A lot of fans (but certainly not all) are wondering at the end of Season 5A, What exactly happened to this show?
Some people (like those at TVline and other sites) will tell you whatever it is has been happening for a while, and I think they're right. Others probably think that the problems they are seeing are relatively new and are worth pushing through (like the folks at Once Upon a Fan, bless them).
I'm with those who blame the writing. It's sloppy and silly. But the show at least had a strongish first season -- most fans can agree on that. So, I'm going to look back at the four and half seasons we've had so far to find the forest in the trees: the overall structure of the show and how it's changed in five years. Maybe we can find some hints for what's been causing all the fuss.
I'm going to focus on the big issues, not the minutia. Each season is broken down into the overarching plots, character focuses, and themes, as well as the structures of the storytelling and any major revelations (those that change our outlook on the world of Once).
Season One: Hope
Character Focuses: (In order of importance, or time spent on them)
1. Snow White
2. The Evil Queen
3. Emma Swan and Henry Mills
4. Rumpelstiltskin
5. Prince Charming
Fairytales Explored: Snow White (core story), Little Red Riding Hood, Rumpelstiltskin, Cinderella, Pinocchio, Hansel and Gretel, Alice in Wonderland, Sleeping Beauty, Aladdin, King Midas, Beauty and the Beast.
Major Plots: Emma vs. Regina, Snow vs. Evil Queen, Rumpelstiltskin vs. Regina/Evil Queen; Snow and Charming trying to find each other, Henry trying to find Emma and convince her fairytales are real.
Major Revelations/Events: Breaking the Curse; Emma is Snow White's child; Graham dies.
Commentary: You can see that Snow was the major focus of this season, with Rumpelstiltskin, Regina, and Emma close seconds, usually as they related to Snow's story. The fairy tales explored were primarily those Disney had not used before or were at least not very recent adaptations (with the notable exceptions of Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin). The core plot of the season was breaking the curse, something that united all the characters very well -- either they wanted to do it or they wanted to prevent it from happening.
Season Two: Consequences of the Curse (that's how I like to think of it)
1. Emma
2. Regina
3. Rumpelstiltskin
4. Snow and Henry
5. Cora and Hook
6. Prince Charming, Belle, and Baelfire/Neal
Fairytales Explored: (no core fairy tale) Sleeping Beauty, Mulan, Jack and the Beanstalk, Peter Pan, Frankenstein, Arthurian Legends.
Major Plots: Emma and Snow's relationship, Regina and Cora's relationship, Belle and Rumpelstiltskin's relationship; Hook vs. Rumpelstiltskin, Regina and Cora vs. Snow and Emma, Greg and Tamara sabotaging the town.
Major Revelations/Events: The Enchanted Forest still exists; No one can leave town; Neal unites all the major characters by being Henry's father; Henry is kidnapped and taken to Neverland; the second Dark Curse is cast (Pan); Cora dies.
Commentary: Unlike the first season, there is no core fairytale explored in season two. Instead the consequences of the curse are played out, but much of this is interrupted by several major crises, such as Emma and Snow falling through the hat, Cora and Hook arriving to menace the town, and Greg and Tamara showing up to destroy the town as well. Three major crises in one season seems a bit much and definitely feels like it by the end when most fans were begging for the deaths of Greg and Tamara. These were the only two major characters who were not fairy tale characters, and they did not fit well into the plot.
Season Three A: Belief (or so they tell me)
At this point, the writers split the the show into two mini seasons. I'm guessing because it was too difficult to sustain the kind of rollercoaster writing they'd done in season two.
1. Rumpelstiltskin
2. Peter Pan
3. Regina
4. Emma, Neal, and Henry
5. Hook
6. Snow and Charming
Season Three B: Revenge (?)
1. Regina
2. Zelena
3. Rumpelstiltskin
4. Emma and Hook
5. Neal and Belle
6. Henry, Snow and Charming
Fairytales explored: Peter Pan (core fairytale or 3A), the Wizard of Oz (core of 3B), the Pied Piper, the Little Mermaid, Robin Hood.
Major Plots: (3A) Rumpelstiltskin's redemption arc completes; Rumpelstiltskin vs. Pan, Neal and Rumpelstiltskin, Emma resolving her relationship with Neal and beginning one with Hook. (3B) Zelena vs. Regina; Rumpelstiltskin's redemption arc reverses; the Charmings have a new child.
Major Revelations/Events: Dark Ones can kill themselves with the dagger (Rumpelstiltskin dies sacrificially); Dark Ones can be brought back to life using dark magic (Neal dies); time travel is possible; mermaids are yet another method of traveling between worlds; Zelena dies; portions of Season 1 are rewritten and one character (Marian) escapes death (sort of); two people can share a heart and still live.
