Once Upon A Time

This week I’ve done absolutely nothing. I’ve not even started to read a new book, in fact apart from going to work I’ve barely even left the house at all. Why? Well I’ve become completely obsessed with the TV show, Once Upon A Time. I’ve been waking up purposely early in a morning, I’ve been going to bed late at night, all just to squeeze in watching another episode of Once Upon A Time. When I’m not watching the show I’ve started sitting staring at my colleagues trying to figure out what character they are (for the record I’m fairly convinced that I work with Rumpelstiltskin), the show is just that good that I just can’t get it out of my head.

Once Upon A Time is based upon the stories of your favourite storybook characters, but don’t judge it on that! I’m a huge fan of Disney and all things fairytale and I’ve actually put off watching it for the past 6 months or so solely for the fact I thought it would be just a live action interpretation of some of my favourite Disney movies but it’s not like that at all. The series begins on Emma Swan’s 28^th birthday when out the blue her 10 year old son, Henry, that she gave up for adoption turns up on her doorstop. Emma drives Henry back to his town of Storybrook only to discover that she’s not so happy with the woman that Henry has ended up calling his mother. Therefore Emma decides to stay in the town. Little does she know, she’s crucial to breaking a curse that was made by the Evil Queen, 28 years previous. The curse transported all your favourite fairytale characters to a parallel world where they can’t remember anything about their previous lives. They all are now living boring day to day lives without a clue of the past; they all just believe they’ve been there for as long as they can remember. Despite not remembering who they are in the parallel world the characters all have similar jobs/characteristics to the fairytale character that they are which I think makes it fun to try and guess who each character should be. 

The characters aren’t stereotypical. You learn more about each character through present day and also flashback to who they were and how they lived their life in the parallel world. You find out more about their motives and how and why the curse was cast. You find that the bad guys actually have motives to their actions which I find rare in the fantasy genre. The girls are also not the stereotypical characters that need saving either with all of them being able to stand up for themselves fine without Prince Charming coming along to save the day. 

The actors in Once Upon A Time are absolutely brilliant. Robert Carlyle, who plays Mr Gold and Rumpelstiltskin in particular is fantastic. In some scenes his portrayal of Rumplestiltskin is terrifying. I don’t often like young child actors either but Jared Gilmore playing Henry is also great. For his age he is terrific in Once Upon A Time, I’m very interested to see his role progress throughout the series. Truthfully I’ve never seen anything anyone in Once Upon A Time has been in before but they all are superb in this show.

I’m a few years late to the Once Upon A Time party with series one being first broadcast in 2011 but it really is good. When I watched episode one I wasn’t so sure about the show but somehow thanks to the overlapped plots and character stories you’re shown throughout and then the cliff hangers at the end of every episode you are sucked in then before you know it you’ve watched an entire 22 episode series in two days. I’m currently most of the way through series 2 and although I prefer series one I still can highly recommend you watch this show. If you love fairytale stories and want to see them in a new light and don’t mind getting completely addicted to a show then Once Upon A Time is the show for you.