Once Upon a Time: Part 1

Since I've been having so much trouble having enough things to review, I'm going to stop doing this whole "review an entire season at once" thing I've been doing. But at least in this instance, I watched too much of the show at once for me to just do one episode. So we're going to talk about the first part of the first season of Once Upon a Time. We'll go through each episode really quickly and then do a quick overview. Sound good? I hope so because that's what I'm doing. I think it should be obvious, but while I'll try to avoid spoilers a few might end up in there. Spoiler free overview: The first half of this season is slow and takes a LOT of time to get going, but there are at least a couple characters I cared about enough to give it more time.

Pilot: There was JUST enough in the Pilot to keep me watching and not really a lot more. I was instantly a fan of Snow White/Mary Margaret and I wanted to know more about Prince Charming. The thing is that the episode made so little impact on me that I can't even think of things that I can write here about it. It just was a pilot, it set things up. Including the sheer amount of bad wigs we're going to be treated to in the Enchanted Forest.

The Thing You Love Most: As far as I'm concerned, this episode is the only one where I cared about Regina at all. This episode gave me so much hope for her character, because for her to do what she does here then I really want to know more about her back story (at least at this point I did). This episode also really started to set up Gold/Rumpelstiltskin as a character I desperately wanted to know more about. In general, it was because this follow-up episode was so strong that I kept watching the show in general. Especially finding out the link between Mr. Gold and Henry.

Snow Falls: Every bit of interest I had in Regina was pretty much used up in this episode. I was excited to see Snow and Charming in the real world, thinking that perhaps this was going to be a story of him rediscovering himself and they slowly fall back in love with each other. Instead it's Regina again with the "no wait, there's a secret wife so we can have a love triangle" play. Boring. The Enchanted Forest story was really fun and interesting though, and made me like Snow even more.

The Price of Gold: The one thing I noticed right off the bat about this show was that I found Mr. Gold to be a much more fascinating villain than Regina. Regina just kept giving speeches about "responsibility" and how Emma gave up Henry and blah blah. I really didn't care, at all. Though this episode is one that brings out a lot of the plot holes that the show has with their whole "time doesn't move here" piece. Has Ashley been pregnant for 28 years? Was Cinderella still pregnant in the Enchanted Forest when they moved over and that's why? The thing about this show is that the less you're asked to think about the actual system of magic, the easier it is to enjoy.

Anyway, the point of this is that Mr. Gold is still amazing. Rumpelstiltskin's appearance in this episode was so classic and perfect. Emma goes back and forth in this one, but in general she did well and I liked her. And I loved the fact that they're setting up this favor she owes Mr. Gold, they better pay that off well.

That Still Small Voice: The bulk of the Storybrook parts of this episode were so boring and terrible. Regina is back to stomping around and yelling about responsibility and "I'm in charge of this town" while still not being able to think more than a step or two ahead of anything. She can't even out think a ten year old. If I hear her say "Emma, I just want what's best for HENRY" one more time I might scream.

But the Enchanted Forest story about the origins of Jiminy Cricket? WOW. Impressive acting, a dark story, everything about it was really great. Well, except for the Blue Fairy's costume but seriously, that is just something I cannot get over and cannot forgive. How wretched is that thing? But this was another episode that made me keep watching just on the strength of the other characters outside of Regina.

Part One Overview: At this point in the season, I desperately wanted to know more about Snow, Charming, Jiminy, and Rumpelstiltskin. I could take or leave Emma and Henry, I see their importance and I find their relationship interesting but it's already starting to fall into repetitive cycles instead of growing and changing. Snow and Charming are fun and interesting in the Enchanted Forest, but I hate what's going on in Storybrook.

But in the end, as long as there's more Rumpelstiltskin then I'll keep watching the show. Because there's also still a chance that he'll kill Regina and take over so I'll watch for that.

I like spoilers more than River Song does

Recently, some literary critic caused a big internet kerfluffle when he said that people who get made about spoilers are doing it wrong.

I'm obviously paraphrasing because I don't speak "literary critic" but that was the gist of it. He basically pointed out that if you could only feel tension or excitement or care about a story once, then you wouldn't enjoy re-reading or re-watching things. And science has proven that untrue, we do feel tension and get excited even about things we've seen a million times.

None of these statements are wrong. In an article about it, people pointed out that the problem wasn't the spoilers, but when people take away your own decision if you want to be spoiled or not by intentionally spoiling things.

This is also true. See, I very much abhor the people who love to spoil things for others. You know the type, the ones who flipped to the last page of Harry Potter to yell "Snape kills Dumbledore" at the people waiting in line for their copy.

But you notice something about that last paragraph? I didn't post a spoiler alert in that paragraph. Because I also believe that after seven years, there's a limit to how much a person can ask the rest of the world to censor themselves. It's all about reasonable expectations.