Commentary: This was actually not a bad season in many ways. There were many strengths to this season that in my opinion balanced some of its flaws. Those strengths included the slower pace of the first half which allowed the characters some much needed time to come to terms with the rollercoaster of revelations that was the second season. Some viewers found the Neverland arc boring for this reason, but many of us felt it was a much needed change of pace. Another strange facet of the first half of season 3 was the way in which it tied up a lot of issues; in fact, it could have been the end of Once and left us satisfied. Rumpelstiltskin became a hero when he sacrificed himself for his family; Regina and Emma accepted themselves for who they were and embraced their unusual family dynamic; and the Charmings and other characters got a second chance at the life the first curse took from them when the second curse transported them back to the Enchanted Forest.
Even the Zelena arc, which kind of came out of nowhere and was definitely the beginning of the second (and weaker) half of this show so far, was interesting. Rebecca Mader did a great job making us hate and laugh at Zelena, and there was some much needed focus on Charming apart from Snow and his family.
The problems with this season, however, are still with us.
First, there's the Captain Swan debacle. Hook and Emma did not seem to be in the long term plans since season one or even season two, yet suddenly here they were front and center at the end of season three. The dynamic between them was off and the development of the relationship called into question Emma's character development. We started to lose the funny, snarky Emma of season 1 and began to gain the brooding Emma of seasons 4 & 5.
Outlaw Queen was also an issue and continues to be one. The writers basically told us (through Tinkerbell) that Regina would fall in love with widowed Robin Hood, which took most of the excitement out of the relationship for some of us. I thought that more of their backstory of falling in love with each other in the EF would be revealed as the season went on. Much to my chagrin, there was no other development to justify the sudden intensity of their relationship in Storybrooke. And like Emma, lovesick Regina isn't as appealingly snarky as single Regina.
Am I the only one who liked them best as single ladies? Suffice it to say, I started missing the Emma who could make pithy comments about feminism to Graham. I missed the normalcy and all the light-hearted development that was possible only when Storybrooke wasn't under immediate threat of annihilation.
Finally, with Rumpelstiltskin's return, and having already completed a redemption arc for the character, it was clear the writers didn't seem to know what to do with him except to have him come back wrong. Most of us were dumbfounded, I think, by the quick descent of his behavior into darkness; lying to Belle about the dagger and killing Zelena, vowing to treat her better at his son's grave (why?), but basically being a jerkass again. This was strange to say the least, and the worst of it was that the writing forced Belle's character to unbelievable depths of gullibility.
These problems are with us still.
Season Four A: Frozen (lol)....um, maybe "family"?
1. Emma
2. The Snow Queen (Ingrid)
3. Rumpelstiltskin
4. Elsa and Anna
5. Regina
6. Belle, Hook
7. Henry, Snow, and Charming
(The Knave/Will Scarlet was not included enough to make the list imo)
Season Four B: Good vs. Bad (Villians and Heroes)
1. Rumpelstiltskin
2. Regina
3. Emma
4. Maleficent and Lily
5. Belle, Hook
6. Robin, Zelena
7. Henry, Snow, and Charming
Fairytales explored: The Snow Queen (not to be confused with Frozen, which is an entirely different story), the Little Mermaid, 101 Dalmatians, the Sorcerer's Apprentice, Bo Peep.
Major Plots: (4A) Finding out what happened to Anna; Emma and Elsa's powers; Ingrid's plan to have sisters; Rumpelstiltskin's sudden desire to "cleave" himself from the dagger and achieve world domination; Hook and Emma's relationship; Regina and Henry's search for the author. (4B) Rumpelstiltskin's return with the Queens of Darkness and dealing with the author.
Major Revelations/Events: There is such a thing as an "Author" and they've been recording stories in other worlds for centuries; Walt Disney was the last Author before Isaac, and Henry is the new author; the darkness of the Dark One has to be tethered to a mortal host.
Commentary: There were some high spots in this season. Overlooking the nonsense that was Frozen (apologies to those who liked it), Cruella was a refreshingly evil and uncomplicated villain, the Maleficent story was interesting, Belle started coming into her own as a character, and Henry and Regina's side plot made us remember why Henry is a part of the show (and perhaps yearn for a time when things were less complicated).
