This
one is going to be a bit more specific. Last night I watched an episode of the
American television show, Once Upon A Time, a show about fairytale characters
who end up in the real world. Now, if you don’t
watch the show, this post is not going to mean much to you but if you have been watching it, you may have
noticed some things that I did. And so here is my list of ten things that I
would do if I wrote for this show:
1.
Reduce the number of
characters.
Once
Upon A Time is now in it’s third season. When the show first started there were
six main characters. Four of these characters were heroes and the other two
were villains. Sometimes the show would add in stories for secondary characters
but mostly, we were focused on this group of six.
But
now?
Now
there are around nine main characters plus a number of secondary characters and it’s made the show feel quite crowded.
Some shows can make huge casts work but in the case of Once Upon A Time, there
is a clear bias, with certain members shown more often than others. There are
many times where certain members of the cast won’t really serve much a
function. Often times, these characters don’t lend anything to the plot.
They’re just there to stand around and maybe say a line or two. They don’t ever
seem to lend anything to the team because writers barely give them anything to
do, which makes you wonder why they are even there. Who are these people? What
do they want? The writers won’t tell us.
And
if a writer isn’t going to use the cast they’re putting on the screen, then why
have these people there at all?
2.
The Just Love Interest
Problem
Out
of the cast of eleven main characters there are three characters that I will
refer to as the just love interests. Hook,
Neal and Belle are three interesting characters. The characters have
interesting backstories. Good actors play them. These characters have so much
going for them and yet time and time again, they are reduced to being the love
interest to another character. These three aren’t here to be interesting
characters by themselves, they’re there to moon over the objects of their
affections and weep when they are apart from their objects of affection. Are
they capable of being their own agents and having their own goals outside of
being a love interest to someone else? Yes. Are the writers letting these
characters have goals and aspirations beyond loving another person? No.
3.
Just End The Love Triangle
Already
Ah
yes, the famous love triangle. For those of you who don’t know what a love
triangle is, it’s when one character has two people fighting for the their
affections. Now, in real life, most people will date on person and dump the
other.
Oh,
but not so in fiction land and especially not in Once Upon A Time. Quite
honestly I feel like television writers have created the love triangle for two
reasons: For forced drama and fans agony. Sometimes I look at the shipping war
going on within the fan community and say to myself: Are the writers enjoying
this? Do they love the fact that people are at each other’s throats over who
gets the girl? Are they sitting in a dark room, stroking a cat and manically
laughing to themselves when people start fighting over whom they ship? Do they
really think all this stuff is healthy for their fans mental health?
Maybe
the answer is yes.
Honestly,
if I were in the shoes of a Once Upon A Time writer I would cut the cord. I
would have the girl choose one person or the other. Would it hurt the part of
the fandom that didn’t ship the couple I chose to pair up? Yes. But at least
that part of the fandom would only cry for a short while instead of endlessly
sobbing which is what the writers are making them do now.
4.
Why is Everyone Related?
So
far on this show, there have been five villains on this show and of those five
characters, only one character doesn’t have a family connection to another main
character. It seems to be that this is the writer’s thing. Make everyone
related so that it feels like a soap opera. This is yet another example of
forced drama. The writers really need to look at other options. Having a hero
related to one villain, that’s fine? Having everyone be related to each other?
Boring and repetitive.
5.
Redemption Because We Said So
I’m
all for a good villain redemption story. One of things Once Upon A Time does is
try to make their villains fully fleshed out characters by explaining why they
are the way they are. There is no problem with this type of storytelling and it
can often lead to a richer conflict. But a problem that Once Upon A Time likes
to do after they have redeemed the villains is to afterwards act like these villains
were victims. When the villains are called out on the horrible things they have
done in the past the show tends to slant the story in the villains favour,
making it seem like they were victims. That they never hurt anyone.
But
here’s the thing: Redemption only works when a character genuinely wants to
atone and realizes that what they did was wrong. I have seen characters on this
show be remorseful for their actions and seen them express their desire to
change.
The
one exception: Hook
I
honestly feel like the writers have completely forgotten this characters
horrible misdeeds. Why is Hook a hero? When did this happen? Where is his
guilt? His remorse? His admissions of his crimes? I certainly have never seen
this happen. Why is he a hero? Because the writers said so, that’s why.
Well
how ridiculous…
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