Once Upon a Time and other stuff...

[shadowkat]

I loved Once Upon a Time tonight. Actually the last five episodes have been pretty good...and the final plot twist, I didn't see coming. It reminds me a lot of Lost,
structurally, except with fairy tales. I love fairy tales - they are like prose poems, filled to the brim with psychological metaphor chewiness. I particularly love the female heroine - who is a reluctant heroine. She's in the traditional male role - which I find interesting. The show is very female centric. The exact opposite of LOST which was male centric. We have Emma Swan in the Jack role. The kid is the one weak spot - he's annoying.
I know I should analyze it, but my brain just won't do it right now for some reason. I blame work. I'm really overwhelmed by it at the moment. Too many projects.

The season finale surprised me.

* I didn't expect them to give everyone their memories back. This soon. And as the blue fairy told the Queen - I'd find somewhere to hide. People are remembering and they are going to hate you.

* Jefferson freeing Belle and sending her to Rumplestilskin, with the message that Regina had her locked up and did this to her. Making Stilskin hate Regina.

* Rumplestilskin tricking Regina and Emma into freeing the last of the true love magic from the beast - which he persuaded Charming to put inside Maleficiant - the dark fairy to begin with. Emma's fight with the magical dragon echoes Charming's. Except she defeats and kills the dragon freeing the magical ball, while Charming just sets the magical egg/ball inside her. He leads Emma and Regina to believe this will save Henry, when in reality it's Emma's kiss that frees Henry and breaks the curse - just as Charming's kiss on Snow White frees Snow White and breaks the Queen's curse. True Love can break any curse. Emma's true love for her child. The show plays with romantic love in the past, but states that the love between mother and child trumps it or is equal to it. Emma is the product of true love. Which makes Emma powerful.

Stilskin wants the potion in order to return magic to Storybrook. To bring back magic. Now that he and the Queen have none left. I was surprised the writers chose to do that.
Although it does create more conflict and it makes the show more interesting. Next season we'll flip...the fairy tale world will be in the present, and the real world the flashbacks. Which is what they did in Lost, they flipped, making the island the flashback and the real world the present.

Shows that play with structure or narrative structure in this manner - which by the way is something we can thank Joss Whedon for introducing to the tv landscape, have more to play with. Say what you will about Whedon, fan or not, Whedon broke the envelope on narrative structure. JJ Abrahams followed Whedon. As did others. Whedon showed that you could play with structure with narrative on tv. Notably with Restless, HUSH, Once More with Feeling,
Becoming, I Will Always Love You, Innocence, and Superstar. Rod Sterling also played with structure in Twilight Zone and advanced the form. As did the writers of Doctor Who.
I LOVE shows that play with narrative structure. It's why I was a Lost fan, it's why I loved Buffy.

My difficulty with the show is David/Mary vs. Snow/Charming don't quite work. Mary let David go, while Snow told Charming - you'll always find me. David was leaving town, Charming came back to fight for her. Mary gave up on him, Snow never would. Regina felt remorse for Henry, the Evil Queen laced with power doesn't. Mr. Gold finally has his love, but instead of embracing her, he takes her to the well and reintroduces power to the realm.

I'm wondering if next year's twist will be Henry's father...who is Rumple's son. There may be a love triangle between Pinnochio/Emma/and Bellfluer or the Sheriff. Will the Sheriff be back next year?

Lots of potential. I may buy this on DVD. It's the sort of show that you can re-watch multiple times, because the narrative structure is told out of sequence. So each episode makes the last episode more interesting and different.



I'm tired. I think I'm going to bed and sleeping.

The nice thing about reading pulpy novels ...is it makes you feel better about your own writing.

3. I'm considering writing a bunch of posts about interviewing - what to do, what not to, from my own various experiences on both sides of the fence. But I don't know...is this something anyone would be interested in reading?

I know I've been all over the place lately in posting. Work is driving me crazy at the moment...also it has blocked all access to personal blogs, which is a good and bad thing.
I was using the blogs to deal with the stress - a distraction, which sometimes helped, and sometimes made things worse. If that makes sense?

Comments

[empresspatti.livejournal.com]

I love your OUAT Meta and I'd be very interested in your interview post.