Review: Once Upon A Time, Season 1, Pilot Episode
Air Date: Sunday, October 23, 2011 8/7C on ABC
Rating:
“Once upon a time…
There was an enchanted forest filled
with all the classic characters we know.
Or think we know.
One day they found themselves trapped in a place
where all their happy endings were stolen.
Our World.
This is how it happened…”
This is how the highly anticipated premiere of ABC’s newest series begins. Simple yet effective; like the beginning of a fairytale only this time, the road to the happy ending isn’t going to be as serene and docile as written in the pages of a children’s book. Once Upon A Time is imaginative and engrossing. ABC adds darkness, animosity, vengeance, deep- seeded sadness, profanity, and death. But there are elements of hope, happiness, love, joy, and humor to balance it all out.
Lana Parrilla as The Evil Queen
The Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla), obviously scorned because Prince Charming (Josh Dallas) saves Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) after she bites a poisoned apple, vows to take away every character’s happy ending by thrusting them into the real world. Of course, the catch with every curse is there’s a way to break it. Enter Snow White and Prince Charming’s unborn child. After speaking with Rumpelstiltskin (Robert Carlyle), the couple realizes their only hope is to put the baby into an enchanted wardrobe and have faith the child will return in the foretold 28 years to save them all.
Prince Charming (Josh Dallas) puts baby Emma into the magical wardrobe.
What I love about Once Upon A Time is the way the characters are transformed from the fairytale to the real world. The Evil Queen is Regina, the mayor of Storybrooke, Maine where all the enchanted characters now reside. Rumpelstiltskin is Mr. Gold, who owns the town. Snow White is a school teacher named Mary Margaret but she is without her Prince Charming—just when Charming puts their baby into the wardrobe, one of the Evil Queen’s men stabs him with a sword. Charming is now a John Doe who is unconscious in a hospital where Mary volunteers. No one remembers who they were in the fairytales.
The only one who knows who they really are is Regina’s young son Henry (Jared Gilmore). Mary had given him a book of fairytales because she knows how lonely he is. Henry learns Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison) is the baby Prince Charming put into the wardrobe. He also knows she is his birth mother who gave him up for adoption ten years ago.
Emma (Jennifer Morrison) gets scolded by Regina (Lana Parrilla)
The writers incorporate so many elements into the retelling of the classic fairytales. Emma takes Henry back to Storybrooke after he runs away to find her in Boston and Regina graciously offers her apple cider. The placement of a bowl of red delicious apples in the middle of the coffee table as they sit in Regina’s study also pays homage to the ominous tone of the story. I’m going out on a limb here because I’m not quite sure, but the way Regina acts, she seems to know something is wrong when Emma shows up. I don’t know if she’s sure exactly what it is; it’s as if she can’t remember who she was either. Also, if the town of Storybrooke is a kind of purgatory for the fairytale characters without happy endings, whose children occupy Mary’s classroom? Isn’t getting married and having children the quintessential notion of ‘happily ever after?’
Robert Carlyle as Mr. Gold
When Emma decides to stay in Storybrooke for a little while, she gets a room at “Granny’s Bed and Breakfast,” where she runs into him Mr. Gold. He seems quite pleased to see her which I find odd. Of course, we aren’t sure who still knows what but I have a feeling Mr. Gold knows more than he’s letting on. I’m very pleased with the episode and look forward to watching the mystery unfold. I will say that as much as ABC purportedly spent on the special effects, they could have spent a few extra bucks fixing the wigs for Snow White and the Evil Queen. They look so frazzled and unkempt.
Jared Gilmore as Henry
I wasn’t sure what to expect after seeing a few of the billboards and the trailers for the show, but overall I enjoyed it immensely. I’m a huge fan of fairytales like Snow White, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, etc. I love the fantastical elements of being transported to a faraway world of enchanted forests full of magic and wonder. ABC spares no expense in providing the special effects to give us the allure of the darkness spreading over Snow White and Prince Charming’s happily ever after. The young boy, Gilmore, is amazing! I fall in love with him when he finds Emma and takes her to Storybrooke. He’s smart, precocious, and just adorably cute! Carlyle is superb as the menacing Rumpelstiltskin and the calculating Mr. Gold. ABC seems to have struck fairytale gold!
Tune in Sundays at 8/7c for Once Upon A Time only on ABC.
For more on the show go to http://abc.go.com/shows/once-upon-a-time/.
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Photos © 2011 ABC Media. All Rights Reserved.
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Judy Manning
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