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TV Review: ONCE UPON A TIME – Season 1 – “Heart of Darkness”

By ANNE LOUISE BANNON 03/19/2012

Ginnifer Goodwin in ONCE UPON A TIME - Season 1 - "Heart of Darkness" | ©2012 ABC/Jack Rowand

Stars: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Morrison, Robert Carlyle, Lana Parrilla, Jared Gilmore, Josh Dallas, Raphael Sbarge Writer: Andrew Chambliss & Ian Goldberg Director: Dean White Network: ABC, Sunday nights, 8 p.m. Original Telecast: March 18, 2012 At last, we’re getting somewhere. Last week, I complained that ONCE UPON A TIME was getting bogged down in back stories. Not this week. In “Heart of Darkness,” we’re actually moving the plot along – to a very scary and odd place, admittedly. So maybe the writers haven’t written themselves into a corner, after all. The episode starts with Prince Charming (Josh Dallas) on the run from King George, searching for Snow […]Read On »

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TV Review: ONCE UPON A TIME – Season 1 – “Red-Handed”

By ANNE LOUISE BANNON 03/12/2012

Meghan Ory in ONCE UPON A TIME - Season 1 - "Red-Handed" | ©2012 ABC/Jack Rowand

Stars: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Morrison, Robert Carlyle, Lana Parrilla, Jared Gilmore, Josh Dallas, Raphael Sbarge Writer: Jane Espenson Director: Ron Underwood Network: ABC, Sunday nights, 8 p.m. Original Telecast: March 11, 2012 There is something vaguely unsatisfying about the “Red-Handed” episode of ONCE UPON A TIME. It could be my mood, but the episode feels like more back story than actual moving along of the plot. Yes, I get that when you’re trying to spin a tale over the course of multiple seasons, you don’t want to play your cards too fast. Fair enough. But after a while, the returns start diminishing. Sure, it’s nice to know how Grumpy got […]Read On »

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TV Review: ONCE UPON A TIME – Season 1 – “Dreamy”

By ANNE LOUISE BANNON 03/06/2012

Emilie De Ravin in ONCE UPON A TIME - Season 1 - "Dreamy" | ©2012 ABC/Chris Helcermanas-Benge

Stars: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Morrison, Robert Carlyle, Lana Parrilla, Jared Gilmore, Josh Dallas, Raphael Sbarge Writer: Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz Director: David Solomon Network: ABC, Sunday nights, 8 p.m. Original Telecast: March 4, 2012 Did you know Grumpy’s original name was Dreamy? I don’t know why all the Disney references in ONCE UPON A TIME are so jarring, but they really go overboard in this episode called, appropriately enough, “Dreamy.” And you know it’s a key one because it’s written by the show’s creators. In Storybrooke, we’ve got Mary Margaret (Ginnifer Goodwin) still reeling from the effects of the town’s gossip over her relationship with David (Josh Dallas), […]Read On »

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TV Review: ONCE UPON A TIME – Season 1 – “Whatever Happened to Frederick”

By ANNE LOUISE BANNON 02/21/2012

Ginnifer Goodwin in ONCE UPON A TIME - Season 1 - "What Happened to Frederick" | ©2012 ABC/Chris Helcermanas-Benge

Stars: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Morrison, Robert Carlyle, Lana Parrilla, Jared Gilmore, Josh Dallas, Raphael Sbarge Writer: David H. Goodman Director: Dean White Network: ABC, Sunday nights, 8 p.m. Original Telecast: February 19, 2012 If you want to know “Whatever Happened to Frederick,” keep your eye on the guy with the soccer balls in the school scene. That’s because just about everyone in Storybrooke, Maine, has a fairy tale counterpart in ONCE UPON A TIME. We’ve got two basic problems in the episode, both revolving around the relationship between Snow White and Prince James Charming and their real world counterparts Mary Margaret (Ginnifer Goodwin) and David (Josh Dallas) and that problem […]Read On »

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TV Review: ONCE UPON A TIME – Season 1 – “Skin Deep”

By ANNE LOUISE BANNON 02/14/2012

Jessy Schram and Tim Phillips in ONCE UPON A TIME - Season 1 - "Skin Deep" | ©2012 ABC/Jack Rowand

Stars: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Morrison, Robert Carlyle, Lana Parrilla, Jared Gilmore, Josh Dallas, Raphael Sbarge Writer: Jane Espenson Director: Milan Cheylov Network: ABC, Sunday nights, 8 p.m. Original Telecast: February 12, 2012 OMG! “Skin Deep” is one of those episodes of ONCE UPON A TIME where I really, really wish this weren’t a no spoiler zone, because we find out something about Mr. Gold (Robert Carlyle) and I would so love to debate the issue. It’s a twist at the end, though, and it’s no fun to zap you that way. You will have to set your gag reflex on low, however, because the Disney references are really in your face. The episode […]Read On »

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TV Review: ONCE UPON A TIME – Season 1 – “Fruit of the Poisonous Tree”