The problems were many. Robin and Regina's relationship went from underdeveloped insta-romance to a complicated form of adultery. The twist of having Zelena be Marian, while bringing back the excellent Rebecca Mader, made nearly zero sense as a retcon (why would she as "Marian" have given up Robin in Season 4A or allowed herself to be nearly killed by Elsa's ice magic?). Bringing Marian back at the end of 3B was probably a ploy to complicate Outlaw Queen to keep it from getting stale -- considering how recently Robin and Regina had gotten together, this ought to tell you something. But despite having an actress of color on the show again (yay!), this was a mistake storywise. The twist of having Zelena pregnant with Robin's baby shoved the show squarely into the land of Soap Opera (which it had already been flirting with since season 3).
Rumpelstiltskin's new plan to severe himself from the dagger's limitations while keeping his powers made sense logically (why wouldn't he want that?), but his further motivation to then leave Storybrooke to Ingrid and take over the rest of the world seemed to come out of nowhere. Nothing in the three previous seasons had ever indicated that this was a desire of his heart. Coupled with the awkwardness that was the Author storyline (which was an interesting concept, but ill explained), Rumpelstiltskin got more and more confusing to watch. For the fourth time in as many seasons, Storybrooke was on the brink of destruction (by the darkness), Rumpel was doomed, and he told Belle to go live her life. This was beginning to get a bit old as a story device for their mess of a relationship.
Finally, probably the most frustrating problem this season was that the writers were trying to explore how heroes and villains are really very similar, but they didn't actually succeed. One way they tried was by having Snow and Charming sacrifice Maleficent's baby to save their own child. Not only did this make no sense in the context of everything we'd seen these characters do (Snow didn't even save her own mother when she had the chance), it was also almost immediately excused by the explanation that Isaac was responsible for their actions because he made them do it using the pen. This negated the point of showing Snow and Charming's potential for evil choices. They created a much more convincing look at Snow's potential for darkness when Snow killed Cora in season 2, which was both justified to some extent (Cora was trying to kill everyone), and morally questionable (it was murder). Why didn't they take a page from their own book here?
Emma's darkness/lightness plot was thoroughly confused. If Snow and Charming took all the potential for darkness out of Emma (and yet she still had all that potential according to the Chernabog), then why was Emma serving a jail term at 18 for theft? Is that not darkness? Is it just deviance? And what about Lily? And if Emma took the darkness of the dagger on herself, would she not just have been normal since she now was both dark and light, as we'd been told we all are?
Season Five A: Dark vs. Light (?)
1. Emma
2. Hook
3. The Dark One Dagger (yes)
4. Zelena, Regina, and Robin
5. Rumpelstiltskin and Belle
6. Arthur and Merida
Fairytales explored: King Arthur, Brave (the movie), the Sword and the Stone (yes, it's different).
Major Plots: Emma's attempt to get rid of the darkness; Hook trying to find out what happened; Arthur's quest to heal Excalibur; Merida's quest to get home; Rumpelstiltskin's attempts to survive and win back Belle.
Major Events/Revelations: the Dark One dagger and Excalibur are two parts of the same magical holy item (the Grail); all Dark Ones are in Hades, but the original darkness (Nimue) still communicates and controls Dark Ones; there can be more than one Dark One; if you don't know you are the Dark One, you will not see any manifestations of darkness in your life; the Dark Curse can be cast by killing someone who represents the thing you love most...somehow.
Commentary: So far, the highlight of this season was Rumpelstiltskin's living without darkness and Belle's maturation as a character (go Belle!).
The problems....where to begin? There were more confusing plot holes in this season than in any other. (The biggest of season 4 was how Cruella and Ursula managed not to age for 28 years.) For example, Hook's being the second Dark One and casting the Dark Curse, while an interesting concept, was so poorly explained that we are still reeling from the fact that he could possibly not know he was a Dark One.
The things we learned about the dagger in this season were conflicting and confusing. The dagger doesn't force a person to be evil or cruel, it simply tempts them (I guess), but then once Hook realized he was the Dark One he suffered instant jerk ass disease. Some people experience green skin as the Dark One, others turn into giant boars, others just have white gel hair and darker eyeliner. Emma's Dark One was a mess. Hook's didn't make sense. And Rumpelstiltskin's sudden return to being the Dark One (while a good move for the character) gave me whiplash.
The Arthur plot had some interesting aspects, but Arthur's actions and motivations were unclear and inconsistent. The explanations for the dagger and Excalibur's origins were vague and conflicting, which makes me worried about what we will see in Hades in terms of storytelling.
Finally, the character development has suffered tremendously. We now have a show where Hook can blithely say things like he would have given Milah back "soiled" (what!?) had Rumpelstiltskin fought him (which, by the way, was another example of the magically powerful character mysteriously not using their powers that seems to happen with greater frequency).
So where does all of this get us? I'm not sure. But I see a few trends when I look at the show as a whole.
