Once Upon a Time: Not Fables, but Good Enough

Last night I watched the season premiere of Once Upon a Time.  The premise of this show is that fairy tale characters have been transported into the real world with no memory of their past lives.  Only Snow White’s daughter can save them.

The opening scene is worth the price of admission.  It shows Prince Charming waking Snow White from the glass coffin surrounded by the seven dwarves.  It really did feel like a storybook come to life.  It was realistic, but still idealized.  Before the credits even rolled I turned to MyMissy and said, “OK, I’m in.”   

This might be the worst shot of the whole scene.

About half the show took place in the Enchanted Forest where Snow White and Prince Charming are cursed by the Wicked Queen.  Rumplestiltskin is imprisoned and warns Snow of the curse.   

 

There are several scenes, like the wedding and war council, where a freeze frame would have revealed a lot of fun characters, but I was too interested in the story to play the guessing game.  I have the same problem when I read the comic Fables, which has a similar premise of storybook characters in a modern world.  

The queen’s curse traps all of the storybook characters in today’s modern world.  Only Snow White’s daughter is spared.  She is transported to the modern world early and avoids the curse.  Instead she grows up an orphan and a bounty hunter.   

Henry, her son who she gave up for adoption, finds her on her 28^th birthday.   He brings her to Storybrooke, Maine where he lives with his adopted mother, Regina Mills, who is also the Wicked Queen.  In the first episode we are introduced to a few of the sleeping fairy tales, such as Red Riding Hood, Granny, and Jiminy Cricket.  We also see Snow White and the comatose Prince Charming again.  I’m sure many more will be rolled out as the show moves forward.  This also follows the template set by Fables, which is a complement, not a criticism.  Fables is one of the best comics ever written, and the more like Fables it can be, the better.

Once Upon a Time is a tamer, more family friendly version of the Fables comic.  I’d rather see this show on AMC or HBO so it could go as dark as that series, but until they make a Fables show, this is a reasonable substitute.  It is well acted, the sets are fantastic, and the story will suck you in.  Check it out Sundays at 8 Eastern time, or on ABC's Website.