It's Just That Good

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Once Upon A Time is, at its core, a story about hope. "For us, that's what a fairytale is. It's that ability to think your life will get better. It's why you buy a lottery ticket—because if you win you get to tell your boss that you're quitting and you get to move to Paris or wherever and be who you always wanted to be. And that's Cinderella, right? One day she's sweeping up and the next she's going to the ball. Adam and I just wanted to write about something hopeful that for one hour a week allows one to put everything aside and have that feeling that your dreams just may come true."

- Edward Kitsis, Co-Creator/Executive Producer

You'll have to pardon my language but I've got to write it.

Fucking Brilliant. Brilliant.

That's my ten second elevator pitch about ABC's new TV Series, Once Upon a Time.

Being both a novel and script writer I'm pretty critical about TV shows. I don't watch many, and when I do I'm insanely picky. Insofar, after two episodes, Once Upon a Time has lived up to any expectations I have about TV watching and more.

The premise is simple – all of our favorite fairy tale characters, Snow White, Rumpelstiltskin, Pinocchio, Sleepy Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, exist in one world that has been thrust into the "real world" because The Evil Queen from Snow White is (as well knew) a mean bitch. And none of them remember who they are.

There are so many elements to the storytelling that Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz have put together it's just wonderful. My inner child lit up as I watched all the fairy tale characters I cherished come to life again in a truly engaging story. I was grinning a lot at the TV. I kept grinning when it was over. Need more now please!

Once Upon A Time has employed something I absolutely love and inject into my novels too – humanizing the villain. You learn that there are some lines even Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty) won't cross. You learn that The Evil Queen (Snow White) has a father that she loved. Not only that, but that her beef with Snow White isn't just about whose hotter – apparently Snow White is responsible for the death of someone the Evil Queen loved, and now she's just a bitter bitch who can focus on nothing but revenge. There are some truly poignant moments with the Queen where you wonder if things had gone differently would she be so angry? There are even moments where you can almost relate to what she's feeling when she says things like, (and I'm paraphrasing) "I can't live like this anymore." I love that. I love it when the "evil" of a character isn't so black and white, and there are human like reasons that have thrust them into the dark side.

I'm not going to go into much more detail about Once Upon a Time because you just need to friggin watch it. How much longevity is built into the series? I couldn't say. Two, three, seasons? At this point, I don't particularly care. There's a ton of storytelling to do, so many back stories to visit, and lots of questions to answer.

"We kept circling back to the idea of fairytales. The very first stories that you hear when you're a kid. They're full of magic and heroics and fear and joy. But we also found fairytales are full of all these unanswered questions. Like why is Grumpy grumpy? Why is Geppetto so lonely that he'd actually carve a little boy out of wood? And did the Evil Queen really try to kill Snow White simply because of vanity? With Once Upon A Time, we set out to explore those questions and not re-tell these stories but attempt to dig beneath what we all know and try to discover something new."

- Adam Horowitz, Co-Creator/Executive Producer

We don't know how Emma can break the curse, only that she's suppose too. We can only speculate at Rumpelstiltskin's true motives. And there is that little deal mom made with the character that could make things difficult for Emma at some point. Did I mention that I'm completely addicted and I want more now please? No, not next Sunday now! Need another writer Once Upon A Time? I am so down.

As it stands right now, Once Upon a Time is a fantastically told, wonderfully engaging show that lights up the imagination. If you must put a book down to watch TV, you need to watch this. It does what I did in The Synarchy Series in a different way; brings magic into the real world and posits that heroes, and villains, and true love, and magic are just a belief away.

Fuckin Brilliant.