Favorite New Fall Show – Once Upon A Time

This week, we at CliqueClack are asking you to vote for your favorite new fall shows to watch and for those that you would recommend to others. The winter hiatus is the perfect time to catch up on new shows you didn’t initially watch. Check out our previous write-ups for Up All Night, Revenge, American Horror Story, Homeland, and New Girl, and The Secret Circle, now check out why Julia picked Once Upon a Time!

Once Upon A Time is a show with an inherently divisive premise, because it is a show about fairytales. I’m actually not sure if “divisive” is the right word, since that tends to imply that there are two equally strong sides to an issue. More accurately, most people hear that there is a show about fairytales and assume it’s trite and stupid and cheesy, and unless you’re the kind of person who, like me, still honestly believes that Disney movies are The Greatest Thing Ever, you weren’t that interested in watching it. And to those people, I would like to refer you to the case of my friend Alli.

Alli is pretty predictable when it comes to TV. If you are ever wondering to yourself, “will Alli like this show?”, all you have to do is check and see if there are two dudes who look like they are about five seconds from going to town on each other. With the exception of Glee (which she hates), if the answer is yes, Alli probably watches the show. That’s not all she looks for in a show, but it does account for about 99% of her TV viewing habits.

So imagine my surprise when one day Alli timidly asks me if I’m watching Once Upon a Time which, while enjoyable, is utterly devoid of the gay. “I… kind of love it,” she confessed to me the way a kid generally confesses to eating the last cookie. “And I really, really want Snow and Charming to get together. I’ve never wanted a heterosexual couple to get together before! I don’t know what this show is doing to me!”

“There there,” I said to her soothingly. “It’s okay. We’ll get through this together.” And, I am proud to say, we have, because Alli has since become a fan of Once Upon a Time with the same joyful intensity I normally see her reserve for re-runs of Golden Girls.

Now if that heartwarming tale of cross-genre love is not enough to get you to give up whatever pretentious hangups you might have about watching a stupid fairytale show, here are a few more things you should consider:

1. This show is written/produced by veritable goddess Jane Espenson. How is that not recommendation enough?
2. No, this is not the same as Grimm. Here’s the difference: Grimm sucks. I’m sorry, it’s true. I went into this season thinking I’d love Grimm and hate Once Upon A Time for copying it, but no, they could not be less alike. Grimm is a boring procedural show with some CGI monsters and bland male leads who battle them. Once Upon a Time is a multi-dimensional mystery (a la Lost, only unlike most shows with multiple universes/realities, I don’t had this one) bursting with rich and endearing characters, male and female. It’s not scary at all; in fact, it’s downright family-friendly, but not cheesy or hokey or watered-down that it will bore the adults in the audience as well.
3. Josh Dallas is really, really dreamy as Prince Charming. And you know, in general. There. I said it. And if he’s not your cup of tea, have you checked out Jamie Dornan as the Sheriff? I’m pretty sure he’s everyone’s cup of tea. Including straight dudes and lesbians. I mean, the ladies on this show are also gorgeous and all, but I appreciate some mancandy for a change instead of just improbably  hot ladies.
4. There is, admittedly, one thing that really, really sucks about this show: the costumes in Fairytale Land. They’re pretty bad. Note to the costume designer: fairytale does not mean utterly whackadoo. Tone down the crazy hair and unnecessary flounces. Think more Lord of the Rings meets dashes of Disney whimsy. And fix whatever that dress the blue fairy wears does to her boobs, because it’s kind of tragic. Thanks.
5. Do you really need a fifth reason? Let me break it down for you — do you like feeling joy? Do you have eyeballs? An un-blackend heart that is open to watching something not saturated in impossible cynicism? Okay, good. Give this show a try.

Clacked by Julia Hass
on Dec 02, 2011 @ 12:04 EST5EDT