The perfect combination of a classic fairytale land in which all the characters we know and love live in and amongst each other and a real world time-locked town where the people simply spend their times waiting for their lives to begin is the setting for the unique and explosive new television show Once Upon a Time.
The program stars Jennifer Morrison (House) as a young woman with a troubled past who is persuaded by a small boy (Jared Gilmore, Mad Men) to come to Storybrook, Maine, to free what he believes are a bunch of fairy tale characters from a deadly curse. Ginnifer Goodwin (Big Love, Something Borrowed) portrays two characters interconnected between universes, Snow White and schoolteacher Mary Margaret, and the secret mother of Morrison’s character Emma Swan.
Over the course of the first few episodes, the audience has been overloaded with information about confusing character doubles and relationship triangles that seem more like octagons. Perhaps the most perplexing aspect of this switching between universes is keeping up with the personas in both worlds. Characters do not always have distinctive characteristics that carry over into the other world, which makes understanding the relationships difficult. A last unfortunate thing about the apparent progression of events is that the show has a clear expiration date: the breaking of the curse.
On the positive side, and I assure you that the pros far outweigh the cons; the confusing and complicating stories only serve to make the whole concept more intriguing. As a viewer, you are able to try to piece together the world of these broken magical characters, and with some creative guesswork and educated thinking, you might even be able to determine where the next twist will come from or what classic character you will recognize next. For instance, the last episode could be considered Cinderella-centric, as Emma sought to stop resident villain Rumpelstiltskin from taking her baby, in both worlds.
While many of the new fall shows that have appeared on my screen this season, this is definitely one of the most attention-catching. The polarizing characters, magical places, and complicated plot lines make the show completely unique, and a nice refresher from the constant drawl of crude sitcoms and romantic dramas that play. It will be interesting to see how Once Upon a Time does in its tough 8 o’clock spot against consistent viewer favorites like The Amazing Race and The Simpsons without a decent lead-in to draw viewers, but I am definitely hoping for a full season for this freshman underdog, despite what criticisms and doubts I have about its potential success in the long run.