1. Having a central story was really important for Once's success, but the show lost its central story about half way through season two, or to be more specific with Cora's death and Regina's turn to the good side. This ended the Snow White tale that had been central to the narrative and which had connected almost every story together up to that point. After that story ended, it seemed as though no one knew for sure what story they should tell or were telling. Things started to get jumbled and unfocused. Characters came and went, and were often tragically underdeveloped. The last bid for sanity was to finish the next most central story: Rumpelstiltskin's. But this really was resolved by the end of 3A. After that, the main cast began to get stuck in repetitive story arcs revolving around redemption and separation/reunion, usually without any arc resolving or moving forward. A total of three more dark curses were cast as a means of resetting the different seasons with the amnesia plot added in as well.
2. The shows' ability to develop the main characters depended on some level of stability in their lives. Season one worked in part because even though things in the EF past were crazy, things in Storybrooke were relatively stable (as in, there was no magical monster terrorizing the town). This dichotomy allowed us to see the characters simultaneously doing epic and mundane things, and it also allowed the show to have some really light-hearted moments in the normal world (which we could relate to). When season two hit and it was one catastrophe after another, there was no stability in the town for more than one episode a season (usually the next to last episode, when things seemed like they were about to stabilize only for the next major crisis to arrive in town). Once the writers broke the show into a two mini-seasons format, there was no looking back.
3. The original dark curse was broken too soon. This is a contentious issue. In some ways, I think breaking the curse at the end of season one was a brilliant and innovative move, and I know it was meant to be that. But in retrospect, since the writers didn't really seem like they knew for certain what they wanted to do next, perhaps this wasn't the best choice. Once the curse was broken, they needed a reason to keep everyone in town for five more seasons (maybe more). But why on earth would anyone stay in Storybrooke? So they had to make crossing the town line the barrier. In the second season, this still made some narrative sense: those characters who belonged to the EF (not including Regina, who never really had a cursed self) would lose their fairytale self if they crossed over into our world because technically that other self had never existed in our world. I get that and I think it's great. But then the arrival of Zelena and the third dark curse meant new rules, and with each dark curse new rules followed. But they become increasingly bizarre, like folks turning into stone or trees or flying monkeys.
They also needed a way to keep all the characters from immediately finding their happy endings, which was the point of the dark curse to begin with. This led to increasingly melodramatic storytelling as they scrambled to figure out how to keep the story going.
Now, imagine for a moment that Emma did not fully break the curse at the end of season one. Maybe, instead, she started breaking it -- memories began to return slowly to the town, let's say. What would have happened? Well, for starters, the writers would have had fewer problems to solve. It would be clear why the characters couldn't leave Storybrooke, and if Regina was still fighting to maintain her hold on the town in the light of Emma and Henry's efforts to bring back everyone's memories, many of the tertiary characters could have gone about their normal cursed lives without us worrying about what had happened to them or why they hadn't started enjoying their happy endings (Nova and Grumpy, anyone?).
Rumpelstiltskin's plan to bring back magic could still have worked (and the whole Belle having no memories plot could still have been explored). Hook and Cora would still have shown up in season two, as would Greg, Tamara, and Pan in season three -- there was nothing connected to the dark curse that would have prevented these things from happening. Neal also could have come back to Storybrooke, even though the circumstances of his doing that would have to be different. Basically, breaking the curse in season one affected almost nothing that happened in any of the other seasons and could actually have provided all the necessary obstacles in the characters' paths to getting their happy endings.
4. When the curse was broken, there was no central mystery anymore. There are many mysteries in Once. Too many, actually. It's not as bad as the ludicrous mess that was Lost, but it wants to be. I think this is due to the Lost alumn writers and the mistaken idea that their leader promulgated stating that one need only offer a mystery, never mind if it connects rationally to the plot, in order to tell a good story and keep an audience's attention. In fact the opposite is true. A good mystery is one that is possible to solve and is presented with the clues necessary to solve it. When a show is riddled with half-baked mysteries, there can be no interest because there is no significance to solving the mysteries.
Part of what attracted a lot of viewers to Once (and Lost, initially) was the carrot of literary character guessing games and plot theories. But when some of the most interesting first season mysteries were either dropped or explained in less than satisfactory ways, we stopped being as interested, and I think some people even felt that things got a bit insulting in terms of the writers and producers' estimations of the audience's intelligence. But that's probably a complaint about American TV in general, and probably why many flock to British shows like Broadchurch, Sherlock, etc.
These are my main criticisms, and I hope that they are helpful to think about rather than just critical. I really like Once (obviously), and I hope it has more seasons, but I would like it better and watch it more regularly if I felt that it would reward my viewership with a little higher-quality storytelling. But maybe I've just mistaken what Once was supposed to be in the first place?
Some people (like those at TVline and other sites) will tell you whatever it is has been happening for a while, and I think they're right. Others probably think that the problems they are seeing are relatively new and are worth pushing through (like the folks at Once Upon a Fan, bless them).
I'm with those who blame the writing. It's sloppy and silly. But the show at least had a strongish first season -- most fans can agree on that. So, I'm going to look back at the four and half seasons we've had so far to find the forest in the trees: the overall structure of the show and how it's changed in five years. Maybe we can find some hints for what's been causing all the fuss.
I'm going to focus on the big issues, not the minutia. Each season is broken down into the overarching plots, character focuses, and themes, as well as the structures of the storytelling and any major revelations (those that change our outlook on the world of Once).
Season One: Hope
Character Focuses: (In order of importance, or time spent on them)
1. Snow White
2. The Evil Queen
3. Emma Swan and Henry Mills
4. Rumpelstiltskin
5. Prince Charming
Fairytales Explored: Snow White (core story), Little Red Riding Hood, Rumpelstiltskin, Cinderella, Pinocchio, Hansel and Gretel, Alice in Wonderland, Sleeping Beauty, Aladdin, King Midas, Beauty and the Beast.
Major Plots: Emma vs. Regina, Snow vs. Evil Queen, Rumpelstiltskin vs. Regina/Evil Queen; Snow and Charming trying to find each other, Henry trying to find Emma and convince her fairytales are real.
Major Revelations/Events: Breaking the Curse; Emma is Snow White's child; Graham dies.
Commentary: You can see that Snow was the major focus of this season, with Rumpelstiltskin, Regina, and Emma close seconds, usually as they related to Snow's story. The fairy tales explored were primarily those Disney had not used before or were at least not very recent adaptations (with the notable exceptions of Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin). The core plot of the season was breaking the curse, something that united all the characters very well -- either they wanted to do it or they wanted to prevent it from happening.
Season Two: Consequences of the Curse (that's how I like to think of it)
1. Emma
2. Regina
3. Rumpelstiltskin
4. Snow and Henry
5. Cora and Hook
6. Prince Charming, Belle, and Baelfire/Neal
Fairytales Explored: (no core fairy tale) Sleeping Beauty, Mulan, Jack and the Beanstalk, Peter Pan, Frankenstein, Arthurian Legends.
Major Plots: Emma and Snow's relationship, Regina and Cora's relationship, Belle and Rumpelstiltskin's relationship; Hook vs. Rumpelstiltskin, Regina and Cora vs. Snow and Emma, Greg and Tamara sabotaging the town.
Major Revelations/Events: The Enchanted Forest still exists; No one can leave town; Neal unites all the major characters by being Henry's father; Henry is kidnapped and taken to Neverland; the second Dark Curse is cast (Pan); Cora dies.
Commentary: Unlike the first season, there is no core fairytale explored in season two. Instead the consequences of the curse are played out, but much of this is interrupted by several major crises, such as Emma and Snow falling through the hat, Cora and Hook arriving to menace the town, and Greg and Tamara showing up to destroy the town as well. Three major crises in one season seems a bit much and definitely feels like it by the end when most fans were begging for the deaths of Greg and Tamara. These were the only two major characters who were not fairy tale characters, and they did not fit well into the plot.
Season Three A: Belief (or so they tell me)
At this point, the writers split the the show into two mini seasons. I'm guessing because it was too difficult to sustain the kind of rollercoaster writing they'd done in season two.
1. Rumpelstiltskin
2. Peter Pan
3. Regina
4. Emma, Neal, and Henry
5. Hook
6. Snow and Charming
Season Three B: Revenge (?)
1. Regina
2. Zelena
3. Rumpelstiltskin
4. Emma and Hook
5. Neal and Belle
6. Henry, Snow and Charming
Fairytales explored: Peter Pan (core fairytale or 3A), the Wizard of Oz (core of 3B), the Pied Piper, the Little Mermaid, Robin Hood.
Major Plots: (3A) Rumpelstiltskin's redemption arc completes; Rumpelstiltskin vs. Pan, Neal and Rumpelstiltskin, Emma resolving her relationship with Neal and beginning one with Hook. (3B) Zelena vs. Regina; Rumpelstiltskin's redemption arc reverses; the Charmings have a new child.
Major Revelations/Events: Dark Ones can kill themselves with the dagger (Rumpelstiltskin dies sacrificially); Dark Ones can be brought back to life using dark magic (Neal dies); time travel is possible; mermaids are yet another method of traveling between worlds; Zelena dies; portions of Season 1 are rewritten and one character (Marian) escapes death (sort of); two people can share a heart and still live.
