There has been a lot of similar television shows premiering as of late. Pan Am was compared to Playboy Club. Two Broke Girls was compared to The New Girl. Enter Once Upon a Time, which will no doubt have comparison to NBC's Grimm. As someone who has seen both pilots, I would put more money on Once to be the bigger hit. This is not because Once is particularly good, nor Grimm is particularly bad, both straddle mediocrity with certain flourishes that may push it into decent viewership.
Once Upon a Time is from the same people who brought you LOST. Now, if you read Ology, you know that we love LOST (seriously, we recap it even now). But Once isn't LOST. It is Adam Horowitz who is to responsible for LOST and Once. However, if you asked me who the creators of LOST were I would no doubt say Damon Lindleof and J.J. Abrams first.
Perhaps it is because Once Upon A Time is about fairy tale characters in peril- something that doesn't exactly inspire empathy and worry like the feelings we had for the flight 815 survivors. I don't really care if the Evil Queen traps Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) and her fellow fairy tale members in peril. Because you know what peril is to Once Upon A Time? It's this world. We are living in the fairy tale creaters nightmare. Excuse me if that doesn't inspire worry for the magical and beautiful.
The cast does admirably and the show isn't offensive to any senses, it's well shot and whimsical without spending too much on the budget. Sometimes it's a caricature, sometimes it's touching, and that isn't anything to sneeze at.
While the plot is interesting, I'm not sure how it could completely carry to an ongoing series. Once Upon A Time, as mentioned, is about an evil queen who traps fairy tale characters in our world, everyone unaware of their predicament. The heroine, played by House's Jennifer Morrison, teams up reluctantly with the little boy (Jared Gilmore) she gave away for adoption years ago to try and save the fairy tale world. OK, sure, but again, it hardly inspires a connection to any particular character, no matter how adorable Ginnifer Goodwin or Jared Gilmore are.
Overall, it's decent. Not bad, not spectacular. But is it decent enough to survive the prime Sunday night television slot for ratings? Only time will tell if this show has a happy ending.
SumOlogy: Something to watch half-drunk after football with your family.
Grade: 6/10
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