Over the past year we’ve seen a rise in the number of fantasy stories that are being greenlit for the big and small screen. Now more than ever, people are looking to be swept away from our reality and into a fairytale land like the one in Once Upon a Time.

The problem with fantasy is it’s hard to find the line between fun and whimsical and still be serious and compelling. Overall, I think the “Pilot” did a good job of maintaining that balance, but I’ll hold out opinion on the series until I can see where it goes from here. 

Narrator: Once Upon a Time. There was an enchanted forest filled with all the classic characters we know. Or think we know. One day they found themselves trapped in a place where all their happy endings were stolen. Our world. This is how it happened…

As I write this review, all I can think about is that one scene from Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s “Gingerbread” where the Scooby Gang contemplates the existence of fairytales: “Yeah, it’s all falling into place. Of course that place is nowhere near this place.” How right was Buffy, yet how wrong she was at the same time.

Therein lies the crux of this new series. It will both take place (through flashback) in a fairytale land somewhere out there, but thanks to a curse by the Evil Queen from Snow White, the show will also have all the classic characters we know and love transported to our reality, a place of no happy endings. They now live in Storybrooke, Maine, a town that at first appears normal, but it’s a town that still doesn’t quite belong.

Just as in ABC’s other series Lost (the creators of Once Upon a Time used to write for that show), the two parallel worlds have now been allowed to temporarily coexist with unforeseen results. I don’t know about you, but I look forward to the day when we get to learn more about how this curse works and maybe even get to see the fairytale land seep into our own reality as the curse begins to unravel. The possibilities really are endless.

But that’s all deeper musings for another time because the first episode barely touches on the curse itself. For now it’s all about the characters affected by the Evil Queen’s jealous rage, Snow White, Prince Charming, their grandson Henry, and their daughter Emma, who will be the savior of them all. Haven’t you ever wondered what happened in all your favorite fairytales after the closing credits, “And they lived happily ever after.” This show promises to answer that question.

I can’t wait.

Notes and Quotes:

I find it awesome that Emma both shares my birthday and my age.

Tally of everyone we saw in this episode: Snow White, Prince Charming, Evil Queen, Seven Dwarves, Rumpelstiltskin, Jiminy Cricket, the Blue Fairy, Geppetto, Pinocchio, Red Riding Hood, and Red Riding Hood’s Grandma.

Rumplestiltskin now owns the town in our reality? I’m starting to think he made a deal with the Evil Queen.

If you’re already in love with the relationship between Snow White and Prince Charming like, then you’re going to love the third episode.

Mary Margaret (Snow White): Believing in even the possibility of a happy ending is a very powerful thing.

Snow White: I’m not leaving you.
Prince Charming: It’s the only way.  You’ll go in there and you’ll be safe from the curse.
Snow White: He said it would be on her twenty-eighth birthday.
Prince Charming: What’s twenty-eight years when you have eternal love?  I have faith.  You will save me as I did you.

Next week:

Emma continues to get on Regina Mills’ (The Evil Queen) nerves. How dare she chop down her apple tree.