Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25926288-20150928010102/@comment-5106672-20150928131229

I've got a mixed-to-positive opinion on this premiere, but overall I liked it.

Downsides first:


 * While I'm a huge fan of the Continuity Fairy, I'm also a sworn enemy of the Retcon Monster. Did we really need Merlin out and about in the LWM giving off cryptic advice to an unsuspecting child Emma who apparently would not remember or mention anything about that ever again?


 * Can't anyone use their common sense in Storybrooke? "We need an evil sorceress to open a portal with Merlin's wand. Let's go grab the single most dangerous person in town, whom we're keeping imprisoned, and ask her for help". Hello? Maleficent, anyone? Why not asking an equally dark but less troublesome sorceress for help? Just because the plot says so?

Neutral feelings:


 * The whole schizophrenic Dark One thing came totally out of the blue as well, but nothing contradicts it and it was played out well (and they were clever enough to imply it is just a temporary thing which fades quickly). I'll give it a pass: after all, they had to give Robert Carlyle something to do other than lie comatose, and that's a good compromise.


 * As expected, Merida® is 100% Pure Pixar Product Placement. But as product placement goes, she was done pretty well. Loved the actress, loved how they gave her a bit of common sense in regards of a potentially dangerous stranger tagging along, loved how she was ready to kill to save her own life. She was just a little bit too offhand, without any real ties to the overall plot; that, and if you haven't seen Brave you can't have any clue at all about the hell's going on with her. But hey, considering the small part she's played in the story, better to throw Brave than waste a real fairytale in such a tight spot.


 * Can't we have a single season without anyone getting amnesia in this show? Although all in all I give it a pass: as trite as it's getting, it was done for the greater good.

The good.


 * I'm glad to see Zelena is already being more than just one corner of the Regina - Robin - Zelena triangle. I loved how she taunted and even physically treatened Robin instead of trying to take him away from Regina. There's hope her storyline will be a direct confrontation between the Mills sisters instead of a bitchfight over a man. And I'm also seeing a hint of character development, with that line about her desire to get a life of her own instead of stealing / erasing / screwing Regina's.


 * Beside those two recons I mentioned above, continuity flowed strong in this episode, which is a great thing. I'm glad the positive trend from S4b is still on.


 * It's painfully obvious the guy at the cinema was Merlin, but the hint they gave with the photography alone was delightful!


 * I'm also delighted by how self-aware the show has been in this episode. "Our memories, they're gone.", "Again!": thank you, Mary Margaret, for channelling the audience's reaction. And "I love how quiet town is", that is, Storybrooke is well aware that the moment they shove Henry's whole extended family down a portal everyone can catch their breath.


 * I'm glad they pulled the trip to Camelot off the way they did. They understood the Neverland mistake and were careful not to repeat it. So we got the trip but we're going to find out what happened AND see the story go forward at the same time. Sure, this way the flashbacks will all be devoted to the missing six weeks and we're probably not going to see the Camelot mythology well explored, but that's better than stagnation. It's nice to have an already full-on villainous Emma rather than spending half season watching her slowly lose her mind and wait till then for the story to start.

Soooo… it was a very introductory episode all in all, which gave a taste of what's to come without revealing too much. Definitely more eventful and meaningful than 3x01 or 4x01. Let's see how it all plays out.