Once Upon a Time and Good Wife
Mar. 4th, 2012 09:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatWhile The Good Wife continues to rock, Once Upon a Time is starting to annoy me.
The Good Wife is an example of how you can do pacing well in a procedural, and write great dialogue, as well as meld the A plot line and B plot in a manner that they two reference each other and do not put the viewer to sleep. It's actually the only procedural that doesn't put me into a coma or depress me. This should go without saying by now, but your mileage most likely varies.
I also saw the last two episodes of Justified today, which were hilarious and tightly written with crackling dialogue. Also I'm in love with Timothy Olyphant's Raylan Gibbons. Other than that? I have nothing to say about it.
Back to Once - which tonight did "Grumpy's" back story in an episode entitled "Dreamy", guest-starring Amy Acker as a fairy (Nova) in the Fairy tale world, and a Nun (Astrid) in the real world called Storybrook. It's not a good episode. Really not. I was frustrated through most of it.
And my attention kept wandering.
I've come to the conclusion that the episodes that focus on Regina/Snow/PC and people directly associated with them are weaker than the episodes that focus on Emma/Rumplestilskin and Henry and the people associated with them.
The back story plot line was basically "Nova" the clutzy fairy drops fairy dust on a Dwarf Egg, which hatches into a full grown "Dreamy". Dreamy as a result fall in love with the clutzy Nova who dreams of becoming a fairy godmother. They are however doomed to failure, since Dwarves can't fall in love and are made to mine diamonds in order to turn them into magical fairy dust for the fairies. They have no lives outside of that and are content to do solely that. Fairies are put on this earth to be fairy godmother's and their lives are only about that. If Nova took off with Dreamy they'd upset the balance and there would be one less fairy godmother and one less dwarf to mine diamonds for fairy dust and of course we can't have that. So the blue fairy and the head Dwarf talks Dreamy out of pursuing Nova, and into going back to the mines, giving her up so Nova can become a fairy godmother which has always been her dream. Nova is of course crushed. And Dreamy becomes forever "Grumpy".
Stupid blue fairy should have minded her own business. She truly deserves to be stuck with Pinnochio for a few years.
The Storybrook storyline...has Mary Margaret aiding Leroy aka Grumpy in selling candles to aid the sisters or nuns, who are in danger of not being able to pay their rent to Mr. Gold. Leroy is aiding the nuns because he's fallen in love with Sister Astrid (aka Nova) who stupidly spent all the rent money on helium tanks for the fair. Selling candles is harder than it looks...since Mary Margaret is the town pariah because she had an affair with David (aka Prince Charming) who was married to Katherine (who didn't love David to begin with). Sigh. David, who is more wimpy than charming...so wimpy in fact that I'm beginning to wonder what MM sees in him...is currently the prime suspect in Katherine's mysterious disappearance. Emma really needs to listen to Henry who has told her on multiple occasions that no one but Emma and Henry can leave Storybrook. Anyone else tries to leave something horrible happens to them. There's certainly enough of a pattern emerging that one would think she'd figure that out.
Emma is bit slow on the uptake.
Meanwhile Regina through Sydney Glass is manipulating Emma into arresting David for Katherine's disappearence, when we all know Regina is the one behind it. I've grown tired of Regina. She's a dull villain and somewhat one-dimensional. Either kill her off or develop her, one or the other.
Also pick up the pacing or you will lose your audience. Once suffers from Lost's pacing problems.
This MM/David/Regina story thread is wearing thin. Although I get that the writers can't resolve it until they literally tell us the backstories of every character in town...because the end game appears to be the MM/David/Regina story. Which is the problem, the end-game isn't interesting.
I don't care any more about David and Mary Margaret. Either get together or find happiness elsewhere, stop moping. Do something. Seriously, you are two of the most passive characters on the planet. Although, I suppose you could say that MM did something by helping Grumpy, she's actually more pro-active than David is. But he did just wake up out of a coma, I suppose I should give him the benefit of the doubt.
Mr. Gold on the other hand continues to fascinate...what is his back story with the nuns aka fairies and why does he have a big hate on for them? Regina...unlike Gold seems to only care about herself, ensuring Mary Margaret and David are miserable (even if they have no clue she's the cause of it) and making Henry love her (which he never will because she's such an evil soulles bitca that only an idiotic and equally soulless genie could love.) Gold on the other hand...loves Belle, hates himself, fears his cowardice, and seems to know or be involved with everyone in town.
So outside of the Mr. Gold bit - where he tells Leroy that there is no way in hell he's going to help the "sisters", there's not much of interest here. Oh sure they do a good job of forwarding the theme of finding happiness and how we find it and how we define it, and they explain why Grumpy is so grumpy...and they show David being a prime suspect in Katherine's disappearance (which isn't all that surprising), but outside of that...
Amy Acker guest-starred her as Nova. Told you she was going to appear in Once Upon a Time - she's making the rounds apparently. A few weeks ago she guest-starred as a spider creature on Grimm.
