The first season of ABC’s Once Upon a time is a delightful mess of a show that despite its flaws has incredible ideas and charm with it. The depictions of our classic fairy tales being not as black and white as we thought as children is not a new concept, in fact it came at a time when this was a trend of sorts. In the 2010's dark fairytale retellings hit a new stride with movies like "Maleficent", "Snow White and the Huntsmen", "Jack the Giant Slayer", and Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" Series.
The actual way the show approaches this though doesn’t sacrifice the feelings and happy endings that come with fairy tales though and instead offers context towards what makes them so happy or even so bittersweet. They also create their own cannon through having different characters play multiple roles within the stories as certain archetypes within the stories may not be as random as we have thought.
The show’s first season follows Emma, a bail bonds worker who only wishes she wasn’t so alone. Her wish comes true when Henry, her son, comes to visit her and bring her back to the place she belongs, a town in Maine called Storybrooke. Emma is thrown into an unfamiliar place while Henry tries to convince her of magic and destiny as all the residents of Storybrooke are all characters from a book of fairy tales, though they have long lost their memories as a result of a dark curse. Emma tries to adapt to the new environment, identity as The Savior, and help Henry navigate his life with his adopted mother Regina the Evil Queen. Emma also has to deal with her own feelings of abandonment and her withdrawal from magic and accepting that life isn’t all doom and gloom.
The show itself takes place in two separate times, each episode a character from Storybrooke is presented with a problem and must solve it, while we are shown scenes from their old life that takes place within the world of fairy tales. These two problems usually relate to each other in some way, and you almost get to see the characters grow in the same way in both the past and present, showing how Emma is setting things right even though she doesn’t believe. The show uses some pacing elements to keep the plot constant throughout the episodes but even that doesn’t solve the inconsistent pacing of the main plot. Several episodes can be extremely plot important and directly relate to the overarching plot, but then become several more episodes that have nothing to relate to or even sometimes barely relate to the main cast at all. This was later revealed to be the result of dropped storylines and actor discrepancies but it creates a jarring flow to the first season that would only be temporarily fixed in later seasons. The story itself and acting can be incredible at times but also can be held back because of how serious one of the plots may be when the other can just be a lighthearted story. Showing characters in two separate states of identity is incredibly interesting because it shows how they are similar but different to their past selves, and even how they can be better or worse people in the real world.
The first season of Once Upon a Time is a charming wild ride that carries faults in the pacing and balancing of subjects, but wears its flaws proudly and accepts them as part of the show because of that. The ideas it presents sound ridiculous at first but are taken in very smart directions that even make you question the nature of it’s world alongside the main character. I would highly recommend this show to anyone who loves modern fantasy or anyone in need of something entertaining to binge watch for a few weeks.
(Photo Via ABC)
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