Yeah she’s neither little nor is she unable to take care of herself and Granny is excellent with a cross-bow.

But in general, all stories are related in some way or the other and one of the major factors is that almost everyone has made a deal with Rumplestiltskin to get what they want. He is one of the most powerful magical beings in the realm and slowly and slowly you come to see just how deeply entrenched he is into all that is happening.

The most fun thing about OUAT is this intricacy in the plot. A small detail here, (or rather an innocuous deal made with Rumplestiltskin) can mean a huge deal later. For a lot of other people.

Plus since the show works with a variable timeline, as we see the ending of Snow White’s story first (waking up, getting married and the curse) everything else is sort of a flashback with in a flashback.

Yeah.. I would not recommend missing an episode. Then again this show comes from the creators of Lost. That sentence should explain a lot to anyone who watched Lost.

Usually I end up relating one thing to another, and another until even I am not sure just what I am rambling about. But I am not doing that today coz OUAT Season 2 has started and I am gonna go and watch the next episode.

Because guess what? Season 2 is turning out to be even better than Season 1 🙂 and Captain Hook is hot! Seriously 🙂