Once Upon a Time

A couple of weeks ago I went to visit a friend while she was sick. While there she had me sit down Once Upon a Time with her. I enjoyed what I saw there, so over the last week or so my husband and I have been sitting down to watch an episode of it each evening and watch a couple of episodes of it (thank you Netflix).

For those of you who have not seen Once Upon a Time, it's another one of those "different take on fairy tale stories." This time the premise is that all the fairy tail characters are actually from the same world but because of a curse they all live in a community in our reality where time does not pass normally and with no memory of who they are. The main character is Snow White's daughter who was able to escape the curse and she is supposed to come back to break the curse. That's the first episode in a nutshell and pretty much the preview you get narrated at the beginning of each episode.

Some of the rehashes of the fairy tale stories are pretty creative and original. Some of them are slight variations on variations I've seen before. One thing I really like is how they tell the story. The show alternates between what's happening in reality and what happened in the fairy tale world before the curse. The part of the story in our reality takes place in a community called Storybrooke. This part of the story unfolds chronologically and is the core focus of the show. With the fairy tale side of the story, the show jumps around in time. I like this for several reasons. First, I don't get the whole story all at once. Second, I don't get the whole story in order. I think by doing both of those things the series keeps me guessing what's going to come next a little bit more. If I got everything all at once in chronological order, it would be too easy to see where things are going in the Storybrooke timeline. I think, telling the story this way also keeps it more interesting.

My opinion so far (I'm not quite half way through with Season 1): Once Upon a Time is a good show. Is it epically awesome? No. I can think of several shows that were better. If you're just looking for something fun to watch though, this could be right up your alley. Personally, I love the traditional fairy tales; those stories have always been some of my favorites for as long as I can remember. I will probably always watch/read variations on them as I find them, and I will probably always like them. Once Upon a Time is better than many of the ones I've seen.