The producers of ABC’s Once Upon a Time set for themselves a daunting task: sustain a dozen major characters over the course of a 22-episode television season in two diverse worlds with different storylines for each. The fact that they mostly succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest hopes says something about the ingenuity and imagination of the creative team behind this enchanting and only occasionally infuriating fantasy series.
Once Upon a Time: The Complete First Season (Blu-ray)
Directed by Dean White et al
Studio: ABC/Disney
Year: 2011-2012
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 1080p ABC codec
Running Time: 946 minutes
Rating: TV-PG
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English; Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo English
Subtitles: SDH, French, Spanish
Region: A-B-C
MSRP: $ 79.99
Release Date: August 28, 2012
Review Date: August 30, 2012
The Season
4/5
For those uninformed, the famous inhabitants of a fantasy storybook land have had a black magic curse put on them transporting them away from their happily ever afters and into the confined town of Storybrooke, Maine, where their former identities are unknown to them, and they’re now trapped into rather pallid lives bereft of love or romance or hope. The instigator of all of this unhappiness is Regina (Lana Parrilla), the evil queen from the Snow White saga, who wishes to give all of the other inhabitants of her fantasy world the same kind of misery and sorrow that she has experienced. And so, the series splits its episodes into the backstories of all of the fairy tale world’s most famous denizens: Snow White, Prince Charming, the Huntsman, and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Jiminy Cricket, Pinocchio, and Gepetto, Little Red Riding Hood and her Granny, Hansel and Gretel, Beauty and the Beast, The Mad Hatter, Rumplestiltskin, Maleficent, the Magic Mirror, and others.
And if you think you already know the backstories of these famous characters (many courtesy of Disney animated features over the decades), be prepared for a shock and a delightful surprise, for the stories of the lives of these magical characters is what gives Once Upon a Time its exceptionally clever and disarming quality. The show’s writers have continually found new ways to twist, turn, and manipulate the characters we’ve all grown up with into scenarios that often keep one on the edge of his seat. Think the Evil Queen hates Snow White only because her beauty has excelled her own? Think again. In episode 18, we find out the real reason for the unstinting animosity the Queen feels for her stepdaughter. And the stories of Snow White and Prince Charming’s long frustrated love affair (not a mere song and meeting as in the masterful 1937 film), Little Red Riding Hood’s involvement with a wolf, how Jiminy became a cricket, the origins of Rumplestiltskin, and so many more will amaze and delight you over twenty-two episodes.
The thrust of the series, however, concerns the fantasy characters’ modern day counterparts in Storybrooke. The arrival of outsider Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison) into the once closed community begins a slow but systematic unraveling of Regina’s curse, for Emma is actually the grown-up daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming, transported magically from their fairy tale world as an infant to escape the Queen’s tyranny and now twenty-eight years later escorted into the town by her illegitimate son Henry (Jared S. Gilmore), unhappily now the adopted child of the wicked Regina. And so the series begins an almost interminable struggle between Regina to keep control over the town (she’s installed herself as an all powerful mayor) and Emma who wants to reclaim her son and (once she begins believing that all the town’s inhabitants are storybook characters) end the curse which has doomed the inhabitants to lives of unfailing melancholy. Emma is aided in her struggles against Regina by the mysterious Mr. Gold (Robert Carlyle) who was the powerful wizard Rumplestiltskin in the other realm, and who, even though he provided the curse Regina used to wipe away the happiness of everyone’s former existences, resents Regina’s single-minded quest to keep everyone miserable.
If there is a negative to the series, it’s with the unceasing battle between Regina and Emma for mastery of Storybrooke. Regina’s sneering cruelty and spiteful one-upmanship wears thin after a dozen or more episodes. While it’s true that fantasies are only as good as their villains, Regina’s continual triumphs are not counterbalanced by her occasional feelings of lost love and lost affection from her son which dilute her personal triumphs over her adversaries, and by the end of the season, her wickedness has grown tiresome. Though the climax of season one suggests Regina may of necessity play a different role in the series in season two, her domineering petty wickedness (especially the unending attacks on Mary Margaret, Snow White’s Storybrooke alter ego) become repetitive and less amusing over the course of the series’ twenty-two episodes.
But kudos for the actors who (with the exception of Jennifer Morrison and Jared S. Gilmore, the young Henry who didn’t have a counterpart in the fairy tale world) must play dual roles and do so with uncommon talent and good spirits. Besides Lana Parrilla’s dominant Regina, Ginnifer Goodwin makes a lovely and affecting Snow White, and one couldn’t ask for a more stalwart Prince than Josh Dallas, their Storybrooke counterparts quite different in lacking the resolve and bravado of their fairy tale personas. Robert Carlyle is having a whale of a good time as Rumple/Mr. Gold, and Raphael Sbarge as Jiminy/Archie Hopper offers a grounded goodness to the evil which surrounds him in other realms. You’ll also enjoy Lee Arenberg’s terrific Grumpy and Eion Bailey’s mysterious writer who arrives in Storybrooke midway through the season and who has many surprises in store. Kudos also to the show’s incredible production team for fashioning an elaborate television show that often takes on movie dimensions in the look and scope of the series and in the fantastic special effects which grace every episode.