I also don't believe that spoilers actually spoil anything in most circumstances. I think people who say their experience is completely ruined by knowing the end of the story are not enjoy the story to the depths that they could be enjoying it. And I don't think anybody should be punished or yelled at or screamed at for saying it.

One person that was commenting on an article got extremely angry with everyone saying this and "how DARE they say how I should enjoy things?"

Well, for one, the guy is a literary critic who has probably spent a very large chunk of his life studying how people read and enjoy stories. So he's not just talking out his ear. But the other thing is, when you get so defensive you miss the overall point: imagine a world you could be opening up for yourself if you stop being so concerned and angry? Imagine how great things can be if you stop thinking "Oh, well, that's ruined" and just enjoy what you want to enjoy.

For example, a lot of my friends watch Once Upon a Time, which I'll be reviewing tomorrow. Because of that and my personal addiction to reading io9 all the time, I know a fair number of things that happened throughout the show. Including pretty much every single possible plot point from the episode Skin Deep.

On io9 I commented that because I tend to read the end of books/learn the ends of movies and if I think it sounds really stupid then I'd just not waste my time with it. Somebody took great offense to it, and railed against me saying that I am cheating myself of what could be the very best story I'd ever come across. First of all, if the ending is so bad I'd put it away, then there's no way that I would ever consider it the best story I'd ever come across.

But the other thing is, knowing the end brings me to things I might never experience otherwise. I was lukewarm about watching Once Upon a Time. I couldn't decide if it looked like something I cared to watch. Until my friend Cristi started talking about Skin Deep. The story she talked about was exactly up my ally and I knew that no matter what else the show was about, I'd love Rumplestiltskin. I watched the show last night, and it was by far the best episode of the show so far. I knew everything that happened in it. I knew all the plot twists, the end, everything and I still loved it. I still thought it was amazing and I was still thrilled to watch it and wanted to watch it again right afterwards.

I understand that my way of enjoying things is not the same as everybody else's. And I totally understand that if you prefer not to know, then you don't seek out spoilers. That's cool, we can all coexist. But there's a statue of limitations on spoilers, and maybe instead of saying your enjoyment is "spoiled" you can just say that it's changed. You'll get something different out of it. That can be cool too.

How To Train Your Dragon

I was very late to the party when it came to this movie. I knew that I wanted to watch it because so many people had such good things to say about it. But at the same time, other things seemed more important to rent and it never made it to the top of my Netflix queue. I ended up watching it on a very long international flight. I wasn't in the mood for anything too depressing or dramatic, and wanted something that I felt was almost guaranteed to have a happy ending. I'm very glad I picked How to Train Your dragon. I knew of the book that the film was (loosely) based on, and I wasn't sure how in the world they could manage to make a film out of it. But they did an amazing job, and the characters they created were so multi-dimensional.

The world was well realized, and the different types of dragons were fun and well done. And of course, Toothless was quite possibly the most ridiculously cute dragon ever animated. The story seemed perfect for any age, even the more frightening bits didn't seem too frightening for smaller children (though I'm not always the best judge of that). I think even adults will identify with Hiccup's struggles to fit into a world where he knows that he can't be what's expected of him.

I was especially impressed with the fact that this was a hero who struggles and wins through intelligence, curiosity, and learning. Hiccup doesn't just read up on dragons from the texts he's given, he tests the knowledge, finds what is and isn't true, and writes down his findings accordingly. He's a behavioral scientist, and it's awesome. He doesn't figure out that he really needs to summon his courage and hit things in order to win against the people who don't believe in him (the typical male coming of age story) but he has to get more intelligent and learn to be more strategic.

Overall, I highly suggest everybody watch it. But especially parents should watch it with their kids. These are the kinds of lessons our media should be teaching them, but it's done in a way that's not just fun and entertaining, but very well written and animated as well.


**SPOILER ALERT***





I have to spend some time talking about the end of the film, because I think it's also extremely powerful and deserves praise. Hiccup is able to tame and ride Toothless because he accidentally injures the dragon's tail, rendering him unable to fly. Hiccup designs a prosthetic tail fin that he can control to help the two fly together.

After the final battle of the film, you know that something bad has befallen Hiccup, but when he wakes up you see that he has lost a leg. One of the trainers for the kids is missing an arm, so this isn't unusual in the world they live in. But I think it's a very powerful moment that will teach kids amazing things without even trying. When Hiccup gets out of bed, walks on his new leg, and then discovers that it is designed to help him better control Toothless as they fly, kids will internalize a lot of great information. That you don't need a whole body to be a whole person, that you can and will do that things that you love even after an accident or injury. That Hiccup and Toothless are the same people after becoming disabled. The movie doesn't make any heavy handed statements about this, it doesn't try to teach a lesson, it doesn't become a "very special episode." Hiccup and Toothless just are. I don't know that I've ever seen a depiction of disability in children's media that was done as well.