TV: Once Upon a Time

[cellio]

I just watched the pilot episode of "Once Upon a Time" and it was excellent -- story, characters, and production values. I hope they can keep it up. (Sundays, ABC.)

The premise: Snow White and Prince Charming survived the poison-apple incident, but on their wedding day the evil queen shows up to deliver a curse: no more happy endings, except for her -- everybody else in the village will be sent to an awful place. Later a pregnant Snow and the prince consult Rumpelstiltskin, who tells them that their child will escape and return on its 28th birthday to rescue the denizens of Storybook Forest. As the curse arrives and people start dying, they stow the just-born child, Emma, in a magic cabinet that will supposedly protect her from the curse.

In Boston, a bounty-hunter named Emma celebrates her birthday alone when a 10-year-old kid shows up on her doorstep claiming to be her son. She takes him home -- to Storybook, Maine -- with the intention of dropping him off and going back home. The boy, Henry, has a book of fairy tales that he claims are true, and he insists that the people he knows are the characters. Everybody else thinks he's nuts.

(This is not the same premise as the comic book Fables, though from the advance publicity I had wondered.)

Comments

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

We watched the show as well and enjoyed it. Are you aware that they did announce a TV show based on Fables a while back? I get the feeling that the announcement helped fast track this show and Grimm.

Also, I got a real Superman origin story vibe when they placed Emma in the wardrobe to go to Earth...

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Ooh, intriguing!

[baron-steffan.livejournal.com]

Yes, auntie_elspeth and I were intrigued as well. And for my part, it stars the uber-hot Jennifer ("House") Morrison, so of course I'm giving it a go %^).

We caught the Superman allusion as well. "Lara, Krypton is doomed. But we can save the child....". There were also similarities to the short-lived comedy, "The Charmings", which featured Snow ("My parents were hippies...") and Eric Charming, transported to Our World by the Evil Queen. Sort of a Beverly Hillbillies for fairytales.

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

I loved it, and have roped in 4/5ths of the household. We look forward to lots more, hopefully! :)

[mortuus.livejournal.com]

I loved it. Only 15 minutes into the episode, I paused it so I could set my DVR to record all episodes.

[jeannegrrl.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed the premiere too. It didn't knock my socks off, but It set up enough of a story/premise that I am intrigued to see how it rolls out. I enjoyed seeing the characters in both their former storybook incarnations and the modern-day inverse of their happily ever after. I love the actor playing Rumplestilskin and especially look forward to seeing where he takes the character.

Did you see Grimm? I was excited to see the premiere of that one too, but where Once Upon a Time left me looking forward to the next episode, Grimm left me a bit flat. I'll give it a solid 3-4 episodes before I pass judgement, but so far, I'm "in" for OUaT, and "meh" for Grimm. I feel like Grimm tried too hard. It felt more formulaic, and it seemed like each scene screamed "look at ME! I'm EDGY! and MYSTERIOUS! WATCH ME!!!" whereas OUaT did a better job of inviting me in to watch the story unfold...