Once Upon a Time 1.01 'Pilot'

‘Once Upon a Time’ set itself a mammoth task in taking on the beloved fables that are classic fairytales. There  was so much that could have gone wrong if the writers didn’t approach it right, and it could have been a bigger disaster than even ‘Charlie’s Angels’ was. It seems the TV Gods have been good to us though, because this is one of the most original, charming, exciting and overall amazing starts to any series I’ve ever seen.

Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison) is visited by Jared the son she gave up for adoption 10 years ago who asks her to come with him back to his home town Storybrook, Maine. Upon arrival he tells her that all of the people in the town are really fairytale characters that have been exiled to the real world due to a curse that has been put on them by the Evil Queen and her arrival will start the battle to set them free.

This pilot was absolutely nuts, and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. The characters were animated, but not in a horrible stereotype kind of way, the writing was light and fluffy but not the wrong kind of cheesy and all of the performances were beyond stellar. Jennifer Morrison is effortlessly cool as Emma, Snow White is undeniably charming, and Lana Parilla sizzles as the Regina. I’ve also never seen someone so obviously having fun as much as Robert Carlyle who is delightfully creepy as Rumpelstinskin.

When you take something that you would initially pen as movie material and change it to TV format budget will become a serious problem. A believable scope for this story had to be achieved on a fraction of a film budget, and it was near perfect. The imagery was striking and the scenery looked cinematic, the first scene is what caught my eye in particular.

All of the paralleling stories were undeniably clever and couldn’t have been more fun. I loved how they all had their own ‘real world’ selves, and how all of what happened in the ‘fairytale world’ translated over; Price Charming in the hospital got to me, I must admit! The pilot really got me excited to see where this whole battle to free the characters will go. There is bucket-loads of potential here, and it’s easily the strongest series this season.

This pilot isn’t just an ode to all of the well known fairytales, it’s a clever re-incarnation that does a splendid job of not only blending the two seemingly opposing types of stories, but also breathing life into them in a way that I would have never thought a TV series could.

10/10