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Once Upon a Time - A Tale Of Two Sisters - Review: "Good? Evil? Or both?"

Sep 30, 2014

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Honestly, I needed to watch the season premiere twice. Why? Because the first time around I was so worried that Regina was going to choose evil over good that it actually impaired my enjoyment of the episode for most of the hour; I was so sure that the writers were set on making her evil again that I started hating every Regina related scene to my core. And sure, the last scene made her seem a little bit villainous, but as everyone said she is not a monster anymore, she’s changed- her quest to look for the writer to have a happy ending doesn’t need to involve evil in it, and that’s something to be excited for.

Talking of which, I can’t be more excited for this plot! I’ve been predicting it since season 1 and I have been waiting for it ever since. Meta-fantasy is one of my favorite type of fantasies and the interactions of a writer with his creation is one of my favorite meta elements in fiction- in my book “El filo del Olvido” the plot revolves around an author whose reality is being consumed by the one of his characters, so you can guess why I’m so excited about this plot-. So I really can’t wait to see how Regina’s quest to find the writer turns out. And wouldn’t it be sick if she actually found the writers of the show at some point? If that happened- ala Supernatural’s episode “The French Mistake”- that episode is most likely to be graded with an “A” by me.

Ok, enough with that. OUAT’s season opener is good, but flawed. Upon a second watch I was more laid back, but I still was quite annoyed the pacing, some lines and some directions the premiere was taking. Georgina Haigg and Elizabeth Lail did an amazing performance as Elsa and Anna, they really acted like the characters and sold it completely; I like that they have such a strong attachment to each other and that they kept the spirit of the movie, however the treatment of the story was a bit stale.

I didn’t like much that Elsa found that entry on her mother’s diary about her being dangerous, it seemed way too convenient that the diary ends just right there, and it led to some very stereotypical pep talks with both Anna and Kristoff- but I must mention Scott Michael did a very solid job as Kristoff- that has no other purpose than moving the plot forward.
OUAT is at its best when the characters show more layers of depth and show that they are not only fairy tale’s characters but real people. So far, these characters lack some humanity, they are only their Frozen’s personas, and that’s ok, but I wanted to see more to them than what we saw.

Now it is as good time as any. Since the season is going to be very Frozen related I must tell you that I thought that the movie was ok, but a tad overrated. Though very poignant at times- especially at the beginning-, by the end the movie plot forgot key elements such as Elsa overcoming her fear and solved everything with the power of love, making her quest of understanding her powers reduced only to how much she loves her sister. And that’s ok, but it’s not the stellar ending I was hoping for when I started seeing the movie.

OUAT right now seems to be following somewhat of the same trajectory; Elsa hasn’t overcome the fear of what she may be, so my hopes are that the show- unlike the movie- will actually focus on her journey to trust herself, to love herself, because I always felt the movie left that part out: Elsa and Anna love each other, and that’s great, but did Elsa actually came to love herself? That was always kind of left on the air.

Characters like Snow and Charming didn’t have much to do here besides strolling Neal- and being utterly useless in battle against the snowman-, while Henry was only there to point the obvious question everyone is asking “Is my mom going to be evil again?”, so their scenes while needed to have an update on what they are up to don’t hold much relevance.

On the Rumpbelle front, our favorite villain actually decided to keep his promise and he switched the daggers. I appreciate that, just like Regina, Rumple is tested and must prove that he can be good, yet there is some uncertainty regarding the magic item he found in his new house. It turns out to be hiding the Sorcerer’s hat from Fantasia. Will it be a helpful tool in the future or is it going to backfire? Only time will tell; so far I like the ambiguity of it all, even though Rumple’s scenes felt quite slow to be honest.

Emma and Hook’s relationship moves forward at snail pace, mostly because Emma feels guilty about what she did to Regina; she’s not going to apologize for saving Marian, but she surely does feel bad about taking away her happiness. She does ought to fix it and grant Regina the happy ending she deserves- a scene utterly beautifully crafted- and she leaves her alone as Regina decides to take action instead of waiting.

Watching it for second time, seeing how Regina deals with her abrupt breakup with Robin becomes pretty fascinating; though Robin Hood went full cartoony about his vow to his wife Lana Parilla’s acting stole the scene as she drops a single tear and then she does what Regina does when she is hurt: find someone to hurt back.

