ABC's new drama, "Once Upon a Time" begins tonight, Sunday October 23. It's one of two shows focusing on 'fairy tales in the real world' this fall, the second being NBC's "Grimm", which premieres Friday October 28. The two are very different however, "Grimm" is more of a "police procedural" that just so happens to dovetail with fantasy and is much darker than the family-friendly "Once Upon a Time". I'm not sure which came first, all of the competing Snow White theatrical films or these two television series but it's clear that Hollywood has decided to mine the "classics" for new material. "Once Upon a Time" comes from former Lost writers Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, and also sports Damon Lindelof as a consulting producer.
"Once Upon a Time" starts where most fairy tells end: at happily-ever-after. Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) is dead, presumably defeated by the Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla), only to be rescued and revived by the kiss of Prince Charming (Josh Dallas). The Evi, vengeful Queen curses Snow White, Prince Charming and all of the characters of the fairytale world to be frozen in time and in a faraway place.
The story jumps between the set-up for the curse through flashbacks, introducing us to the fairytale characters who will soon be relevant in a new context, and the modern-day world, where a woman with a troubled past named Emma Swan (House‘s Jennifer Morrison), a bail bondswoman, whose life changes when the son she gave up for adoption 10 years earlier shows up on her doorstep. Henry (Jared Gilmore) tells the disbelieving Emma that she's the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming.They now live in Storybrooke, Maine, with no memory of who they really are and "where the magic and mystery of Fairy Tales just may be real".
I think this looks like a lot of fun. I'm a Robert Carlyle fan so I can't wait to see him as Rumplestilskin/Mr. Gold.
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