Commentary: This was actually not a bad season in many ways. There were many strengths to this season that in my opinion balanced some of its flaws. Those strengths included the slower pace of the first half which allowed the characters some much needed time to come to terms with the rollercoaster of revelations that was the second season. Some viewers found the Neverland arc boring for this reason, but many of us felt it was a much needed change of pace. Another strange facet of the first half of season 3 was the way in which it tied up a lot of issues; in fact, it could have been the end of Once and left us satisfied. Rumpelstiltskin became a hero when he sacrificed himself for his family; Regina and Emma accepted themselves for who they were and embraced their unusual family dynamic; and the Charmings and other characters got a second chance at the life the first curse took from them when the second curse transported them back to the Enchanted Forest.
Even the Zelena arc, which kind of came out of nowhere and was definitely the beginning of the second (and weaker) half of this show so far, was interesting. Rebecca Mader did a great job making us hate and laugh at Zelena, and there was some much needed focus on Charming apart from Snow and his family.
The problems with this season, however, are still with us.
First, there's the Captain Swan debacle. Hook and Emma did not seem to be in the long term plans since season one or even season two, yet suddenly here they were front and center at the end of season three. The dynamic between them was off and the development of the relationship called into question Emma's character development. We started to lose the funny, snarky Emma of season 1 and began to gain the brooding Emma of seasons 4 & 5.
Outlaw Queen was also an issue and continues to be one. The writers basically told us (through Tinkerbell) that Regina would fall in love with widowed Robin Hood, which took most of the excitement out of the relationship for some of us. I thought that more of their backstory of falling in love with each other in the EF would be revealed as the season went on. Much to my chagrin, there was no other development to justify the sudden intensity of their relationship in Storybrooke. And like Emma, lovesick Regina isn't as appealingly snarky as single Regina.
Am I the only one who liked them best as single ladies? Suffice it to say, I started missing the Emma who could make pithy comments about feminism to Graham. I missed the normalcy and all the light-hearted development that was possible only when Storybrooke wasn't under immediate threat of annihilation.
Finally, with Rumpelstiltskin's return, and having already completed a redemption arc for the character, it was clear the writers didn't seem to know what to do with him except to have him come back wrong. Most of us were dumbfounded, I think, by the quick descent of his behavior into darkness; lying to Belle about the dagger and killing Zelena, vowing to treat her better at his son's grave (why?), but basically being a jerkass again. This was strange to say the least, and the worst of it was that the writing forced Belle's character to unbelievable depths of gullibility.
These problems are with us still.
Season Four A: Frozen (lol)....um, maybe "family"?
1. Emma
2. The Snow Queen (Ingrid)
3. Rumpelstiltskin
4. Elsa and Anna
5. Regina
6. Belle, Hook
7. Henry, Snow, and Charming
(The Knave/Will Scarlet was not included enough to make the list imo)
Season Four B: Good vs. Bad (Villians and Heroes)
1. Rumpelstiltskin
2. Regina
3. Emma
4. Maleficent and Lily
5. Belle, Hook
6. Robin, Zelena
7. Henry, Snow, and Charming
Fairytales explored: The Snow Queen (not to be confused with Frozen, which is an entirely different story), the Little Mermaid, 101 Dalmatians, the Sorcerer's Apprentice, Bo Peep.
Major Plots: (4A) Finding out what happened to Anna; Emma and Elsa's powers; Ingrid's plan to have sisters; Rumpelstiltskin's sudden desire to "cleave" himself from the dagger and achieve world domination; Hook and Emma's relationship; Regina and Henry's search for the author. (4B) Rumpelstiltskin's return with the Queens of Darkness and dealing with the author.
Major Revelations/Events: There is such a thing as an "Author" and they've been recording stories in other worlds for centuries; Walt Disney was the last Author before Isaac, and Henry is the new author; the darkness of the Dark One has to be tethered to a mortal host.
Commentary: There were some high spots in this season. Overlooking the nonsense that was Frozen (apologies to those who liked it), Cruella was a refreshingly evil and uncomplicated villain, the Maleficent story was interesting, Belle started coming into her own as a character, and Henry and Regina's side plot made us remember why Henry is a part of the show (and perhaps yearn for a time when things were less complicated).
The problems were many. Robin and Regina's relationship went from underdeveloped insta-romance to a complicated form of adultery. The twist of having Zelena be Marian, while bringing back the excellent Rebecca Mader, made nearly zero sense as a retcon (why would she as "Marian" have given up Robin in Season 4A or allowed herself to be nearly killed by Elsa's ice magic?). Bringing Marian back at the end of 3B was probably a ploy to complicate Outlaw Queen to keep it from getting stale -- considering how recently Robin and Regina had gotten together, this ought to tell you something. But despite having an actress of color on the show again (yay!), this was a mistake storywise. The twist of having Zelena pregnant with Robin's baby shoved the show squarely into the land of Soap Opera (which it had already been flirting with since season 3).