On my first watch I was praying for her not to go full evil, so on my second watch I was relieved and really happy to see how closely she almost followed her bad habits, only to find herself saving Marian; it’s a moment where she proves how far she has come, and even though there is definitely still darkness in her heart- as the last scene suggest- she is done being only good or bad; she’s somewhere in the middle right now, not so good as we can tell from her face on the last scene and not so bad to cause misery to everyone around her. That should make a pretty interesting arc when she looks for the writer.

So OUAT’s first episode of the season is interesting, but not quite as much enjoyable; there’s a lot of setups, but not enough fun. One of the greatest strengths of the season finale was that it was really, really fun, and that’s some of the best tools the show has to be great, so I was a bit disappointed by the lack of humor in the episode, which surely made the episode feel a lot slower. A show like this needs to be able to offer some comic relief before it gets too cheesy. But even then, I’m more than happy with what we got: the season seems to be heading somewhere really interesting, and I can’t wait to see what happens next. I trust this show will continue to surprise me, entertaining, even if once in awhile it keeps frustrating me.

Grade: B

Stray Observations:

-Giancarlo Esposito is back! Glad to see him once again, though I’m still sad about the Revolution cancellation- especially since that show became way better in S2.

-Regina to Sidney as she transforms him into a mirror: “Relax, it’s only temporary.”
How long will Sidney be a mirror? Make your bets!

-Sven had a little air of Gene the cow from Fringe in the episode. It made me feel a little bit nostalgic. I hope we get to see him a bit more.

-Emma: Want to go home and see what’s on Netflix?
Hook: I don’t know what that is, but sure.

-Emma: “Henry brought me here to get everyone’s happy endings back. Including yours.” Jennifer Morrison landed that lind very powerfully.

-Any guesses on whose character Elizabeth Mitchel will play later in the season? I hope she gets a chance to interact with Giancarlo Esposito for a Revolution reunion!

-The fight with the snowman was lame; the effects on OUAT have never been outstanding, but come on. This is a new low. And Emma throwing magic light balls at it? Girl, you should be stronger than that by now.

-I- like many of you I’m sure- was very surprised and very happy to see that OUAT hit a 3.4 on the demographic, a number it hasn’t even got close to since November 2012. Many people sampled on OUAT because of the Frozen arc it appears. I would have been even happier if Revenge’s number weren’t so dismal, but I have OUAT ratings to take comfort of.

-It seems that next week Emma is going to be affected by Elsa’s magic pretty much the same way Anna was in the movie. I see lots of potential there!

About the Author - Pablo
I'm currently studying Psychology while also writing fantasy books (one already published in my home country, Chile, you can check it out on the facebook icon). I watch many different types of shows, including my favorites Revenge, Game of Thrones, Once Upon a Time and about 23 more. Currently writing reviews for Once Upon a Time, The 100, Community and Marry Me
Recent Reviews (All Reviews)

18 comments:

  1. Nice review but what makes you think it's a him and not a she who wrote

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  2. I wrote a him? It must have been a typo. Anyway, how do you write it when you don't know the gender?

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  3. Grade: A-

    I think that Elizabeth Mitchell is not only the original Snow Queen from Hans Christian Andersen's story, but also Elsa and Anna's aunt, and that is why their mother made that diary entry. She feared her daughter would be corrupted by magic just as her sister was.

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  4. Nice review. I loved the episode though. I thought the snow monster CGI was good, I was expecting far worse, in fact I thought the CGI through the whole episode was pretty good. I agree that Regina is somewhere in between good and evil right now, as A&E said it will be more about the struggle of not going back to her old ways rather than turning full on evil again.


    As for the fun aspect, the story and acting more than made up for it for me, in fact the bits of humour that were in it from Hook were my least favourite parts (loved the humour from Anna though), I just wanted to see more of the story because I was enjoying it so much! I really loved the introduction of the "find the author of the book" story, I'm can't wait to see where that's headed. I also loved the hat rumple found, as someone who hasn't seen or even heard of the movie that it's from im excited to find where that goes too.


