MovieChat Forums > Once Upon a Time (2011) Discussion > Thoughts On Season 7 (spoilers)

Thoughts On Season 7 (spoilers)

posted 7 years ago by R_Kane (15828)
5 replies | jump to latest

Surprised by how much I liked the first episode. The premise that the same legend can be interpreted differently in different cultures didn't clunk as much as I thought that it would. This looks like it will be noticeably darker than the first 6 seasons, which appeals to me, because I have always held that fairytales are not for children.

Speaking of which, New Henry is a big improvement over First Henry. New Little Kid (can't even think of the character's name, which kind of defends my following point) is annoying and cloying, even more than First Henry was. This may be down to the casting rather than the writing.

Henry now lives in Seattle and drives a Prius while working for a ride-sharing company named Swyft!

The apparent recurring antagonist, Victoria Belfry, is played by Gabrielle Anwar, an actress of whom I've always thought that her ass was her best, um, asset--which isn't a bad thing. But when they put her in a scene with Lana Parilla (the last scene, you'll see) and Parilla just mops the freaking floor with her, without breaking a sweat, I also have to wonder about the casting, once again. It's not that Anwar is not in Parilla's league, she's not in Parilla's universe. I think you will probably enjoy this. I did.

PS Is it just me, or has ABC put, like, 30 percent more commercials in the Friday night iteration than they did in the Sunday night version? Maybe Friday night ad time is cheaper than Sunday night ad rates, Sunday drawing more viewers. I was doing a LOT of fast-forwarding on the DVR.

[–] Olivergbyrne (695) 7 years ago

I was interested enough, although it did not blow me away. I agree new Henry is a better actor. But once again I am not too crazy about the child actor. Once upon a time has the worst casting director when it comes to child actors. I mean there are current shows with terrific child actors so I wonder why Once upon a time always struggles with their kid actors.

[–] alycat32 (133) 7 years ago

I liked it more than I thought I would. In fact, I wasn’t even going to bother with this season but watched it on a whim. Now I’m curious enough to keep watching. While I enjoy most of Ginnifer’s work, I will not miss Snow and Charming in the least. I’m glad that we will see just enough of Emma to hopefully have a send off of sorts explanation of why Hook is around and she isn’t.

I’m going to give it a chance.

[–] pinkearmufs (3) 7 years ago

Thanks for starting this thread, R_Kane!

I've watched since the beginning, so it's hard to stop caring completely, but the premiere did little to get me to continue caring.

Andrew J. West is certainly a more charismatic actor than Jared Gilmore--definitely leading man material. But as a character, adult Henry's motivations are at this point not compelling enough to me that it made me think, wow, I want to continue going on this journey with this character week after week so he can reunite with his wife and child. In other words, I didn't have the reaction to adult Henry that I did to Jennifer Morrison's introduction to Emma Swan all those seasons ago. Dania Ramirez seems to be on par with West acting-wise, but the dialogue did nothing to help her shine.

For me, the biggest weakness remains to be the writing. Dialogue on the show has steadily deteriorated imo over the course of the seasons, but in this premiere it was so cheesy as to be jarring at times. As a writer myself, I definitely appreciate the burden of the writers to remain creative after all these years, but they really have to step it up in this area.

And I completely agree with you about Victoria as played by Anwar. The central villain (if that is what she will be) imo has to be an absolutely compelling actor for their villainy be taken seriously, a la Lana Parilla, Robert Carlyle, or the actors who played Peter Pan or Mr. Hyde. Anwar, for me, does not have the gravitas to portray an imposing or threatening figure whatsoever.

The redeeming qualities, for me, are the holdouts from seasons past, e.g. Lana, Colin, Robert. Hopefully, they will give these old characters material worthy of the actors' talents.

I watched on abc.com the day after it aired, so didn't have the ad issue. I will probably give the second episode a go to see if it piques my interest more than the premiere. Hopefully, they can restore some of the magic!

[–] R_Kane (15828) 7 years ago

First, you are welcome.

Second: "gravitas"! Lovely! Can one actually know too many words? A pleasure to read you.

Third: running out of steam. This describes most TV series, especially those on broadcast networks. Addiction to the money keeps the show runners involved longer than it does the artists inside them. Now, I have zero problems with authors doing something for money. I have. Shakespeare did. My position is that this is the seventh season of a popular network show, so it is running on fuumes: in that lowered-expectations context, does it make me happy? My answer is that it might. I want to see more Zelena. More Rumple (as a cop!). More Lana Parilla. Then we shall see.

And I hope that I will see more posts from you.

[–] Moonglum9 (11340) 7 years ago

Apparently sometime during Henry's travels after he left town, he finally got that giant honker shaved down a bit - either by plastic surgery or magic.