02/10/2012

AN INNOVATIVE SERIES: ONCE UPON A TIME!

Good afternoon!!

Today I will talk about a series that I really like and whose second season started on Sunday the 30th of September in America.
I'm referring to Once Upon A Time, a show created by Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, which premiered in 2011. 
Many people indicated it as a possible "Lost heir": not only its creators are related to Lost,but the show itself is also very similar to it in many ways.

First of all the characters: in both shows there is such a big group of characters that we could use the term "choral cast" .
In Lost we have a group of people on an island (they were on a plane which crashed ), while in Once Upon A Time we have the citizens of Storybrooke, a fictitious city in Maine.
While on the "island" we meet many other people, those who already live there and those who "arrive" later; in Storybrooke we basically discover a new character/citizen every week.

Lost
 
Once Upon A Time

The second element in common between Lost and Once Upon A Time is the presence of the supernatural: we know very well what this means in Lost (unresolved questions, problems,discussions and doubts,doubts sooo many doubts), while in Once it is "quite" simple.
To use a limited amount of words we could say that "those who live in Storybrooke are fairytale characters,sent there by the Evil Queen,who decided to cast a spell on them all. This means that nobody remembers who he/she really is". Clear,isn't it?

Then, another thing which I found typical of both shows and that really confounds me is the fact that you can't trust anyone. One episode you think you understood who's "bad" and who's "good", but the next episode you have to change your mind and reconsider everything. Of course I can't tell you more about this,because it would mean to give too much away for those who have not seen the show yet,but for example you should know that my favourite character of Once Upon A Time is the Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla).



Finally, I would like to spend a few words on Emma (Jennifer Morrison): she is supposed to be the daughter of Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Prince Charming (Josh Dallas), who sent her away from the fairytale land in order to save her and give her a better life. After 28 years Emma is brought back to Storybrooke by her son Henry (Jared Gilmore), a son that she gave up for adoption, where she is meant to break "the course" and restore the order.


Emma is completely different from all the other characters, she is "the voice of reason". She refuses to believe that the story of the course is real,that all those people are actually fairytale characters and she always tries to analyse things from an intellectual perspective.
She is very practical and strong (she becomes, in fact, the sherif of the town) and I think she is supposed to represent our attitude, the spectators' attitute towards the show.
At first, we all thought this idea whas quite weird, childish, not good enough for a show. I mean, who could watch a show about fairytales? The Evil Queen, Snow White, Prince Charming..is this a children show? And this is probably what Emma thinks too, she can't really believe, she refuses to believe.


But then something happens,both us and Emma start to listen more carefully, to watch more carefully and we think that,maybe, we could believe.

I won't tell you how season one ended, but I will suggest you to watch it if you haven't, and to follow season two if you are good fans like me :)
We all need to believe, and Once Upon A Time is teaching us this.

What do you think? Do you like Once Upon A Time? Which one is your favourite character?

Ok it's all for today,thank you for listening and stay tuned! :)

H.

No comments: