So after six seasons, Once Upon a Time desperately tried to fend off the inevitable with a seven season reboot. Sadly for the show, it wasn't enough and ABC finally gave up on the show. After following this from the beginning there's always a bitter sweet element to letting it go - even when there are several elements we certainly don't miss - there's still a lot there that still could have been
Which, of course, means it's time for a Requiem
Good
I think it’s hard to
remember how original and interesting this show was when it first started all
those many years ago. I think we need to give praise to that even as it has
become more normalised in the years the show run. The whole concept of taking
these fairy tales and mixing and mashing them up was really fun for me to see.
Simple things like Rumplestiltskin being, obviously, the titular deal-giving
monster, but also the Crocodile from Peter Pan and the Beast from Beauty and
the Beast is the kind of mash up that I really really love.
The show has also
brought some really iconic characters - Regina first and foremost, of course,
but Emma, Maleficient, Cruella De Ville were some of my favourites. Throw in
some really nice plot twists - the weirdness of how King Arthur fit into the
show, Peter Pan as Rumple’s father, the complicated Cora/Regina/Zelena family
tree. It had some gems.
Also Killian’s
eye-shadow.
Bad
The Charmings. The
problem with the Charmings is they’re probably the characters that have most held
onto the fairy tale origins of the show. So while everything else is bring a
sometimes-gritty but often more eye-open reality take to the world, the
Charmings are there being kind of flabby and soggy and grossly PASSIVE. These
two are repeatedly held up as heroes but, despite occasional past flashbacks of
action, they generally did nothing to earn that. They only ever react to what
the bad guys do - and then not often. In fact, even their claim to heroism
seems to be far less because they champion the little guy or help people or
hunt down evil - they’re heroes because EVIL COMES FOR THEM. If Regina didn’t
devote so much effort to actually squishing Snow then she’d probably not do
anything at all, no matter what kind of reign of terror was unleashed on the
actual kingdom.
And this pervasive
passivity followed through to everything they did. They never planned anything
- just rested on this soppy “good will find a way” “love will find a way” “good
is rewarded” “evil never prospers” twee philosophy which ruled out them
actually having to do ANYTHING. If they are “good” then good never succeeded or
triumphed -good twiddled its thumbs ineptly until evil collapses under its own
evilness. And they’re central characters, they’re heroes, they’re leaders of
their people for crying out loud! Words can’t express how frustrating I found
their smug, pointless, passive, purity.
Good and Bad: The Season 7 Reboot
I know I’m almost a
broken record on the final season of Once Upon a Time but it’s because
I’m so twisted up about it as being both a perfect example of why we need
Reboots while similarly being a text book example of how reboots can be badly
done
I praise season 7
being a reboot - because after 6 seasons, Once Upon a Time was done. The
fairy tale ouvre just doesn’t have enough big bads to both match up to the last
big bads AND to be able to assail the amazing force that Team Good Guy had
finally mustered. The core characters had hashed out every single last
emotional family drama possible at this point. Emma had love and family and
it’d be ridiculous to sunder this AGAIN. The Charmings after 8,000 plots
keeping them apart were now together. Everyone believed, Henry was the author
and if Rumple turned evil just One More Damn Time or Regina had ANOTHER tragic love
affair I was just going to scream. It was done. Stick a fork in it.
But the world? The
concept? That had lots of potential - and a reboot, picking up with a new
generation, carrying the tropes and settings but cutting away all those
COMPLETED STORYLINES, starting a new chapter. I praise the courage of the
writers for doing this, for being brave enough to say “these stories are done,
we need new ones” and moving on. While at the same time I curse them for the
cowardice in not seeing that through and still desperately hanging on to
Regina, Killian, Rumple and, to a lesser extent, Zelena. I don’t know what was
worse - the Jacinda became so utterly irrelevant to the story she virtually
disappeared in the second half of the season (which has to be galling for a
main character) or that Henry kept hanging around and being awkwardly forced
into plots despite him not being involved or necessary. It’s like going on a
couples holiday and finding your single best friend has kind of followed you
and is now hanging around awkwardly at the bar.
Inclusion
Once Upon a Time lasted for 7 seasons with a vast cast
of characters including over 50 characters who appeared in 10 episodes or more
and a further gajillian that appeared for an episode or more. And while Once
Upon a Time is often, rightly, praised for taking the whole concept of
passive female characters common in fairy tale and taking that and making the
core of the active, powerful characters of this series female is definitely a
plus - especially as female friendships begin to develop between them (Regina
and Emma allying took way too long but was awesome when it happened). But other
marginalised people are glaringly absent or reduced in this series. The only
prominent POC in the series throughout is Regina - who is either evil or stuck
on an eternal mea-culpa redemption arc that keeps resetting over and over and
over and over. Other POC are inevitably short lived and sidelined: even when
they had incredible potential. Mulan, Lancelot, Merlin, the Magic Mirror, the
entire utterly ABANDONNED Aladdin storyline - these characters had plot hooks,
they had potential, of course they did. But nothing happened, they were killed
off, dismissed or just dropped in the plot box and forgotten (Mulan, I’m not
over this). This applies equally to the LGBTQ characters - Mulan (assuming we
even accept she’s depicted as bisexual since her “reveal” could equally have
been “hey Aurora.. I actually like Phillip and don’t want to just step aside),
Dorothy and Red; all reduced to bit parts. One element of the reboot that was
positive is that, with Tiana, Naveen, Jascinda, Lucy, Tilly and Robin, the
reboot seemed to recognise There Was A Problem and be willing to take steps to
correct… except for that whole reboot cowardice.
Worst Fairytale Arc
I think we both agree
that the Frozen arc made our eyes roll right out of our heads. It’s not like
there weren’t other bad seasons (Peter Pan), but at least those felt planned.
But Frozen? Honestly it felt like the writers had a plot line, were all ready
to go and then suddenly someone yelled “OH MY GOD THIS MOVIE JUST MADE BANK!
JUMP ON THAT ‘LET IT GO’ BANDWAGON!. Frozen felt ill planned, show-horned in
and, unlike most of the other arcs, utterly unconnected to the other storylines
before or after. I mean, Peter Pan wasn’t ideal but he was woven into the
world. He was Rumple’s father and very much woven into Rumple’s backstory,
angst et al and, through that, is linked to the whole Charming family as well
as being integral to establish Henry as the truest believer. Tinker Bell fit
with the established fairies mythos et al. Peter Pan wasn’t great - but it fit
both the established world and the plot which Frozen didn’t - and didn’t even
try. I mean, they could have thrown in a few call backs to Arundel in the
seasons after it.
