Hi, I’m Mike TV

Television for the week of December 4th

ONCE UPON A TIME

 

** 1/2 out of ****

I’ve talked about shows that try to be the next “Lost” both on the website, on the podcast and in real life. I think I’ve even tried to explain what I mean, but I’ll do it again for those of you who are new. Lost was a phenomenon because it was a genre (read: nerdy) show that mixed dramatic elements, mystery and fantastical events AND STILL had quite the following. Shows like this existed before Lost, but none succeeded among the normal people quite as well. Since then the various networks have tried to recreate the lighting-in-a-bottle formula that made Lost what it was (you can assume I’m mostly talking about the first 3 seasons). Most of these shows are dead after a season, if they even make it that far.

There are a lot of potential issues with a genre show; either the acting is over the top, because the people behind the camera assume nerds just want fantastical shit and don’t care about actors with chops or the fantastical shit is too fantastical too fast and the normal people bail from being confused or frustrated. I’m sure other problems occur, but these ones are more specific to the kind of show I’m talking about. Don’t email me like “You forgot to say genre shows tend to be more expensive and…” Oh shit, Fake Complain Guy reminded me that genre shows are usually way expensive due to sets and graphics and such, so the viewership demanded by the networks is higher than your average CSI or whatnot. Maybe it’s ok to email me with facts I missed… FCG, as I shall not affectionately call him, really made me look at how I interact with the outside world. What else can he teach me?

 Ok, now that we know what I’m talking about in general, let’s focus in on Once Upon A Time (OUAT). It’s ABC’s newest attempt at the genre show, and they struck upon something everyone loves: Fairy Tale characters in our world. As Ryan said in his article on the show’s pilot, the idea isn’t new. Fables does a fabulous job with the re-imagining of the the classic characters, and in the late nineties, the TV miniseries “The 10^th Kingdom” did a very fun, if pretty cheesy take on the same idea. Seriously, only like three other people know about the 10^th Kingdom, and they’re all in my family. Check it out, just so I can talk about it with someone else. I’m starting to think it was a mini-mass hallucination.

A mark in OUAT’s favor is how little it reuses what Fables and 10^th Kingdom did before it. All three have very different tones, and that’s a good step to begin with, but other than the use of the same characters, and OUAT taking place in a small community in New England (the fictional town of Storybrooke, Main for OUAT and a neighborhood in NYC and the Farm in upstate NY for Fables); it doesn’t share much with the comic. I was one of the many who cried foul when I heard ABC’s plan to launch OUAT, but of the many problems it has, stealing ideas isn’t it’s biggest. The show has definitely improved since it’s admittedly terrible pilot, but issues that existed there haven’t completely been ironed out.

The acting is more often than not insanely over the top. The Wicked Queen (Lana Parilla) might as well twirl her mustache while tying innocent villagers to train tracks. Oddly enough she seems to be more comfortable in the flashback portions of the show where she’s fully the wicked queen, it’s when she needs to balance evil queen with legitimate mayor who cares for her adopted son that she goes fucking bonkers evil with it. Everyone is guilty of hamming it up at different times on this show. Some just do it more than others- it’s like every once in awhile they remember there’s magic around so they’re allowed to act like it’s a high school drama production and bigger equals better. The kid sucks out right, but he’s a kid so that’s usually expected. Which is bullshit, considering all of the great child actors out there these days. Let’s all accept it’s time for kids to step their shit up if they want to be taken seriously. Mr. Gold/Rumpelstiltskin (Robert Carlyle) is another who varies in his ability depending on the setting. He disappoints me more than every one else, if only because I’ve seen him in so much, and have always enjoyed his work. As Mr. Gold, the owner/pawn broker/schemer (the fact that the pawn store owner almost runs the town is a mark in the silly bullshit column) of Storybrooke, Carlyle does fine. He’s just menacing enough, while staying believable as a real person. It’s the fairy tale flashbacks, when he’s the imp Rumpelstiltskin that he’s doing the worst impression of Puck from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, if Puck was maniacal instead of mischievous. This version of Rumpelstiltskin is a mix of Loki, the Joker, and the aforementioned Puck but with sort of maybe every once in awhile good intention hidden in him. The only time Rumpelstiltskin doesn’t bug me is when it seems like he has hidden good intentions.

I’ve avoided talking about Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison) because I have absolutely nothing kind to say. She bugged me in How I Met Your Mother, and she still bugs me now. I’m sure that sentence will lose me readers; not because I’m bagging on Morrison, but for admitting to be a fan of How I Met Your Mother. Sorry guys, I ams what I ams. Her acting style is abrasive, she doesn’t flow with a scene or gel with other actors, she just slams her lines into them. There are no dynamics, she picks a mood for a scene, and only shifts the tone when a new scene has started. That’s hard to choke down when we’re supposed to care about the journey Emma Swan is making to learn about her past and become a better person.

 I don’t think everything is on the shoulders of the actors. The writers are trying to create a world with a deep history and mythos, and characters with numerous motivations, and they are failing in the motivation part hardcore. I’m sure they could claim the murky motivations is due to keeping the mysteries abounding, but that’s shenanigans. Does the Queen/Mayor love her adopted son or not? Other questions I can let go, but this one is driving me nuts. At times, she seems like a rational concerned mother- making the kid seem like an ungrateful little prick- but then it switches and she seems like she’d be just as happy guzzling his blood. Not mysterious, just choppy writing and pretty lazy when you think about it. There are other writers’ mistake in the show but I don’t feel like talking about them just now. See how annoying that is? Mysterious or lazy? You decide.

 I’ve mentioned the flashbacks a couple of times now, so maybe you’ve put together how this show is set up. I could be wrong, but this is the first show since Lost to utilize the flashback. The twist is the really crazy shit happens in the flashbacks, not other way around. Each character is given an episode, and we get to focus on them in present day Storybrooke and flash to their fairy tale origin throughout the episode. The writers of the show are having lots of fun mashing fairy tales together, and making them darker than the commonly known Disney versions (though the originals are still way more fucked up), and I’m having a lot of fun watching the paths they decide. The flashbacks are definitely my favorite parts, and not just because there’s no Jennifer Morrison in them. Though that might be a huge part of it.

I meant to talk about the most recent episode “The Shepherd” in detail rather than the show as a whole, but it’s hard with serialized shows like this. They don’t expect people to watch it piecemeal, you’re either on board all the way or not at all. I can appreciate that line in the sand, even if I don’t think they execute perfectly. Despite mostly bashing the show throughout this article, I do believe it has potential to get better and will stick it through. The way the backstories are woven together, and the fact that the creators are willing to have their heroes have some pretty terrible flaws (Jimminy Cricket killed two innocents while trying to kill his parents before becoming a cricket-long story) added to the delight in seeing characters I know used in different ways is enough to keep me going at least until the end of this season. Also, I don’t see it lasting more than one season, since there’s no way things can keep escalating without the townsfolk starting to shout openly about magic going around town. Real people would react differently if those around them acted completely different from one hour to the next for no reason! I know it sounds dumb saying I’m going to keep watching, but listen Judge Judy watch the first 6 episodes and tell me you’re not hooked. And then judge me for that horrible Judge Judy call.-MG