By ANNE LOUISE BANNON 01/30/2012

Richard Schiff and Ginnifer Goodwin in ONCE UPON A TIME - Season 1 - "Fruit of the Poisonous Tree" | ©2012 ABC/Jack Rowand

Stars: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Morrison, Robert Carlyle, Lana Parrilla, Jared Gilmore, Josh Dallas, Raphael Sbarge Writer: Ian Goldberg and Andrew Chambliss Director: Bryan Spicer Network: ABC, Sunday nights, 8 p.m. Original Telecast: January 29, 2012 I get that with a character named “The Evil Queen” evil is kind of the point. Nonetheless, in this episode of ONCE UPON A TIME, “Fruit of the Poisonous Tree,” Regina (Lana Parilla) is getting more than simply scary. It all starts in the modern world, when a storm breaks down young Henry’s (Jared Gilmore) wooden castle play yard by the ocean. Not only does Regina get all over Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison) for […]Read On »

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TV Review: ONCE UPON A TIME – Season 1 – “7:15 A.M.”

By ANNE LOUISE BANNON 01/24/2012

Meghan Ory in ONCE UPON A TIME - Season 1 - "7:15 A.M." | ©2012 ABC/Jack Rowand

Stars: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Morrison, Robert Carlyle, Lana Parrilla, Jared Gilmore, Josh Dallas, Raphael Sbarge Writer: Story by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, Teleplay by Daniel T. Thomsen Director: Ralph Hemecker Network: ABC, Sunday nights, 8 p.m. Original Telecast: January 22, 2012 It’s “7:15 A.M.” in Storybrooke, and Mary Margaret Blanchard (Ginnifer Goodwin) is off to get coffee at the diner where David Nolan (Josh Dallas) is getting coffee for himself and his wife Kathryn (Anastasia Griffith). Oh, and there’s a stranger (Eion Bailey) in town, with a strange wood box. There’s also the fairy tale world, in ONCE UPON A TIME, from whence all these people came when The Evil […]Read On »

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TV Review: ONCE UPON A TIME – Season 1 – “True North”

By ANNE LOUISE BANNON 01/19/2012

Lana Parrilla in ONCE UPON A TIME - Season 1 - True North" | ©2012 ABC/Jack Rowand

Stars: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Morrison, Robert Carlyle, Lana Parrilla, Jared Gilmore, Josh Dallas, Raphael Sbarge Writer: David H. Goodman and Liz Tigelaar Director: Dean White Network: ABC, Sunday nights, 8 p.m. Original Telecast: January 15, 2012 It seems pretty clear from this episode, “True North,” that Regina’s grip on the modern day world of ONCE UPON A TIME is slipping. Her fairy tale counterpart The Evil Queen (Lana Parilla plays both) isn’t getting all that she wants, either, but she’s got a heck of a lot more power in the fairy tale land. Or maybe she can be more overt about it. As usual, we have a version of a fairy tale […]Read On »

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TV Review: ONCE UPON A TIME – Season 1 – “Desperate Souls”

By ANNE LOUISE BANNON 01/10/2012

Robert Carlyle in ONCE UPON A TIME - Season 1 - "Desperate Souls" | ©2012 ABC/Jack Rowand

Stars: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Morrison, Robert Carlyle, Lana Parrilla, Jared Gilmore, Josh Dallas, Raphael Sbarge Writer: Jane Espenson Director: Michael Waxman Network: ABC, Sunday nights, 8 p.m. Original Telecast: December 11, 2011 One of the things that takes ONCE UPON A TIME well past the cartoony single-dimension of its fairy tale characters into something even more frightening and real is that the bad guys have real reasons for being bad. With most fairly tale characters, they’re bad because that’s who they are. In this episode, “Desperate Souls” we find out how Rumpelstiltskin (Robert Carlyle) got to be the scary wheeler dealer that he is. Which makes the way he utterly manipulates […]Read On »

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TV Review: ONCE UPON A TIME – Season 1 – “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter”

By ANNE LOUISE BANNON 12/12/2011

Raphael Sbarge, Lana Parrilla, Jared Gilmore, Jennifer Morrison, Robert Carlyle, Jamie Dornan, Ginnifer Goodwin, Josh Dallas in ONCE UPON A TIME – Season 1 | ©2011 ABC/Karen Hill

Stars: Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Morrison, Robert Carlyle, Lana Parrilla, Jared Gilmore, Josh Dallas, Raphael Sbarge Writer: Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz Director: David M. Barrett Network: ABC, Sunday nights, 8 p.m. Original Telecast: December 11, 2011 When you see that an episode is written by the show’s creators, you have to figure it’s going to be a pretty key episode, especially if you’ve got an ongoing story arc, like this show does. “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” pays off big time. In this episode from ONCE UPON A TIME, we not only find out that Sheriff Graham (Jamie Dornan) does have a fairy tale counterpart, we see that Regina […]Read On »

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