OUAT season 1 disc 4
Sep. 12th, 2018 08:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shallownessI'm still rewatching OUAT season 1 on DVD.
I thought this disc got better and better. ‘What Happened to Frederick’ would lead to the ‘What Happened to Kathryn’ mini arc (why yes, I have started watching the episodes on disc 5). In WHtF’s attempt to give Charming stuff to do, I felt it took away from Abigail’s agency, making her the more passive traditional fairy tale princess figure that Snow, at least, is not. The heavily emphasised theme was ‘truth’, as Charming learned that Abigail didn’t want to marry him either and why, while a sympathetic Kathryn forced David to make a decision about them and their future. Not wanting to hurt anybody, he lied, and hurt everybody. (With a little help from Regina, who was the classy person responsible for spraying ‘TRAMP’ all over Mary Margaret’s car, but then it was also revealed that she didn’t understand friendship.) As ever, I found the Emma-Henry stuff lovely.
In ‘Dreamy’, I can’t say I was all that bothered about how Dreamy became Grumpy or his love for fairy Nova (even though Amy Acker was a charming guest star, despite the fairy costumes being uncharacteristically dire) or dwarf and fairy mythologies and how limiting the expectations of dwarves and fairies could be. But the double act of Mary Margaret and Leroy in Storybrooke, both seeking redemption for different reasons, was fun. I squeed when Belle turned up to advise on love. The fireflies/candles visual was gorgeous.
‘Red Handed’ was a nicely complicated episode, with some gorgeous moments, mostly in the Enchanted Forest, where Snow-on-the-run first meets Red and we all discover her terrible secret. Both wore excellent, plot-significant cloaks. It was a shame Ruby turned her back on being a deputy, she’d have been great at it with her enhanced senses – too great? Emma and Mary Margaret feel more mature than Ruby, although Snow and Red feel like equals in the EF. This was quite a gory episode by the show’s standards.
‘Heart of Darkness’ also featured some sophisticated storytelling, although there was some overuse of repetition in different circumstances. It was quite nice to hear Snow be the one to promise to find Charming for a change, though.
Regina had framed MM for Kathryn’s murder in Storybrooke and in the EF we got to see the consequences of Snow forgetting Charming for her and the dwarves. I didn’t buy that David would fail to notice the drastic change in look when he ‘remembered’ Snow in loveless revenge mode and misconstrued her actions as MM feeling murderous. Some curse-related handwaving needed there. His belief that MM could have killed Kathryn broke her.
There was a nice use of Red’s being a werewolf after the big reveal of the last episode. I say ‘nice’. Once again, some poor soldiers who were just doing their job – not their fault their boss/monarch is horrible – became collateral damage. Maybe not nice in any sense, then.
I thought this disc got better and better. ‘What Happened to Frederick’ would lead to the ‘What Happened to Kathryn’ mini arc (why yes, I have started watching the episodes on disc 5). In WHtF’s attempt to give Charming stuff to do, I felt it took away from Abigail’s agency, making her the more passive traditional fairy tale princess figure that Snow, at least, is not. The heavily emphasised theme was ‘truth’, as Charming learned that Abigail didn’t want to marry him either and why, while a sympathetic Kathryn forced David to make a decision about them and their future. Not wanting to hurt anybody, he lied, and hurt everybody. (With a little help from Regina, who was the classy person responsible for spraying ‘TRAMP’ all over Mary Margaret’s car, but then it was also revealed that she didn’t understand friendship.) As ever, I found the Emma-Henry stuff lovely.
In ‘Dreamy’, I can’t say I was all that bothered about how Dreamy became Grumpy or his love for fairy Nova (even though Amy Acker was a charming guest star, despite the fairy costumes being uncharacteristically dire) or dwarf and fairy mythologies and how limiting the expectations of dwarves and fairies could be. But the double act of Mary Margaret and Leroy in Storybrooke, both seeking redemption for different reasons, was fun. I squeed when Belle turned up to advise on love. The fireflies/candles visual was gorgeous.
‘Red Handed’ was a nicely complicated episode, with some gorgeous moments, mostly in the Enchanted Forest, where Snow-on-the-run first meets Red and we all discover her terrible secret. Both wore excellent, plot-significant cloaks. It was a shame Ruby turned her back on being a deputy, she’d have been great at it with her enhanced senses – too great? Emma and Mary Margaret feel more mature than Ruby, although Snow and Red feel like equals in the EF. This was quite a gory episode by the show’s standards.
‘Heart of Darkness’ also featured some sophisticated storytelling, although there was some overuse of repetition in different circumstances. It was quite nice to hear Snow be the one to promise to find Charming for a change, though.
Regina had framed MM for Kathryn’s murder in Storybrooke and in the EF we got to see the consequences of Snow forgetting Charming for her and the dwarves. I didn’t buy that David would fail to notice the drastic change in look when he ‘remembered’ Snow in loveless revenge mode and misconstrued her actions as MM feeling murderous. Some curse-related handwaving needed there. His belief that MM could have killed Kathryn broke her.
There was a nice use of Red’s being a werewolf after the big reveal of the last episode. I say ‘nice’. Once again, some poor soldiers who were just doing their job – not their fault their boss/monarch is horrible – became collateral damage. Maybe not nice in any sense, then.
