TV Review: ABC's Once Upon a Time

I've realized that I'm not very 'official' with my blog. So I feel like I should first start off with a bit of an apology - I do try to make sure I've caught any grammar/spelling mistakes, but I'm sure I'm not very good at it  -_- . But I try my best.

Anyway! That's not the point of this post. This post is about ABC's new show, 'Once Upon a Time'. I was tentatively excited when I heard about this show, because I LOVE fractured fairy tales. My first novel (currently querying for an agent), is a dark, subverted, very loose re-telling of Red Riding Hood.

'Once Upon a Time' stars Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan (Snow White and Prince Charming's daughter), Laura Parrilla as the Evil Step-Mother/Regina Mills, Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White/Mary Margaret Blanchard, Joshua Dallas as Prince Charming/John Doe, & Jared Gilmore as Henry, Emma's son given up for adoption ten years ago. And many more...

It aired last night (Sunday October 23) at 7:00pm central time, not that I watched it then. I watch everything on Hulu since I don't have TV.

I guess what I'm going to do is split this review up in a couple of different sections, because that's how I review things in my head.

EXPECTATIONS:
As mentioned above, I was tentatively excited about this. The concept was something I immediately loved, especially since I was so disappointed when the quirky, fairy-tale-like 'Pushing Daisies' was cancelled. However, anything shooting to have so many quirks, switch between a fairy tale world, graphics, etc. has high potential to crash and burn and fail with the crowd (and be cancelled because of that). The writing for something like this, in my humble opinion, needs to be flexible and willing to take the idea and go all the way with it. It should be a little dark, a lot of quirky, and yet balanced. I'm not sure how else to explain my fears, so let's move on...

FIRST THOUGHTS:
I finished the episode and just... smiled. I was SO happy that it had met, and exceeded, my expectations. I love Morrison as Emma. She feels like a real person, and that someone like her would react the way they did if their 10-year-old child (put up for adoption) suddenly appeared on their doorstep on the night of their 28th birthday.

Jared Gilmore plays young Henry with just the right mix of child-like innocence & precocious wit. I'm... not very fond of kids (or every character in a show) talking back and forth with these witty one-liners that build on top of each other, unless it's done with a level of humor, or the show itself is so quirky that you'd expect them to speak like that (once again, Pushing Daisies).

The fairy tale characters were fun to watch, in both the fairy tale world flashbacks, and picking them out (if possible) in the real world of Storybrooke. The fairy tale world flashbacks were a little cheesy, but I still loved them. However, this episode really builds up Emma and Henry, more than any of the others, because the fairy tale characters are a little flat to start out. They act like you'd expect them to act in the flashbacks, and they're only just being developed in their real-world counterparts.

WHAT I LOVED:
Morrison's performance as Emma, Gilmore's performance as Henry, and switching between the two story lines/worlds. Whatever budget they've been given for the fairy tale world, wow, I think they're really done great things with it.

WHAT I DISLIKED:
Nothing really, at least not right now.

WHAT I'M A LITTLE WORRIED ABOUT:
Naturally, how the fairy tale characters will be developed in their real-world counterparts. I want to see them do unexpected things with the characters and concepts.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
If you can't tell, I really liked the pilot. I'm looking forward to the second episode, a lot, and I hope it only gets better. And that it doesn't get cancelled, haha.

If you're on the fence about watching it, I think you should give it a chance. You might be just as pleasantly surprised as I was.