Prefer the fairy bit, to be honest. Not a fan of spiders. Acker had more to do than Emma Caulfield, which is a shame since I like Caulfield better. Acker's an uneven actress. She has a very pronounced nasal accent that grates on my nerves. I had decided that was just Acker, until she played Illyria on Angel and her accent completely disappeared. It only pops up when she plays awkward clutzy characters. Which is annoying.
Like I stated above? The Good Wife was better. Case of the week was a filmmaker who did a suicide video being sued by the family of a girl who killed herself after watching the video. But mainly the episode was about office politics - both at the State's Attorney's Office and Lockhardt/Gardner with Alicia and Carey sort of caught in the middle. Neither are benefiting from Peter running for Governor, nor are they benefiting from the power-politics at their respective place of employment. I still think the end game is Canning, Alicia and Carey. But I could be wrong.
Caitlin is fun to hate. She's smart and savvy and clearly aiming for Alicia's position. David Lee is even more fun as Eli's nemesis. And Eli's finally been given something to do other than funny case of the week. He's back to managing Peter's bid for governor, and manipulating people around him including Alicia who refuses to be manipulated.
Meanwhile...it becomes clear that Will's suspension doesn't mean he's leaving the series. We get to see his apartment finally, his family members, and his private life. And his crazy younger sisters who like to meddle in said private life. So much so...that he's decided to come back to the office to avoid them. He won't do cases, but he will work on other things. At one point he asks Kalinda if she can get his sisters arrested. They think he's dating Kalinda. And they like her so want him to be dating her.
Peter meanwhile has realized that if he doesn't get back together with Alicia - he doesn't have much chance for the Governorship, as does Eli. Alicia is on the fence. She fired David Lee, but not necessarily because she doesn't want to divorce Peter, as she just doesn't trust David Lee - wise move. I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him. Lee's the reason she almost got brought up on Fraud charges by the DA. Eli was right to alert her to Lee's indiscretion.
Then there's Diane who is neatly juggling everyone, and appears to be setting Caitlin and Alicia against each other. This may back-fire on Diane. Caitlin is about as trustworthy as David Lee.
I don't like Caitlin, but I enjoy hating her in a way that I don't Regina in Once, Caitlin is actually better developed and she's a supporting character and has had less screen time.
Of course Good Wife is also better written than Once. It's actually the best written tv show that I'm currently watching next to Justified. (Note the caveat that I'm watching.)
The case much like the rest of the power plays is about perception. How one perceives something and uses other's perceptions to manipulate them.
Off to bed and hopefully sleep.
The Good Wife is an example of how you can do pacing well in a procedural, and write great dialogue, as well as meld the A plot line and B plot in a manner that they two reference each other and do not put the viewer to sleep. It's actually the only procedural that doesn't put me into a coma or depress me. This should go without saying by now, but your mileage most likely varies.
I also saw the last two episodes of Justified today, which were hilarious and tightly written with crackling dialogue. Also I'm in love with Timothy Olyphant's Raylan Gibbons. Other than that? I have nothing to say about it.
Back to Once - which tonight did "Grumpy's" back story in an episode entitled "Dreamy", guest-starring Amy Acker as a fairy (Nova) in the Fairy tale world, and a Nun (Astrid) in the real world called Storybrook. It's not a good episode. Really not. I was frustrated through most of it.
And my attention kept wandering.
I've come to the conclusion that the episodes that focus on Regina/Snow/PC and people directly associated with them are weaker than the episodes that focus on Emma/Rumplestilskin and Henry and the people associated with them.
The back story plot line was basically "Nova" the clutzy fairy drops fairy dust on a Dwarf Egg, which hatches into a full grown "Dreamy". Dreamy as a result fall in love with the clutzy Nova who dreams of becoming a fairy godmother. They are however doomed to failure, since Dwarves can't fall in love and are made to mine diamonds in order to turn them into magical fairy dust for the fairies. They have no lives outside of that and are content to do solely that. Fairies are put on this earth to be fairy godmother's and their lives are only about that. If Nova took off with Dreamy they'd upset the balance and there would be one less fairy godmother and one less dwarf to mine diamonds for fairy dust and of course we can't have that. So the blue fairy and the head Dwarf talks Dreamy out of pursuing Nova, and into going back to the mines, giving her up so Nova can become a fairy godmother which has always been her dream. Nova is of course crushed. And Dreamy becomes forever "Grumpy".
Stupid blue fairy should have minded her own business. She truly deserves to be stuck with Pinnochio for a few years.
The Storybrook storyline...has Mary Margaret aiding Leroy aka Grumpy in selling candles to aid the sisters or nuns, who are in danger of not being able to pay their rent to Mr. Gold. Leroy is aiding the nuns because he's fallen in love with Sister Astrid (aka Nova) who stupidly spent all the rent money on helium tanks for the fair. Selling candles is harder than it looks...since Mary Margaret is the town pariah because she had an affair with David (aka Prince Charming) who was married to Katherine (who didn't love David to begin with). Sigh. David, who is more wimpy than charming...so wimpy in fact that I'm beginning to wonder what MM sees in him...is currently the prime suspect in Katherine's mysterious disappearance. Emma really needs to listen to Henry who has told her on multiple occasions that no one but Emma and Henry can leave Storybrook. Anyone else tries to leave something horrible happens to them. There's certainly enough of a pattern emerging that one would think she'd figure that out.
