How do I love thee, Once Upon a Time? Let me count the ways…
1) Female savior. She’s not only intelligent, independent, and capable, but her ‘destiny’ is in no way beholden to a romantic relationship. Subverting fairy tale damsel-in-distress tropes (à la Snow White) is great and all, but it’s not a particularly bold choice. It’s been done before. Unabashedly making your protaganist a female who doesn’t require a dude to save the world? Rock on, show. Rock on.
(and with that it mind, it is really bothersome to see their incredibly less-than-stellar representation of non-white folks. Yeah, these are European folk tales, and yes, it is Maine. But, c’mon - you’re subverting so much already… )
2) World building, you’re doing it right. I’m guessing the writers must have whole white boards filled with flowcharts to keep it all straight, but it’s clear that they have gone to a lot of effort to build this world. Everytime they reveal a little more about the town of Storybrooke, or show us more of the fairy tale realms, it feels like we’re getting more and more of a peek behind the curtain. So rather than heaping more and more information on the audience until they’re too thoroughly muddled to ask questions, they offer us more and more glimpses of what’s really happening. Which leads me to…
3) Show, don’t tell. This is one of the areas where Once Upon a Time absolutely shines and its fairy-tale counterpart Grimm absolutely…doesn’t. Once Upon a Time is replete with details and symbolism that the audience is expected to grasp and recall their significance. They really do trust our intelligence. We’re not being over-explained to or having the pieces of the puzzle painstakingly put together for us. (Seriously, Grimm. I’m looking at you.)
4) LOST references. Yeah, we get it, you made LOST. And it was one of the most innovative and critically accalimed television series in recent memory, so you know what? Just go for it. You proved this week that you could be self-referential without being overbearing, and I am pretty much just excited that you had Henry reading a Hulk comic. My needs, they are simple.
5) Your villains are scary…but they aren’t one-note. They are interesting and they have depth, and casting Robert Carlyle was probably the best choice you could have made for a role that skirts the edge of being ridiculously cartoonish. So I have a soft spot for the trickster bad guys - I still never would have imagined relishing Rumplestiltskin as much as I do.
6) What was that I said about not needing a romantic relationship? Snow White + Prince Charming = OTP. And yes, I realize that they were only nominally a part of this episode, but the little throwaway “My darling” during the dance scene was enough to melt me into a little shipper-shaped puddle. I have never been so emotionally invested in the outcome of a fictional relationship…and I watched The X-Files for all nine seasons.
