Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25926288-20171007005904/@comment-5106672-20171008154749

Eh.

To be honest, I made it only halfway through episode before I quit; I mean, if by Lana Parrilla's third scene the episode still hasn't taken off, smething's clearly wrong.

Then I resumed and I watched it through the end because I don't leave things unfinished and… eh. I didn't totally hate it but something just didn't click.


 * Okay, I get they deliberately shot out to the Pilot and a lot of other S1 moments (wishing well and all), but rather than some legit nostalgia veil on a reboot, it felt like watching much of the same story over again, except it wasn't novel anymore and the mythology behind it is confusing to the point of frustration.


 * Andrew J. West made a good work at selling an adult Henry Mills: he had some mannerism that made it look like the same character as Jared's, I'm totally buying it. The new Henry's also less annoying than in the past seasons, so I'd call it much of an improvement overall. But as a lead he's just not nearly as compelling as S1!Emma was. She was never my top favourite character and I think her development got seriously derailed at some point, but she was a compelling lead back in S1. Henry is just… kinda there, I guess? He's just not as fun to watch.


 * Lana's final scene and monologue kinda saved the whole thing at the eleventh hour. Despite how background-y she was, Roni was the one highlight of this episode.


 * I've got problems with Weaver, namely: why give Robert Carlyle basically the same character as Mr. Gold (except less posh) when the writers already messed that one up pretty badly? At least Roni is a nice departure from Regina and brings in some fresh air.


 * Cinderella / Jacinda. Oh my god, where do I even begin. Dania Ramirez's acting just didn't sell me the character at all. Also, seriously, why Cinderella? Why? I mean, Cinderella is any writer's nightmare in the world of DIY online """feminism""", she's boud to be problematic. It's clear that much of her writing in this episode was a prevention / direct response to the "Cinderella is a bad rapresentation of women" argument, but having a gal punch a stranger in the face, attempt murder and wield a sword doesn't make her a strong female character. They did a much better job at deconstructing the Princess Classic archetype with Snow White in S1 because they took their time to do that, so it didn't feel that much on the nose. Jeez.


 * Victoria fell flat on her face – and that's definitely a bad sign because one thing Once has always excelled at was compelling villains. One casual murder here, one casual murder there, and she just seems to have a grudge against Cinderella because the fairy tale says so. Yes, we learned about Regina's true motive towards the end of S1, but it was crystal clear she had deeper layers; Victoria didn't give me that same vibe. Also, I liked the office scene better when it was still called The Devil Wears Prada. She came across as a discount Miranda Priestly desperately trying to be S1 Regina and that's bad. Drizella / Ivy seems to have more character, I'm betting on her.


 * You know what Hyperion Heights is missing? The whole "sleepy town in the middle of nowhere, barely even on the map, sorta out of time, where no one ever comes or goes due to miles and miles of forests" vibe, which was what made Storybrooke iconic and, in the beginning, even slightly creepy. Where's the creeps in just a disarrayed district in Seattle? What's stopping people from just crossing the street and living their lives outside in the mundane, beside Henry's bad timing? It doesn't feel nearly as menacing.


 * Also, what's up with Victoria's plan? Why scatter the residents and bring in outsiders? How does that even jam with the Curse's mechanics in the first place?


 * And finally, we come to the worst part of all: the storytelling doesn't make much sense. Back in S1, the Curse mechanics were crystal clear and the true mystery was finding out the true motive behind it (both on Rumple's and Regina's part). Here you can see the motives coming from a mile away, while mechanics are as confusing as they can get – why a real big city in the LWM rather than a made up town? Why some Storybrooke residents are there and others are not? Why are they the same age as they were before if the Curse was cast when Henry was already an adult? That doesn't make any sense even taking into account the "adultered" versions of the Curse we saw during the past seasons.


 * And above all, what's the deal with the multiple Cinderellas, stepsisters, Lady Tremains, Alices and so on? See, the mystery in the Pilot was acceptable because they were building the mythos from scratch, so the gradual discovery was bearable because we were totally in the dark. Here we have a bunch of elements that don't jam with six seasons of established mythos and came literally out of nowhere: what's up with that? Different retellings of the stories, that I can buy… but them actually being different characters to whom similar things happen… that takes away the whole "real people in magic situations" the show was built upon. It's just frustrating.

So… I thought I'd hate this more than I actually did, but it still left me in-between uninterested and irked. Guys, so long: I'mma bail out until the winter break and see if a binge watch fixes it, or if it's been a nice (although often bumpy) six year ride I'm jumping off of mid-season. Bye!