Once Upon A Time in Storybrooke

Once Upon a Time is a fantasy drama series from abc. Alongside with its fellow abc primetime show Revenge, this too is one of the most watched and talked about series today. I'm quite happy that I gave Once Upon a Time another chance, just as my high school classmate told me, because I'm super loving it now, one happy Oncers here. The thing is that it took me a number of episodes to realize how great it was. Like Revenge, I'm already aware of this series because of its previews on Starworld and in fact Once Upon a Time caught my interest more than that of Revenge because of the interesting story line needless to say, plus I like watching Jennifer Morrison in House MD, the main reason which got me watching up until episode 6, but my mentioned like for her was not powerful enough to my flattening enthusiasm with the show. The first few episodes didn't really struck me that much; I get bored and slept while watching at times (which for me is a sign that something isn't that good or less good), so I decided to change the series I'm watching (where Revenge came in), but when series make you wait for another episode to air, it's just normal to find another to keep you entertained and so I again watched Once Upon a Time.

STORY

Once upon a time in Storybrooke, a kid named Henry got hold of this book which told tales about their neighborhood, its people and the dark curse (which transported and trapped every fairy tale character (well, not really all as the series goes), with no memory of who they truly are (not also everyone), and no more happy endings, from Fairy Tale Land to a land of no magic - Storybrooke). He became aware that her biological mother, Emma Swan, is the key to breaking the curse, and so he got his way to Boston and convinced her to come with him in Storybrooke and save the people.

Emma, not believing Henry's story of her as the savior and daughter of Snow and Charming, went to Storybrooke just to return Henry to her foster mother Regina Mills the Mayor of Storybrooke, but after some issues she realized how his son needs her and decided to stay and protect him from Regina who is the Evil Queen in the fairy tale world.

The story mainly revolves around how Emma would break the curse, which at the end of season one she did but they're still in Storybrooke, so it then becomes to how they would go back to their fairy tale world and defeat the evil ones, may it be Rumplestiltskin, Regina the Queen, or Regina's mother, and eventually have their happy endings. Alongside to that are the untold creatively written stories of the different characters coming in and out of the plot.

CAST

The fairy tale character then their Storybrooke counterpart, if applicable.

These are the regulars.

Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan

Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White/Mary Margaret Blanchard

Lana Parrilla as Evil Queen/Regina Mills

Josh Dallas as Prince Charming/David Nolan

Jared S. Gilmore as Henry Mills

Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold

So what happened last episode- their winter finale:

Season 2 Episode 9 (Queen of Hearts)

Regina and Gold decided to take precaution and destroy the portal where Cora might enter, but destroying the portal would mean killing whoever would enter and if Emma and Snow succeed, they might be the ones who would. It was then revealed that Cora was trapped in Wonderland and became the famous Queen of Hearts, when Regina sent Hook to get her heart and kill her so that as the curse takes place she will not be able to be transported. But Cora isn't that easy to kill, she decided to kill Regina but eventually changed her mind after hearing what Regina said to her and so she decided to protect her kingdom from the curse and wait for the curse to be broken and move from there with the help of Hook.

Fast forward, Snow and Emma succeeded with the use of ink from a paper with Emma's names in Rumple's prison, brought Charming back to life from the sleeping curse. And so they may have thought Cora and Hook were defeated and will never be able to come to Storybrooke, but they thought wrong, with the use of the dried up dead magic bean from the giant and the water from the Lake Nostos which has the power to restore what was once lost, they were able to come to Storybrooke...

One note, I really felt sad for Regina after she was left alone...

Why I love it and why will you?

A lot of fairy tale stories had been re-written or re-invented in different-or-somewhat-alike way in a screenplay, putting a cool twist to the original classic story or Disney style. Examples are the movies Red Riding Hood, Snow White and the Huntsman, Mirror Mirror, Alice in Wonderland, etc, which I refer to as fairy tale versions for grown-ups. Also now, it's about time to hit our television sets as we now have Once Upon a Time and this is not just about one fairy tale character but about as many as you can name and much more with characters that you also are not familiar of, and also includes some that aren't actually fairy tales or I'm just misinformed. What's different in this series among the others is of its contemporary blend to it much like that of the movie Enchanted's plots, where a fairy tale character sets footsteps in the real world, present world, and there is this shifting between two time lines- the real world and the fairy tale world.

You'll love the fairy tale couture (especially the evil queen's), the props, the different settings/places (my favorite would be Mr. Gold's Pawnbroker and Antiquities Dealer, Regina's office and Wonderland), the food in Granny's diner, and the effects in some are actually good considering the use of green screen. I thought that Storybrooke would definitely be shot at a studio where they created the village but actually it is a real village called Stevenson (which I'd like to visit someday because it's pretty interesting), the creative department just crafted it with signs and such to resemble Storyrooke, the stores in it are open even when filming, there is this ice cream store which sells flavors after the different characters in the series, really cool isn't it? These all mentioned makes Once very pleasing visually.

On the other hand, I have these small pile of things I find weird or poor or ridiculous or lousy at times about the different stories and dialogues in the series which is partly one of the reason I didn't enjoyed it at the start, but I got used to it as the series moves on. Here are some:

Literally taking the heart of someone by hand, you can then keep it to control the person whom it belongs or crush it with your hand to kill that person, I'll understand if it's only the Queen who can do that weird thing, but what's weirder is that other characters can actually do it as well - probably all can do it. It was just weird thrusting someone with your whole hand and it just goes through the body.

