Episode: Once Upon A Time 1.01 – “Pilot”
Original Air Date: October 23, 2011
Screencaps by rawr_caps.
If awards were presented for the amount of hype a show receives, ABC’s new fantasy show Once Upon A Time would definitely be one of the nominees. Every show I’ve watched on ABC in the past couple of weeks, including every day’s General Hospital, has featured at least one promo for the show’s premiere. So one question I had before seeing the pilot episode was: could the show live up to the hype? Or were all the good parts being shown in the previews?
After all, Disney is ABC’s parent company, and fairy tales are one of their specialties, but can the “Disney Magic” translate to a fantasy-based television production? In the recent past, most broadcast networks have not found a pot of gold at the end of that programming rainbow. I already planned to check out Once Upon A Time, whether it’s a success or failure, as soon as they announced the two magic words, “Robert Carlyle”, and the two that followed, “as Rumplestiltskin”. But, I must admit, I didn’t have high hopes for the show’s overall quality. Network television isn’t exactly known for its success rate or production quality with the sci-fi and fantasy genre. So I was happily surprised by the content of the pilot.
The production quality is high with eye-catching cinematography, impressive visual effects, and well-woven storytelling with a bounty of interesting hooks and twists. The two worlds blend well, moving smoothly from the enchanted forest of the fairy tale to the modern-day small Maine town. Creators Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis have done a terrific job keeping the tone steady, giving a Gothic feel to the story without drifting into the realm of shock and horror. The fantasy world is believable and the characters mesh well with their modern counterparts and the modern world isn’t somewhere too horrible.
The premise of Once Upon A Time is that fairy tale characters have been banished to the modern world by an evil curse. None of them remember who they really are and only one young woman can undo the spell.
The basic story is the tale of Snow White, but in an interesting twist, this story begins at the end. Prince Charming finds Snow White, wakes her with a kiss, and they get married. But an uninvited guest, the Evil Queen, shows up and presents the happy couple with a curse. As we leave the tale of Snow White and enter reality, a boy is reading the story in a book.
Cut to Emma Swan, an attractive young bail bondsperson, doing what she does best — finding people who don’t want to be found. When Emma returns alone to her apartment, she celebrates her birthday with a single cupcake and candle. The boy, Henry, shows up at her door claiming to be the son she gave up for adoption 10 years before. Emma has a special ability — she can tell if a person is lying.
She agrees to drive Henry home to Storybrooke, Maine. Henry tells her the stories in his book are true, and that even she is in the book. But none of the people remember who they were. This tidbit made me wonder if the Evil Queen knows who she is or if she was caught in her own spell.
Back to the fairy tale world. When we see Snow White and Prince Charming, time has passed. Snow White is expecting, but is still haunted by the queen’s threat on their wedding day. She wants the prince to take her to see a certain person who can know future events. The creature Snow wishes to visit is Rumplestiltskin, held in the dungeons. In this version, he’s an evil little being who can gain power over someone if he knows their name. In exchange for knowing if the queen’s curse will happen, Snow agrees to give him the name of the child. He tells Snow and Prince Charming the curse. The queen has set a spell to trap everyone in a prison where time is frozen, in a place where everything they hold dear will be ripped from them. No more happy endings except for the evil queen.
But there is hope — Snow’s baby. If they can send the child to safety before the curse comes, she will return on her 28th birthday to battle the queen. The child is to be named Emma.
Henry brings Emma Swan to Storybrooke on her 28th birthday. The clock tower shows 8:15, the time it always is. His adoptive mom is the Mayor of the town and the modern version of the Evil Queen.
An aspect of the show I really like is the detail given to each character to identify who they represent in the fairy tale world. The mayor offers Emma the best apple cider she’s ever had and her house is decorated with bowls of apples. She even has her own mirror, mirror on the wall. When Grumpy is introduced, he’s whistling the tune “Whistle While You Work” and he is, well, grumpy (a wonderful acting turn for Lee Arenberg, Pintel from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise). Snow White, now a local teacher, is friendly with birds and her students bring her pears, not apples. Granny runs the Bed & Breakfast, and Red Riding Hood wears a red scarf.
As the residents of the Enchanted Forest make plans to keep the baby princess safe, Geppetto and his son craft a wardrobe from a magical tree. Snow goes into labor as the Evil Queen’s curse takes effect.
After crashing her car on the way out of town, Emma wakes up in jail. Henry is missing. Emma offers her skills to find him. They talk to Henry’s teacher, who is, of course, Snow White, and the one who gave him the book of fairy tales.
Prince Charming battles the Evil Queen’s soldiers to place his baby daughter in the wardrobe, hoping to give her “her best chance”. He succeeds, but may have paid for the effort with his life. Snow finds Charming as the Evil Queen arrives. She tells Snow she is sending all those who live in the enchanted forest “somewhere horrible, absolutely horrible, where the only happy ending will be mine!”
Emma catches the mayor in a lie and decides to stay. As she checks in at Granny’s B & B, she meets Mr. Gold, who, according to Red, owns everything in town. He knows her name.
As Henry watches out his window, the clock in the tower moves forward.
Once Upon A Time could easily have turned out overdone and cheesy. The creative team has done an outstanding job of giving the fairy tale world the same weight as the modern-set story. The viewer can accept the magical elements as part of the world — Prince Charming throwing his sword into the Evil Queen as she dissipates or the boiling destruction raining down on the castle as the curse destroys the forest. These visual effects are not overused, which adds to the believability of the fantasy. Transitions between the worlds are seamless.
At times, the story grows a bit heavy and ponderous, but it’s offset by the overall themes of keeping hope alive and the search for happy endings. The hype paid off for ABC, giving the premiere a strong debut with 12.8 million viewers, second only to the World Series game in its time slot. The real test will be how many viewers return in the next few weeks. I’m sure there will be many Lost comparisons.
I’m hooked enough by the story and style of the show to keep watching more episodes, and I would recommend others check it out. If the production value can continue to match the bar set by the pilot, Once Upon A Time has a lot of potential to become the next fantasy hit show.