Here are the twenty-two episodes which are contained on five discs in the season one Blu-ray set. Names in parentheses refer to participants in that episode’s audio commentary:
1 – Pilot (creators/producers Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz)
2 – The Thing You Love Most
3 – Snow Falls
4 – The Price of Gold
5 – That Still Small Voice
6 – The Shepherd
7 – The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
8 – Desperate Souls
9 – True North
10 – 7:15 A.M. (actors Ginnifer Goodwin, Josh Dallas)
11 – Fruit of the Poisonous Tree
12 – Skin Deep (writer Jane Espinson, star Robert Carlyle)
13 – What Happened to Frederick
14 – Dreamy
15 – Red-Handed
16 – Heart of Darkness
17 – Hat Trick
18 – The Stable Boy (Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz, star Lana Parrilla)
19 – The Return
20 – The Stranger
21 – An Apple as Red as Blood
22 – A Land Without Magic (Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz, star Jennifer Morrison)
Video Quality
4.5/5
The program is broadcast on ABC at 720p, and these 1080p 1.78:1 transfers (AVC codec) look much sharper and more solid than the network broadcasts. The show has a very cinematic look, and the transfers capture the lush darkness of the fairy tale world as well as the everyday look of the small town. Colors are rich and beautifully saturated, and flesh tones are true to life (except when they’re not meant to be). The Storybrooke scenes are always sharp, but the heavy use of green screen in the fantasy world segments means that sometimes shots in that realm are a bit softer, likely done deliberately to mesh more smoothly with the computer-generated backgrounds. Black levels are nicely rendered even if contrast occasionally varies from shot to shot. Each episode has been divided into 7 chapters.
Audio Quality
4.5/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix is a sophisticated one for network television. Like its video counterpart, the sound design often seems more movie-like with sophisticated split effects in most episodes and a gorgeous use of lush Mark Isham music themes in every episode which make the most of the extended surround channels. Dialogue is always very well recorded and has been placed in the center channel. There’s more for the LFE channel to do in this series than in many television series episodes.
Special Features
4.5/5
There are five audio commentaries (see above episode list for the participants). The discussion of the show’s creators in the pilot episode track is the most interesting of the five. There is far less mutual admiration society stuff going on than in the other discussions and more information on the nuts and bolts of the show’s conception and subsequent production. Fans of the show, of course, will want to hear the actors discussing preparation for various moments in the show, and the episodes chosen for their participation are spotlight episodes which give them a lot to talk about.
All of the bonus material is presented in 1080p.
A Once Upon a Time Orchestral Suite presents 4 minutes of Mark Isham’s gorgeous music arranged as a concert piece that shows off its unique qualities.
Once Upon a Time: Origins is an interactive Blu-ray bonus feature which presents co-star Josh Dallas offering for the viewer’s selection the differing versions of five famous fairy tales: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Beauty and the Beast, Little Red Riding Hood, The Little Mermaid (not a part of this season but rumored to be a part of season two), and Rumplestiltskin. There is a Play All feature or these descriptions with artwork and film clips can be selected individually.
“Fairy Tales in the Modern World” is a 20 ½-minute featurette with the show’s creators Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz along with many members of the cast discussing fairy tales which have meant the most to them and their approaches to their own characters on the show.
“Building Character” shows the two show creators discussing the character of Belle with actress Emilie de Ravin before shooting begins, and then the work costume designer Eduardo Castro does to transform her into the famous character. This runs 7 ¼ minutes.
“Welcome to Storybrooke” is a 6 ¾-minute featurette showing how the town of Steveston in Canada is transformed into Storybrooke for exterior shooting.
“The Story I Remember…Snow White” has several of the show’s key actors describing their memories of the Snow White story they’re familiar with in this 4 ½-minute piece.
“The Fairest Bloopers of Them All” is the season one gag reel which runs 2 ¼ minutes.
There are nine deleted scenes which can be viewed individually or in one 12 ¾-minute grouping.
The first disc in the set as promo trailers for ABC-TV suspense shows, Castle: Season 4, and Frankenweenie.
In Conclusion
4.5/5 (not an average)
One of the best new network shows of the 2011-2012 season, Once Upon a Time makes a splendid Blu-ray package with beautiful audio and video quality and enough bonus material to entertain fans of the show apart from the masterfully written and performed episodes themselves. Recommended!
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
