Once Upon a Time

The ads for Once Upon a Time ran for months, touting the show’s pedigree (“From the writers of Lost”), and giving glimpses of Vancouver doubling for both the land of fairy tales and Storybrooke, Maine, a slightly off-looking small town that serves as the characters’ prison.

I loved Lost—I watched every episode and marveled at how the production designers made Hawaii look like any place in the world they needed it to be. However, the writing was uneven. At times wonderful, at times good, it too often relied too much on the actors to raise the dialogue above mediocrity. Some of that carries over to Once Upon a Time, but the cast is largely up to the task. However, I hesitate to judge the writing solely on the basis of the pilot because of the extensive amount of exposition this series seems to require. Also, Jane Espenson’s (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gilmore Girls, Battlestar Galactica, Game of Thrones) presence as co-executive producer should help. (Read an interview with Espenson here.)

The production values are as high as anything you’ll see on television, and surpass those of some feature films. Vancouver was absolutely the right choice of location for this series. When we’re watching the fairy tale scenes, it looks like a richly illustrated book of children’s stories, and when we’re watching the Storybrooke scenes, it looks like a fairy tale character’s slightly off impression of our world. This is a beautiful show.

This brings us to the cast. When I initially saw the line-up, I couldn’t wait for the show to start. Ginnifer Goodwin (Big Love, Something Borrowed) makes a good Snow White, but she seems more effective in her Storybrooke role. Jennifer Morrison (House M.D., How I Met Your Mother, Star Trek) is very good as Emma Swan, and her character looks to have some interesting things to do in the coming weeks. Jared Gilmore (The Back-Up Plan, Mad Men), who plays Henry, had some awkward exposition in the premiere and did pretty well with it, but exposition is difficult and a few lines seemed a bit much for him. He has great promise, though.

Lana Parrilla (24, Boomtown, and two episodes of Lost) looks like she’s relishing every line and every scene. Her problem, though, is that her villainy is less menacing than that of another character, Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold, played by Robert Carlyle (Trainspotting, The Full Monty, 28 Weeks Later). When Parrilla threatens first Snow White and then Emma Swan with “I will destroy you if it’s the last thing I do,” you believe she will die trying, but she’s so close to the evil queens in the Disney princess movies that you know eventually she will die trying and fail. Carlyle, on the other hand, can make your skin crawl by saying something trivial like “Enjoy your stay.” His portrayal of Rumpelstiltskin is the most physical performance on the show so far, and his scenes in both worlds give the show all of its edge and any uncertainty as to its eventual outcome. His presence on the show is great news for the audience.

While I think the pilot episode had some issues, it also had enough going for it to give the series a few more weeks before deciding whether to keep watching.

This post was written by LR Simon as part of an ongoing series of posts on horror/fantasy films and television series.