The True Love's Kiss got so overused. As we all know, it can break any curse. Now, it does not have that impact of a true love's kiss anymore.

And everything always has to do with Rumplestiltskin and The Queen. Almost all the characters seek Rumple for help, even the Queen, and that almost all characters had also been a victim of the Queen's wrath. Which at some point absurd, considering the stories we grew to know.

Still there are pretty much a lot of interesting yet somehow complex things that goes with the different plots. It also has a deeper sense of reality to it, that every person, however we perceive good and perfect she/he is at some point in their lives had flawed, there always will be that hamartia in their lives they will soon regret. And that every wrongdoings have its reasons, and yet we tend to easily judge someone, though there's no good reason for evil, at least we try to understand and forgive them. This series is also a nice way for the villains of fairy tale stories to actually defend or have their side of the story and have their chance to make things right.

It's also amazing how they connect everyone in the fairy tale world with everyone else - very creative story lines, not to mention the congruence going on with their Storybrooke counterparts, like Jiminy being a psychiatrist, Rumple a pawnbroker, etc., very inventive indeed. There were also so many characters coming in with their untold stories and it seems endless since a lot of fairy tale characters I know (we know) are not been told yet. Though the story isn't that similar to what we know about our different fairy tale, it still is interesting and likable yet confusing at times. Let me spoil you with some:

> Genie fell in love with Regina and he also turned out to be the guy in Regina/The Evil Queen's mirror.

> Captain Hook's hooked hand is the result of Rumplestiltskin's revenge on him for taking away his wife.

> The Evil Queen hated Snow so much because she is the reason why her fiance Daniel is dead. But it was Cora/Regina's mother who killed him, it's just that when they are on the verge on eloping, Snow told Cora about it which she promised to keep secret.

With the Storybrooke people (and some fairy tale people with no counterparts), one thing I love to do is to guess who their fairy tale character are. There are so many characters to love, like

the very handsome hunstman/Sheriff Graham (Jamie Dornan),

Revengeful Captain Hook (Colin O'Donoghue),

Not so little Red Riding Hood/Ruby (Meghan Ory), which is a regular now in season two

along with Belle (Emilie de Ravin), Rumple's love interest

Rumple's son Baelfire (Dylan Schmid),

Dreamy turned Grumpy/Leroy (Lee Arenberg),

Not really that insane Jefferson, much known to us as the Mad Hatter (Sebastian Stan) who has a very interesting story and is handsome as well,

there's also Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket, Cinderella, Mulan and a lot more!

I hear Ariel going to be in Once soon, exciting!

My favorite characters

I've said earlier that Emma is the reason why I began watching this show, pretty amazing resemblance with Ginnifer considering she is her mother, just saying. Aside of having no counterpart in the fairy tale world, she, for me, one of the most complex and misunderstood characters in the series, after what she had been through, but I love how strong and heroic her personality is.

Love her eyeglasses!

Not a big fan of Snow White and Prince Charming (especially the confused David).

But generally, I like Snow (and Mary Margaret), she's a bad ass here, not the typical quiet, loving Snow, I like her when she uses her bow and that outfit is just amazing (refer to picture with the bow an arrow). Although, I hate the little snow (she irritates me! I don't know why, which pretty much made it easier for me to accept the justification of Regina's hatred towards her) for telling Regina's mother the secret Regina told her not to tell, and so I practically blame her for everything (despite her being just a child), especially with Regina's bitterness. Charming is okay but I prefer Sheriff Graham which is quite sad because he's dead already.

One of the biggest reason why I loved the show now is because of Regina, the Evil Queen, Lana Parilla. Loved her! Shout out to all the Evil Regals out there! Charlize Theron as Ravenna for me is the most beautiful and amazing Evil Queen among all the EQs I know, I super loved her portrayal in Snow White and the Huntsman, but as I get hooked to Once Upon a Time, I slowly adore Lana Parilla's Regina, she's really beautiful, her eyes are full of emotion, her knavish smile, her interesting scar and she has super white teeth that shows whenever she say her evil lines - epic. She is really fitting for the role.

Yes, she's cold evil at times but she also has a heart. I'm always at a doubt if she's good or bad, there are moments that I super hate her but there are times that I really felt bad for her, especially when it made sense to what the real reason for her evilness (though still doesn't justify her wrong doings) and when she shows how he truly loves Henry. Still, I'm rooting for her and I just wanted to know the ending because I know I she'll overcome her evilness and be on the good side and have her happy ending with her very own Prince Charming.

The young demure Regina was too good to be true considering her evil background,

so I'm not really a big fan of that.

Loved this line of her and how she said it.

Very evil!

Same thing for Mr. Gold, (I guess that would have to do with them having someone they love- which they say is someone's weakness, but I say it's both their weakness and strength), but I'm more frightened with him (he's actually more powerful here than what I know of him from the children's book) than Regina because of his crocodile skin appearance and his laugh is just a sound of nightmare, totally terrifying and his Rumple's voice is very creepy unlike his (true) Mr. Gold's big low voice with a very good accent. But he is definitely one of the most believable characters in the show as Mr. Gold and Rumplestiltskin with his movement and gestures, the best Rumple yet! He's perfect for the role.

Kudos to the makers, Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, who are also the makers of Lost, which I was once a big fan of too (you'll see familiar actors from Lost too).

To end, here is blooper reel I saw in youtube and a quote.