Emma is bit slow on the uptake.
Meanwhile Regina through Sydney Glass is manipulating Emma into arresting David for Katherine's disappearence, when we all know Regina is the one behind it. I've grown tired of Regina. She's a dull villain and somewhat one-dimensional. Either kill her off or develop her, one or the other.
Also pick up the pacing or you will lose your audience. Once suffers from Lost's pacing problems.
This MM/David/Regina story thread is wearing thin. Although I get that the writers can't resolve it until they literally tell us the backstories of every character in town...because the end game appears to be the MM/David/Regina story. Which is the problem, the end-game isn't interesting.
I don't care any more about David and Mary Margaret. Either get together or find happiness elsewhere, stop moping. Do something. Seriously, you are two of the most passive characters on the planet. Although, I suppose you could say that MM did something by helping Grumpy, she's actually more pro-active than David is. But he did just wake up out of a coma, I suppose I should give him the benefit of the doubt.
Mr. Gold on the other hand continues to fascinate...what is his back story with the nuns aka fairies and why does he have a big hate on for them? Regina...unlike Gold seems to only care about herself, ensuring Mary Margaret and David are miserable (even if they have no clue she's the cause of it) and making Henry love her (which he never will because she's such an evil soulles bitca that only an idiotic and equally soulless genie could love.) Gold on the other hand...loves Belle, hates himself, fears his cowardice, and seems to know or be involved with everyone in town.
So outside of the Mr. Gold bit - where he tells Leroy that there is no way in hell he's going to help the "sisters", there's not much of interest here. Oh sure they do a good job of forwarding the theme of finding happiness and how we find it and how we define it, and they explain why Grumpy is so grumpy...and they show David being a prime suspect in Katherine's disappearance (which isn't all that surprising), but outside of that...
Amy Acker guest-starred her as Nova. Told you she was going to appear in Once Upon a Time - she's making the rounds apparently. A few weeks ago she guest-starred as a spider creature on Grimm.
Prefer the fairy bit, to be honest. Not a fan of spiders. Acker had more to do than Emma Caulfield, which is a shame since I like Caulfield better. Acker's an uneven actress. She has a very pronounced nasal accent that grates on my nerves. I had decided that was just Acker, until she played Illyria on Angel and her accent completely disappeared. It only pops up when she plays awkward clutzy characters. Which is annoying.
Like I stated above? The Good Wife was better. Case of the week was a filmmaker who did a suicide video being sued by the family of a girl who killed herself after watching the video. But mainly the episode was about office politics - both at the State's Attorney's Office and Lockhardt/Gardner with Alicia and Carey sort of caught in the middle. Neither are benefiting from Peter running for Governor, nor are they benefiting from the power-politics at their respective place of employment. I still think the end game is Canning, Alicia and Carey. But I could be wrong.
Caitlin is fun to hate. She's smart and savvy and clearly aiming for Alicia's position. David Lee is even more fun as Eli's nemesis. And Eli's finally been given something to do other than funny case of the week. He's back to managing Peter's bid for governor, and manipulating people around him including Alicia who refuses to be manipulated.
Meanwhile...it becomes clear that Will's suspension doesn't mean he's leaving the series. We get to see his apartment finally, his family members, and his private life. And his crazy younger sisters who like to meddle in said private life. So much so...that he's decided to come back to the office to avoid them. He won't do cases, but he will work on other things. At one point he asks Kalinda if she can get his sisters arrested. They think he's dating Kalinda. And they like her so want him to be dating her.
Peter meanwhile has realized that if he doesn't get back together with Alicia - he doesn't have much chance for the Governorship, as does Eli. Alicia is on the fence. She fired David Lee, but not necessarily because she doesn't want to divorce Peter, as she just doesn't trust David Lee - wise move. I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him. Lee's the reason she almost got brought up on Fraud charges by the DA. Eli was right to alert her to Lee's indiscretion.
Then there's Diane who is neatly juggling everyone, and appears to be setting Caitlin and Alicia against each other. This may back-fire on Diane. Caitlin is about as trustworthy as David Lee.
I don't like Caitlin, but I enjoy hating her in a way that I don't Regina in Once, Caitlin is actually better developed and she's a supporting character and has had less screen time.
Of course Good Wife is also better written than Once. It's actually the best written tv show that I'm currently watching next to Justified. (Note the caveat that I'm watching.)
The case much like the rest of the power plays is about perception. How one perceives something and uses other's perceptions to manipulate them.
Off to bed and hopefully sleep.
no subject
Date: 2012-03-06 07:02 pm (UTC)Kind of a clever way to make the point that if you are reliant upon a gimmick, you get in trouble if someone ever shows up using the same gimmick better than you.