Once Upon a Time: More Thoughts…

Once Upon a Time, reviewed previously by me here, has quickly become one of my favorite shows this season.  I’m still not necessarily saying that it is that great of a show by way of “normal ranking metrics” – but it’s great in that it doesn’t just follow the same stale format as everything else.  I’m starting to feel my first wave of concerns, however. And, because it’s Monday, and the part of my brain responsible for spewing out the fantastic prose you have all grown accustomed to seems to still be asleep for the weekend, I’ll do this in easy-to-follow list form:

1. Plenty of suspense surround the plot-line: “Who remembers/who doesn’t remember?”  i.e. Does Rumpelstiltskin remember? He certainly indicated that he knew the witch had to always do what he wanted when said “please”, but we don’t have anything definitive.  He also, obviously, still knew the deal was in place with Cinderella for her first-born.  That being said – we don’t really know how the witch’s curse worked.  Did it simply “port” over fairy tale plot-lines, modifying them for present-day?  The kid mentioned that the people can’t seem to really remember the past – they just kind of go with it.  So, maybe Rumpelstiltskin/Cinderella knows there is a contract in place – but they think it’s just a legitimate surrogate contract?  Also – does the with know?  The other witch, as well as Rumpelstiltskin, both warned her about the power of this curse.  Was she also afflicted by it?  Honestly, other than the way she reacted to Rumpelstiltskin’s ”please” request two episodes ago, she has yet to really indicate that she knows what’s happening.

2. Is this going to turn into a standard weekend-evening drama, where there’s the subplot that’s really fascinating, but each episode just follows the standard format of: lesser-known character gets in trouble, primary character resolves the issue, episode ends with 5 minutes of the overarching plot being mentioned?  If so – then expect this one to go the way of Pushing Daisies, which is a real shame.  I get that you can’t just resolve the story in one season, because you are hoping for multiple seasons – but with a show like this, the only way you are going to get multiple seasons is if people keep watching.

3. Were things frozen from happening before Emma got there?  i.e. Would Cinderella have had that baby/almost died if Emma hadn’t shown up?  Or would she have just been in a state of perpetual sadness/stuck in her third trimester?  I’m not sure that will ever really be defined (if you start explaining every little detail like that – you start to really open up some plot holes…)  But it makes you wonder if/when certain people find out that Emma is causing some of these things to happen by her being there – would they have rather just things been left alone?  Sure they don’t remember how happy they were – but they weren’t aging, either!

4. It always bugs me when something MAJOR happens in one episode, and the next episode doesn’t even mention it.  i.e. Last week’s episode culminated with Emma, the kid, the Sheriff, and Snow White finding the coma patient (Charming,) who had awoken (again, with Emma’s arrival causing that, I assume,) and then had instinctively taken off, presumably to find Snow White at the Troll/Toll Bridge.  (Lot’s of grammatical elements to that sentence…I wonder how many grammatical rules I broke?  Shari?)  His “wife”, clearly planted there by the Witch, shows up, and all is well.  In this week’s episode, no mention of it at all!  We briefly saw Snow White when Emma’s stuff was delivered, but that was it!  It seemed to me that the doctor could have possibly been colluding with the Witch, and keeping him in a coma, was he put BACK in the coma?  Or are we going to see him strolling down the street next week?

5. Emma just signed on to be a deputy with the Sheriff, who works for the Witch.  The Sheriff is sleeping with the Witch, so clearly the Witch knew he was going to offer her this position.  Meaning A. The Witch finally realized that Emma wasn’t leaving, and B. thinks that having her, basically, under city employ would be of benefit to the witch somehow.  Does Emma not realize that she now works for the Witch/Mayor?  And that she now basically has to do her bidding?  That really wasn’t mentioned…

6. Will we ever find out more about the kid?  Rumpelstiltskin found him, and brought him to the Witch, (another argument for Rumpelstiltskin knowing about the past,) obviously trying to stir things up.  It makes you wonder how many of these shady deals does he have with people?  He had one with Snow White and Cinderella that we know of, so far.  However – again – it seems like those deals could never have come to fruition had Emma never showed up to kick start the clock.  So – since A+B=C, it seems like Rumpelstiltskin probably foresaw the kid finding Emma and bringing her back.  (He may have even put THAT into motion somehow?)  So – back to my original question – will we ever find that out?  Or is that one of those things that we are expected just to kind of let go, like question #3?

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Again – I still really enjoy this show – it’s one of a very, very small handful of shows that I’m watching live on Sunday nights – but I’d like to see, let’s call it a show of faith, from the producers that something of substance will happen in a regular episode, not just in a season finale situation.

 

~ by dbruhn on November 14, 2011.