Once Upon a Time

I basically watched the first two seasons of "Once Upon a Time" within two weeks, thanks to Netflix. I'd never seen the show before, being out of the States more often than not these last nine years, and I have to say I was really impressed. There's little problems here and there, but I barely notice them.

These writers could give lessons on the effective use of back flashes. Most writers just use back flashes to explain what is going on it the past, but these writers apparently summed up their philosophy with one quote from a character: When you can see the future, irony is everywhere. Their back flashes weren't just explanatory, they were revelatory. They made my jaw drop with the shock of understanding. They set the seeds of future surprises several episodes in advance, and yet those clues didn't prevent the surprise, they enhanced with surprise with an "ah ha" moment.

Another interesting thing they've done is make so many central characters women. There was an entire plotline in which Emma, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and Mulan were off on their own adventure, sans men. It swept gender politics right off the table and let the women be heroic. I've also noticed that when women are fighting men, there's quite a lot of hapkido or aikido thrown in, soft style martial arts that use agility to over come brute force.

On the other hand, when Snow White is on her own, she's a bandit, a revolutionary leader, and an archer. But when she's with the men, somehow the purity of her heart becomes the central issue. When she tricked the Evil Queen into using dark magic against the Queen's even more dangerous mother, I was thinking, "Wow, that was really cunning of her." I was impressed, but the show wasted no time in turning it around into how it corrupted Snow's heart, as if all that warfare against the Queen in fantasy land wouldn't have.  It's a puzzle, and I think the writers are trying to have their cake and eat it, too.

What is most vivid in my mind right now is how they combine the season plot line resolutions with the season cliff hangers. Watching the Jolly Rogers pirate ship take our main characters, villains and heroes alike, into a magical whirlpool within minutes of saving the town just blew me away. It is now my favorite season cliff hanger in television history.