Pilot is an efficient introduction to an unashamedly campy yet mature fairy tale drama.
ENCHANTED FOREST SYNOPSIS
The Evil Queen interrupts the wedding of Prince Charming and Snow White to announce an impending act of revenge. The couple seek advice from the imprisoned sorcerer Rumplestiltskin, who reveals that the Queen intends to curse the whole magical kingdom into another realm where she will rule them forever. He prophecises that the only chance of stopping her is if their child Emma makes it to the realm before the curse can enslave her.
STORYBROOKE SYNOPSIS
28-year old Emma is visited in Boston by her child Henry, whom she gave up for adoption a decade prior. Concerned for his mental state after he reveals he believes fairy tale characters live in his hometown, Emma agrees to personally escort him there and meets his totalitarian stepmother, secretly the Evil Queen.
ANALYSIS
Revisiting this episode, I think my favourite thing about it is its sincerity. The show could have easily been a cynical subversion of fairy tale cliches and made it all dark and gritty, but it doesn't. Instead, it embraces the silliness and childlike mentality behind the original stories. Good guys wear white and talk about love, kindness, have faith that everything will work out. Baddies are dressed in black leather, sneer and talk about destroying everything. It's so easy to ridicule (hello!), but at least in the beginning, Once displayed an endearing reverence to these old-fashioned tropes. It's infectious and still draws me in.
Even in the real world, where things are a little more grey, it's directly implied that faith in a happy ending and the courage to persevere can carry you through almost anything. It's a completely wholesome mentality that is rare in adult dramas.
The direction is very strong. It's not a show with the highest budget in the world (pretty much every castle is a greenscreen), but there's a lot of flair in the lighting, camerawork and editing. Particular highlights include how Rumple's movements are briefly sped up to make him seem unnatural, the night location filming for Storybrooke and the use of images from within Henry's book to transition between the two storylines.
CHARACTERS
The casting is top tier. A lot of them only have minor appearances to set up future storylines, but they still make enough of an impact to be memorable. I loved Tony Amendola's (Master Bra'tac from Stargate SG-1) gentle incarnation of Geppetto and Lee Arenberg's (Pintel in Pirates of the Caribbean) ferocious and warring Grumpy of the Seven Dwarves in particular.
My personal favourite, however, is the great Robert Carlyle (Begbie in the Trainspotting films) as Rumplestiltskin. He is the only one in this first episode to be entirely ambiguous in motivation and I love that the actor portrays his personas as complete opposites - flamboyant in the Enchanted Forest, subtle and soft-spoken in Storybrooke - leaving him an enigma.
But the standout is of course our lead protagonist, Jennifer Morrison (someone in House, I don't know, I've never seen House), who imbues Emma with a steely resolve, sass for days and a deep vulnerability beneath due to her loneliness and sense of abandonment. Honestly one of the best heroines in modern fiction. The whole journey she takes to overcome her insecurities to become Henry's mother and the Savior is fantastic. I love her character to bits.
Lana Parrilla (uh... she appeared on Lost that one time?) also shines as our main antagonist, the Evil Queen, who chews all the (digital) scenery in the Enchanted Forest, and gaslights her own son in Storybrooke. Making her incredibly easy to hate. She is thoroughly evil (well, it's in the name innit) and spends the entire episode ruthlessly stomping all resistance, setting up a villain to be reckoned with.
NOTES
- It's unclear how the Evil Queen expects Henry not to suspect anything, given that he is the only person in town who ages (due to being Emma's son and thus not cursed). Meaning he's the only one in school who actually graduates classes.
- Of all the Storybrooke personalities, Red Riding Hood's is definitely the oddest. Why is she a slut? To upset her Granny?
- For some reason, they had the Evil Queen superspeed across the wedding hall to reach Charming and Snow. I have no idea why or how, I just wish she did it more often because it looks hilarious.
- If I had any criticism, it's that the scene where Emma (being a bounty hunter) captures Ryan is just cringy. I get that it's important for the storyline to set up her character, but still, Ryan is such a douche. "Sexiest friendless orphan"???
- I'm only going to forgive Rumple's Storybrooke wardrobe because it's the pilot. He wouldn't be caught dead in that shirt in any other episode.
- I love how only a few pages separate an illustration of the Caterpillar from Geppetto creating the magic wardrobe. Did they drag the tree over from Wonderland or something?
- In a delightful twist, Josh Dallas (Prince Charming) and Ginnifer Goodwin (Snow White) are now happily married. Dallas, by the way, used to be married to Lara Pulver (Sherlock's Irene Adler). That guy has some pull.
- I know he's cursed to be miserable and childless, but does the Storybrooke version of Geppetto not know that adoption exists?
- Lol at how melodramatic Snow is as a teacher. She's supposed to tell them how to build birdhouses and all we see is her going on about what loyal creatures they are and how they will always find their family and...
- Love the gag of the student giving Snow White a pear.
- He may be 10, but I feel like everyone should be slightly more concerned over the fact that Henry stole his teacher's credit card and spent 265 bucks (plus bus and taxi fare) to find Emma.
- The speed of the Dark Curse is wildly inconsistent from shot to shot.
- The Evil Queen's Storybrooke manor is nr 108, referencing Lost, where famously a button had to be pushed every 108 minutes to prevent Armageddon.
CHRONOLOGY
- Assuming that the show is set in 'present time' 2011 and that time moves equally in both realities, the Enchanted Forest scenes are all set in 1983. Of course, no one has aged in Storybrooke, because part of the Dark Curse involves a Groundhog Day type situation where everyone are miserable forever. Emma (having arrived through the wardrobe shortly before the others and at a different place) grew up far away and gave birth to Henry in 2001, at which point the Evil Queen adopted him and brought him to Storybrooke through methods as yet unrevealed.
BEST QUOTE
"Believing in even the possibility of a happy ending is a very powerful thing."
CONCLUSION
Here we go.