Rumpelstiltskin's new plan to severe himself from the dagger's limitations while keeping his powers made sense logically (why wouldn't he want that?), but his further motivation to then leave Storybrooke to Ingrid and take over the rest of the world seemed to come out of nowhere. Nothing in the three previous seasons had ever indicated that this was a desire of his heart. Coupled with the awkwardness that was the Author storyline (which was an interesting concept, but ill explained), Rumpelstiltskin got more and more confusing to watch. For the fourth time in as many seasons, Storybrooke was on the brink of destruction (by the darkness), Rumpel was doomed, and he told Belle to go live her life. This was beginning to get a bit old as a story device for their mess of a relationship.
Finally, probably the most frustrating problem this season was that the writers were trying to explore how heroes and villains are really very similar, but they didn't actually succeed. One way they tried was by having Snow and Charming sacrifice Maleficent's baby to save their own child. Not only did this make no sense in the context of everything we'd seen these characters do (Snow didn't even save her own mother when she had the chance), it was also almost immediately excused by the explanation that Isaac was responsible for their actions because he made them do it using the pen. This negated the point of showing Snow and Charming's potential for evil choices. They created a much more convincing look at Snow's potential for darkness when Snow killed Cora in season 2, which was both justified to some extent (Cora was trying to kill everyone), and morally questionable (it was murder). Why didn't they take a page from their own book here?
Emma's darkness/lightness plot was thoroughly confused. If Snow and Charming took all the potential for darkness out of Emma (and yet she still had all that potential according to the Chernabog), then why was Emma serving a jail term at 18 for theft? Is that not darkness? Is it just deviance? And what about Lily? And if Emma took the darkness of the dagger on herself, would she not just have been normal since she now was both dark and light, as we'd been told we all are?
Season Five A: Dark vs. Light (?)
1. Emma
2. Hook
3. The Dark One Dagger (yes)
4. Zelena, Regina, and Robin
5. Rumpelstiltskin and Belle
6. Arthur and Merida
Fairytales explored: King Arthur, Brave (the movie), the Sword and the Stone (yes, it's different).
Major Plots: Emma's attempt to get rid of the darkness; Hook trying to find out what happened; Arthur's quest to heal Excalibur; Merida's quest to get home; Rumpelstiltskin's attempts to survive and win back Belle.
Major Events/Revelations: the Dark One dagger and Excalibur are two parts of the same magical holy item (the Grail); all Dark Ones are in Hades, but the original darkness (Nimue) still communicates and controls Dark Ones; there can be more than one Dark One; if you don't know you are the Dark One, you will not see any manifestations of darkness in your life; the Dark Curse can be cast by killing someone who represents the thing you love most...somehow.
Commentary: So far, the highlight of this season was Rumpelstiltskin's living without darkness and Belle's maturation as a character (go Belle!).
The problems....where to begin? There were more confusing plot holes in this season than in any other. (The biggest of season 4 was how Cruella and Ursula managed not to age for 28 years.) For example, Hook's being the second Dark One and casting the Dark Curse, while an interesting concept, was so poorly explained that we are still reeling from the fact that he could possibly not know he was a Dark One.
The things we learned about the dagger in this season were conflicting and confusing. The dagger doesn't force a person to be evil or cruel, it simply tempts them (I guess), but then once Hook realized he was the Dark One he suffered instant jerk ass disease. Some people experience green skin as the Dark One, others turn into giant boars, others just have white gel hair and darker eyeliner. Emma's Dark One was a mess. Hook's didn't make sense. And Rumpelstiltskin's sudden return to being the Dark One (while a good move for the character) gave me whiplash.
The Arthur plot had some interesting aspects, but Arthur's actions and motivations were unclear and inconsistent. The explanations for the dagger and Excalibur's origins were vague and conflicting, which makes me worried about what we will see in Hades in terms of storytelling.
Finally, the character development has suffered tremendously. We now have a show where Hook can blithely say things like he would have given Milah back "soiled" (what!?) had Rumpelstiltskin fought him (which, by the way, was another example of the magically powerful character mysteriously not using their powers that seems to happen with greater frequency).
So where does all of this get us? I'm not sure. But I see a few trends when I look at the show as a whole.