    I liked the Rumbelle dance scene but thought it was too short. The usual main characters didn't have a lot of screen time but that's to be expected when starting a new story arc, introductions and whatnot. The casting for Elsa and Anna was spot on! I love that they kept the clumsy, humourous side of Anna :)


    I'm looking forward to all those storylines and the flashbacks as well, definitely in for a great season by the looks of it :) In fact that premiere has probably been my favourite episode to date!

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  5. You can say the person who wrote the book

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  6. Loved the premiere, and I am one of those obsessed Frozen fans but I can appreciate why you thought it was overrated. Great review. I do agree that we still need to see some humanity in these characters to make them more three-dimentional and not so reliant on the Frozen movie to guide viewers to what we should expect from them. The episode has set up some great moments to look forward to and I love more and more Disney nods with the Fantasia hat. Seeing Regina's struggle with good and bad is what makes me love Once Upon a Time though. It's not all black and white as she is the villain, but she doesn't really want to be, yet she's still pulled into that darkness. And I love the fact that she thinks villains should get their happy endings too. I thought that was fair and right and would love to see something come of this.

    Great review though, loved reading it.

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  7. Thanks for your comment! Really spot on approach to OUAT. Regina is my favorite character so I was really worried that she was going to become one-dimensional again, but in the end the premiere proved me wrong and I ended up enjoying the episode.
    I can't wait to see what the Frozen Arc has in store for us, with the right development it can be awesome. And let's hope those ratings stick!

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  8. With the right directions OUAT can be pretty fun this season! Things are going in the right direction, though it needs to work out some kinks.
    As for the snowman monster, it was ok, the problem was when he hit Emma or other members of the cast, it looked incredibly fake

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  9. Oh yh that was pretty poor, plus I'd imagine a hit like that would have killed them :/

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  10. I haven't seen the episode yet or infact anything from last night , so will bookmark this and come back to read it once I watch it. It looks like a great read.

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  11. Thanks :)! I'll be waiting to discuss it with you then!
    It's a good episode, obviously not OUAT's best, but a good way to start the season

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  12. I'm always up for a good discussion ;)

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  13. Really great review! I agree with most of it. The pacing and structure weren't that well done. The writers tried to hard and forced the story a bit on us. If they wanted to introduce the sisters and their BS in the premier they should've taken focus on them and dig into the other characters story the week upon.
    Like Grey's with season9. The first episode wasn't continuing right off the final, and than the 2nd ep resolved all the issues left out of the season 8 final.

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  14. Nicolás Caballero MühlbachSeptember 30, 2014 at 6:52 PM

    Well, the original Snow Queen is a neutral character, far away from being evil and corrupted. The villainous aspect of her is something invented of the numerous adaptations of the character. The true villain of the story is an evil troll.

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  15. The Snow Queen kidnaps Kai, and takes him to her castle; so, I don't see her as "neutral", but I agree that the troll who made the mirror is certainly evil.

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  16. Nicolás Caballero MühlbachSeptember 30, 2014 at 8:41 PM

    Wrong, Kai tied his sleigh to Snow Queen's sleigh, she took a cursed Kai and she offered him the option to be free if he could spell the word Eternity in the ice, is not the same that kidnaps him from his home. She is not a good character for the sake of being good, but neither evil.

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  17. I finally watched the episode! Great review also!
    I liked the episode although it wasn't the best , it was very slow paced. Some of it felt a bit silly like the giant snowman creature roaming around Storybrooke. I also think that the cast has gotten a little big for my liking there is so many supporting cast as well as the main actors , that there simply isn't enough screen time to go around. When I see characters like Leroy pop up in the episode , it just feels strange as one minute he is in an episode next he is gone for about halve a season. Like Rose and Bernard from LOST.


    I don't really like the Marion character ,she seems like another pointless addition to the cast , just to try and add more misery to Regina when she was finally happy. It is like the writers deliberately don't want Regina to be happy in the show. I really liked the whole Aredndelle (or however you say that) scenes it reminded me a lot of the movie like you said. Anna and Elsa were portrayed brilliantly by the two actresses. I loved seeing Sydney again , I never understood why they didn't make him a regular.
    Also where was Will from wonderland , I thought he was meant to be showing up?

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