Once Upon A Time

Melanie's post about the show The Event got me thinking about my favorite television shows, and how the characters interact and evolve throughout the course of the season.  My top favorite show right now is ABC's Once Upon A Time.

If you're not familiar with it, I'll give you a brief run down.  Emma Swan, a woman with a troubled past, is celebrating her twenty-eighth birthday alone, when out of nowhere, the boy she gave up for adoption ten years prior shows up on her doorstep.  Henry convinces Emma to go with him to his home town of Storybrook, Maine, where he says she is destined to break an evil curse.  Emma has no desire to be a part of this boy's life, but upon meeting Henry's less-than-loving adoptive mother, she decides to stick around and keep an eye on him.

This is where the story really takes off.  You see, the residents of Storybrook are all characters from classic fairy tales.  (Disney fairy tales, to be exact, since Disney gave ABC the green light to use their licenced characters in the show.  How cool, right?)  Henry's mother is none other than the evil queen from Snow White, and she cursed the fairytale world to live in a land without magic, transporting everyone to Storybrook.  None of the residents can remember their past lives, and until Emma arrives, they've been stuck in a timeless existence, unable to leave the town boundaries.

Emma's arrival sends the gears of changes (and the town clock) into motion.  She quickly befriends Mary Margaret Blanchard (Snow White) and even takes a job as deputy sheriff.  She and the evil queen (Regina Mills in Storybrook) are constantly butting heads.  Despite Henry's insistence that the stories in his fairytale book are real, Emma refuses to believe the truth, even when it's standing right in front of her face.  Season one wrapped up with a showdown between Emma and Regina, but I wont go into details in case you haven't seen it yet.

There are a lot of relationships within the show that are fun to watch.  For starters, the way Emma slowly falls in love with Henry, stepping up to be the mother he both needs and deserves, is what drew me into the show in the first place.  I love a good romance, but this mother/son bond is so much sweeter than watching Cinderella or Snow White get her prince.  It's nice to see a show that centers around family in such a unique way.

It's a theme that repeats over and over throughout the first season.  In Storybrook, Snow White's Prince Charming turns out to be a married man.  David (Charming) and Mary Margaret try to fight their inexplicable draw to one another, with varying degrees of success.  I'll admit their relationship in Storybrook annoyed me, but it was tempered with flashes of their past lives together, and that's what got me through their less-than-noble affair.

Or there's the dynamic between Emma and Mary Margaret.  They are friends in Storybrook, but they, too, have a shared past.  Emma, you see, is the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming.  She was sent to this world as a baby because of a prophecy that said she would save the kingdom from the queen's curse during her twenty-eighth year.  It's sweet to see these two women interacting, never knowing that once the curse is lifted, they will be the family Emma never had growing up.

I think my favorite character in the show, though, is Rumpelstiltskin.  I don't usually fall in love with the bad guy (and make no mistake, Rumple is involved in some pretty shady business) but I can't help it.  Like most of the characters, Rumple is looking for his family, though the methods he uses are decidedly evil.  Still, as you watch the show, you get bits and pieces of his history, and you find that he's not such a monster after all.  Part of me wants Rumpelstiltskin to succeed, despite his nefarious methods, just to see how that changes him as a character.

Regina, too, is slowly evolving into a good guy, though that doesn't really get going until the second season.  I'm at the point where I don't know who to root for.  There are so many factions, all of them struggling against the others, all with their own motives for doing what they do.  At the moment, the best I can do is hope for a new villain to step up, bringing the factions together to fight against a common enemy.  Though I suppose I'll just have to wait and see.

This is my favorite kind of story.  The one that makes me rethink good and evil.  The characters are three-dimensional.  They are forced to make sacrifices, sometimes for the better, sometimes with unforeseen consequences.  Even the dainty princesses from Disney's original films turn out to be flawed, which makes them just about perfect in my eyes.

So if you're looking for inspiration in developing your characters--heroes, villains, or something in between--check out Once Upon A Time.  (And yes, season one is available on Netflix!)  If you're already a fan, I'm dying to know...who is your favorite character?