What Once Upon A Time did right

I've recently been re-watching the show in some of my downtime, remembering how much I enjoyed it when it first came out. I'm hoping to actually finish the show this time, especially since I don't have to wait each week for the new episode. But as I go through the story again, I'm reminded of just how much the show got right in story telling.

I'm currently in the second half of season three, with Zelena. (She's turning out to be me least favorite villain at this point, but I'll get more into that.)

1. The whole family is present. I love that breaking the curses is a family affair. I'm all for a tragic hero, but I'm really over the whole orphaned protagonist thing. I like seeing parents portrayed as support and assets instead of obstacles to the protaginist finding greatness. On the flip side, there is a lot of skirting the orphan hero trope. Both Emma and Henry deal with being given up by their birth parents, only to find them later and become a family. It works, but it's still a little close to that worn out backstory. Plus, the addition of magic, Mom and Dad Charming not aging, and mostly everyone being "young"is a bit of a dissapointment to me, but it's not something I dwell on. It adds another layer to Emma dealing with finding her parents and learning she's not alone which provides some additional emotional depth, but it makes things...awkward. The awkward gets written in, too, so the acknowledgment somehow makes that better for me.

2. The villains have great reasons they are bad. I actually used Once Upon a Time as an example for a friend of mine. It's that every villain (Zelena get the exception) has strong reasons they are running away from something in their past. The "evil" decisions they make are all in pursuit of making sure they never have to face their trauma again. We all know that never works for finding your happy ending, but always for making a great villain. Now, a couple caveats to that. Cora and Pan felt a little underdeveloped in that area. Pan more than Cora, but I think it's because I can't relate to Pan's reasons. Pan also only gets to be a villain for half a season, so he doesn't have as much screen time to develop his emotional wounds. Zelena, however, I just don't feel happy with. Jealousy is a really great motivation for... bullying. But to get revenge? It just doesn't work for me. Now, there is a lot about the show I don't remember, so perhaps I've forgotten something that makes her motivations stronger.

3. All magic comes with a price! And the writers do not get soft on that rule! The price is always there and it's always steep. Bonus for it never being being quite what you expect. It makes the characters really think about turning to magic for a solution. They explore other options first usually, but... Magic usually ends up being the solution to the problem all the time. More so now that magic is back and as Emma and Henry get more used to the fairytale world rules. I start to miss the episodes when they could solve problems without the obvious magic. But, whith bigger, more magical problems, it usually requires bigger, more magical solutions. So some of that is just the nature of the fairytale world invading the regular world.

Overall, there is verry little that Once Upon a Time did not do well. It's why the show ran so long and has such a following. Even the things that I don't particularly like, are small, nitpicky things that do not push me to DNFing the show. I never finished it when it was first out because of time and distraction, not because I didn't like it. There is a lot of good storytelling to be had and is a great show for any urban fantasy or fairtale retelling fan.