1. Having a central story was really important for Once's success, but the show lost its central story about half way through season two, or to be more specific with Cora's death and Regina's turn to the good side. This ended the Snow White tale that had been central to the narrative and which had connected almost every story together up to that point. After that story ended, it seemed as though no one knew for sure what story they should tell or were telling. Things started to get jumbled and unfocused. Characters came and went, and were often tragically underdeveloped. The last bid for sanity was to finish the next most central story: Rumpelstiltskin's. But this really was resolved by the end of 3A. After that, the main cast began to get stuck in repetitive story arcs revolving around redemption and separation/reunion, usually without any arc resolving or moving forward. A total of three more dark curses were cast as a means of resetting the different seasons with the amnesia plot added in as well.
2. The shows' ability to develop the main characters depended on some level of stability in their lives. Season one worked in part because even though things in the EF past were crazy, things in Storybrooke were relatively stable (as in, there was no magical monster terrorizing the town). This dichotomy allowed us to see the characters simultaneously doing epic and mundane things, and it also allowed the show to have some really light-hearted moments in the normal world (which we could relate to). When season two hit and it was one catastrophe after another, there was no stability in the town for more than one episode a season (usually the next to last episode, when things seemed like they were about to stabilize only for the next major crisis to arrive in town). Once the writers broke the show into a two mini-seasons format, there was no looking back.
3. The original dark curse was broken too soon. This is a contentious issue. In some ways, I think breaking the curse at the end of season one was a brilliant and innovative move, and I know it was meant to be that. But in retrospect, since the writers didn't really seem like they knew for certain what they wanted to do next, perhaps this wasn't the best choice. Once the curse was broken, they needed a reason to keep everyone in town for five more seasons (maybe more). But why on earth would anyone stay in Storybrooke? So they had to make crossing the town line the barrier. In the second season, this still made some narrative sense: those characters who belonged to the EF (not including Regina, who never really had a cursed self) would lose their fairytale self if they crossed over into our world because technically that other self had never existed in our world. I get that and I think it's great. But then the arrival of Zelena and the third dark curse meant new rules, and with each dark curse new rules followed. But they become increasingly bizarre, like folks turning into stone or trees or flying monkeys.
They also needed a way to keep all the characters from immediately finding their happy endings, which was the point of the dark curse to begin with. This led to increasingly melodramatic storytelling as they scrambled to figure out how to keep the story going.
Now, imagine for a moment that Emma did not fully break the curse at the end of season one. Maybe, instead, she started breaking it -- memories began to return slowly to the town, let's say. What would have happened? Well, for starters, the writers would have had fewer problems to solve. It would be clear why the characters couldn't leave Storybrooke, and if Regina was still fighting to maintain her hold on the town in the light of Emma and Henry's efforts to bring back everyone's memories, many of the tertiary characters could have gone about their normal cursed lives without us worrying about what had happened to them or why they hadn't started enjoying their happy endings (Nova and Grumpy, anyone?).
Rumpelstiltskin's plan to bring back magic could still have worked (and the whole Belle having no memories plot could still have been explored). Hook and Cora would still have shown up in season two, as would Greg, Tamara, and Pan in season three -- there was nothing connected to the dark curse that would have prevented these things from happening. Neal also could have come back to Storybrooke, even though the circumstances of his doing that would have to be different. Basically, breaking the curse in season one affected almost nothing that happened in any of the other seasons and could actually have provided all the necessary obstacles in the characters' paths to getting their happy endings.
4. When the curse was broken, there was no central mystery anymore. There are many mysteries in Once. Too many, actually. It's not as bad as the ludicrous mess that was Lost, but it wants to be. I think this is due to the Lost alumn writers and the mistaken idea that their leader promulgated stating that one need only offer a mystery, never mind if it connects rationally to the plot, in order to tell a good story and keep an audience's attention. In fact the opposite is true. A good mystery is one that is possible to solve and is presented with the clues necessary to solve it. When a show is riddled with half-baked mysteries, there can be no interest because there is no significance to solving the mysteries.
Part of what attracted a lot of viewers to Once (and Lost, initially) was the carrot of literary character guessing games and plot theories. But when some of the most interesting first season mysteries were either dropped or explained in less than satisfactory ways, we stopped being as interested, and I think some people even felt that things got a bit insulting in terms of the writers and producers' estimations of the audience's intelligence. But that's probably a complaint about American TV in general, and probably why many flock to British shows like Broadchurch, Sherlock, etc.
These are my main criticisms, and I hope that they are helpful to think about rather than just critical. I really like Once (obviously), and I hope it has more seasons, but I would like it better and watch it more regularly if I felt that it would reward my viewership with a little higher-quality storytelling. But maybe I've just mistaken what Once was supposed to be in the first place?
No comments:
Post a Comment