Wifey's Watches #1

Once Upon a Time (2011 - Present)

I must admit to having misgivings about this show prior to seeing it, simply due to its premise. All the fairy tale stuff just seemed a bit too childish for my liking, even with the interesting twist they've put on it - namely, that the characters taken from the various fairy tales and folk stories have been robbed of their memories, transported to our real life present-day world, and left to live new, unchanging lives in a fictional town in Maine called Storybrooke. All this is of course part of a dastardly plot by the Evil Queen Regina (Lana Parrilla) who used a powerful curse obtained from Rumplestiltskin (Robert Carlyle). About the only person in the town unaffected by all this magical tomfoolery is Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison), a newly arrived bail-bonds person who, along with her son, must break the evil queen's spell, return everyone's memories, and generally save the day.

I guess it probably sounds just as silly as I'd assumed it would be but it wasn't that bad from what I saw and, as with many other shows, that ended up being quite a bit anyway as my lovely wife watched it for the first few seasons. The first is quite interesting as Emma Swan gradually works out what's going on and which person is which character (Snow White is a school teacher, for example), and we get some relevant pre-curse flashbacks now and then too, from their 'proper' lives in magical far away lands. Indeed, many of the characters basically have two roles and the performances are a bit of a mixed bag, but generally they're okay. Morrison is passable as lead but standouts for me include Carlyle in a number of roles (including a great version of Rumplestiltskin) and Ginnifer Goodwin who is appealing as Snow White.

Worth Watching Properly?
I only saw (most of) the first season which contains some enjoyable episodes but I have wondered how the show keeps its hook in subsequent seasons (there are eight in total). I think it was finding out who each of the characters are and how their stories tie into things that I liked the most, but I can't imagine it would take too long to cover everyone. What would keep my interest then? It might be worth a proper watch but I doubt it will be high up my list I'm afraid.