Once Upon a Time
Must rant about Once Upon A Time, everyone seems to love this show, but as the show goes on I find myself falling off the bandwagon. Tonight's show about what is supposed to be the epoch romance between Mary Margaret (aka Snow White) and Prince Charming (aka David Nolan) left me feeling disappointed.
Let me preface my rant by saying that I don't mind soaps. On a good soap, relationships are developed over time and built up gradually. I also don't mind soap style stories on my action/adventure shows. But a lot of things are required for me to enjoy a good, soapy ship. One of them is gradual development of the relationship. A successful TV ship could take a season, but we are shown why two characters love each other. There is also the issue of physical chemistry between two actors.
On Once Upon A Time, the relationship between Charming and Snow White lacks either of these. I find that there is no physical chemistry between Josh Dallas and Ginnifer Goodwin one of the first things that make for a good relationship.
Over on Hollywoodlife.com
AndySwift writes:
Now I hate to ask this question, but I have to: As heartbreaking as it was watching Snow and the prince accept the fact that they can’t be together, isn’t the build-up basically ruined by the fact that you know they end up getting married? (When did I become so cynical?
The build up wasn’t ruined, because to me there was no build up, and that is what my problem with the episode has been. They have two characters who are supposed to be soul mates, but they haven't done their work in showing exactly why Snow White/Mary Margaret and Prince Chamring/David Nolan, are in love the way they are. We are expected to just take on face value that these two were meant for each other, and love. In the real world it is particularly grating, because Mary Margaret is going to see Mr. Nolan, a man she only knows from seeing in the hospital when he was comatose. A man she is supposed to have no memory of knowing previously. Yes, I know that these two are the parents of Emma. Yes, I know they end up together, but if they show wants me to care about the relationship they need to show how they get to know each other in Fairy Tale world over a number of episodes. Make me care about them as a couple after developing them over time, instead of him seeing him fall for her and her fall for him after one episode. Don't have a woman in her late twenties immaturely pining after a guy as a fourteen year old girl would. Creating a good TV couple TV viewers care about takes work!
What they have been doing is lazy storytelling and could possibly turn this show with all kinds of potential into an aimless soap opera. There are so many other things this show could be doing instead of giving us "happily ever after" relationships. Over on twitter,
_Scorch_, besides mentioning that these ships should have broader consequences, posted that:
@Voyagerfan87 Can't you see one of those characters that was left behind get a whiff of the real world, & want to conquer it? #OnceUponATime
and
@Voyagerfan87 I honestly keep thinking that they will do on #OnceUponATime what #Grimm missed, which is a two world war.
If this show were to do a storyline like that, it could rock and would give this show some much needed action. In Fairy Tale land we have seen The Evil Queen aka Regina wield some pretty strong powers. She even showed a bit of what she can do in the real world when she killed Sheriff Graham. In my opinion, this show would really kick into high gear if they did away with mysterious curse, and had Rumpel and Regina wielding all kinds of interesting magical powers, along with complex rules as to how they work. Henry, Emma, and Mary Margaret could be figuring out ways to counter the magic. In Fairy Tale world, we've seen Regina teleport, we've seen her using telekinesis. I want to know specifically what kinds of powers she has? Does using these powers have any type of bad effect as seen on Buffy? Are there rules about "good magic" and "bad magic," as seen on Charmed? I'd rather see a magic battle between Regina/Emma/new good character with magical powers over the dull relationship between Mary Margaret and David.
Let me preface my rant by saying that I don't mind soaps. On a good soap, relationships are developed over time and built up gradually. I also don't mind soap style stories on my action/adventure shows. But a lot of things are required for me to enjoy a good, soapy ship. One of them is gradual development of the relationship. A successful TV ship could take a season, but we are shown why two characters love each other. There is also the issue of physical chemistry between two actors.
On Once Upon A Time, the relationship between Charming and Snow White lacks either of these. I find that there is no physical chemistry between Josh Dallas and Ginnifer Goodwin one of the first things that make for a good relationship.
Over on Hollywoodlife.com
AndySwift writes:
Now I hate to ask this question, but I have to: As heartbreaking as it was watching Snow and the prince accept the fact that they can’t be together, isn’t the build-up basically ruined by the fact that you know they end up getting married? (When did I become so cynical?
The build up wasn’t ruined, because to me there was no build up, and that is what my problem with the episode has been. They have two characters who are supposed to be soul mates, but they haven't done their work in showing exactly why Snow White/Mary Margaret and Prince Chamring/David Nolan, are in love the way they are. We are expected to just take on face value that these two were meant for each other, and love. In the real world it is particularly grating, because Mary Margaret is going to see Mr. Nolan, a man she only knows from seeing in the hospital when he was comatose. A man she is supposed to have no memory of knowing previously. Yes, I know that these two are the parents of Emma. Yes, I know they end up together, but if they show wants me to care about the relationship they need to show how they get to know each other in Fairy Tale world over a number of episodes. Make me care about them as a couple after developing them over time, instead of him seeing him fall for her and her fall for him after one episode. Don't have a woman in her late twenties immaturely pining after a guy as a fourteen year old girl would. Creating a good TV couple TV viewers care about takes work!
What they have been doing is lazy storytelling and could possibly turn this show with all kinds of potential into an aimless soap opera. There are so many other things this show could be doing instead of giving us "happily ever after" relationships. Over on twitter,
_Scorch_, besides mentioning that these ships should have broader consequences, posted that:
@Voyagerfan87 Can't you see one of those characters that was left behind get a whiff of the real world, & want to conquer it? #OnceUponATime
and
@Voyagerfan87 I honestly keep thinking that they will do on #OnceUponATime what #Grimm missed, which is a two world war.
If this show were to do a storyline like that, it could rock and would give this show some much needed action. In Fairy Tale land we have seen The Evil Queen aka Regina wield some pretty strong powers. She even showed a bit of what she can do in the real world when she killed Sheriff Graham. In my opinion, this show would really kick into high gear if they did away with mysterious curse, and had Rumpel and Regina wielding all kinds of interesting magical powers, along with complex rules as to how they work. Henry, Emma, and Mary Margaret could be figuring out ways to counter the magic. In Fairy Tale world, we've seen Regina teleport, we've seen her using telekinesis. I want to know specifically what kinds of powers she has? Does using these powers have any type of bad effect as seen on Buffy? Are there rules about "good magic" and "bad magic," as seen on Charmed? I'd rather see a magic battle between Regina/Emma/new good character with magical powers over the dull relationship between Mary Margaret and David.