ONCE UPON A TIME
Air Date: January 29th, 2012 “Fruit of the
Poisonous Tree” Review by Andy Greene
I’m not going to mince words here. I had no intention to watch ONCE UPON A TIME. But upon receiving this assignment, I found myself immersing myself in fairy tale land, and soon, less grudgingly by the week, enjoyed my time in the fictional town of Storybrooke, Maine (of course it’s set in Maine).
With spotty acting and a premise that requires several leaps of faith and an open heart (aww), the show could’ve been a disaster (there are still moments, like when you meet the ill-fated eighth dwarf named “Stealthy,” when you question yourself). But creators Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis (both co-executive producers on LOST), found the successful tone and formula for the show early on, and haven’t strayed from it. And people have caught on, as this week’s episode was its highest rating of the past eleven weeks at 10.8 million viewers, and with “reimagined” fairy tales becoming pop culture’s newest fixation, that may not change any time soon.
The show, in many ways, is LOST meets Disneyland (Jiminy Cricket is not a fairy tale character. But hey, ABC is owned by Disney!). Each episode follows two
inextricably linked timelines, one “our” world, and the other, in the enchanted forest of Happily Ever After (it’s not actually called that, but you get the point). Like LOST, OUAT has a huge cast of characters and a mythology that grows by the episode, and each week there’s a specific focus on one or a couple fairy tale characters and their origins told in glorious LOST flashback mode, and what they’re up to in Storybrooke.
Its newest episode, entitled “Fruit of the Poisonous Tree,” a title that has obvious roots in fairy tale lore (and the greatest fairy tale of all, the Bible) and its double meaning becomes transparent if you’ve taken a law class, is written by the aforementioned creators of the show and directed by Bryan Spicer (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers). The episode focuses on the origin story of Sidney Glass and his fairy tale alter ego, played by the fantastic Giancarlo Esposito of Breaking Bad fame. To this point, in part due to the nature of his character (he’s the face of the Queen’s mirror mirror on the wall), he had been grossly underused. Until now.
Turns out, he wasn’t always trapped in the mirror to advise and be a pithy sidekick to the Evil Queen. He was a genie of Agrabah (the first of many nods and hammers to the head references to Disney’s Aladdin in the episode), who is discovered by guest star Richard Schiff (West Wing) in full blown regent’s regalia as King Leopold, adding yet more royalty to a rather muddled fairy tale hierarchy.
After hearing the Genie’s plight (like everyone else in the show’s two worlds, the Genie just wants to be loved), the King incredulously reveals himself as the greatest human being on the planet. Not only is he completely happy and “wants for nothing,” he wishes for the genie to be free, and with his second wish, wishes for the genie to have his third and final wish. He didn’t need a whole movie and an accompanied Disney soundtrack to reach enlightenment; he got it done before the credits, and there you have the setup...
THE GRAVEYARD EXAMINER
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