Hey guys. David here again with something different this time around. As I was thinking about how I've recently started doing reviews of movies that I've seen in theaters and the fact that these type of reviews will be a rarity for me, on account of my current financial situation that prevents me from seeing many movies in theaters, I decided that I could do the same thing for TV Shows.
Now keep in mind that these are not reviews of every single show that I see as that would be way too time consuming, but of a select few that I follow rather closely. Also, these reviews will somewhat differ in comparison to my standard movie reviews as they have ongoing storylines week after week as opposed to movies that are just one and done (at least until the inevitable sequels come out). So with that said, I give you my review of last night's Once Upon A Time episode "Souls Of The Departed".
Keep in mind that while I'll try to avoid giving away major plot points there might be some potential spoilers in my review so keep that in mind if you're reading this. With that out of the way, let's dive in.
I'm probably one of the most loyal viewers of Once Upon A Time that you'll ever find, however something that I wasn't aware of when I started watching this episode after a few months' hiatus of the show was that this was officially their 100th episode. I didn't find this out until afterwards as there seemed to be very little mention of that fact by the show's creators when compared to other shows that do something really special for their centennial episode (e.g. Psych had an audience interactive episode, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic had an episode focusing on background characters, etc.). However, even without any major advertising of this fact, I feel that Once Upon A Time still managed to do something special with its 100th outing.
After the events from the previous episode of Dark Hook being killed and the darkness in Emma being destroyed (or so we're meant to believe), she and several others take a trip to the Underworld to bring Hook back, with Emma stating that she can just share her heart with him much in the same way that her parents', Snow White and Prince Charming, did. When they arrive, they discover that the Underworld is a red-tinged, Post-Apocalyptic version of Storybrooke where all the souls with unfinished business roam, including several villains that our heroes had previously defeated.
One of my favorite aspects of the show is how it takes characters that we all are familiar with and adds its own special spin to it. Our favorite heroes may not be as righteous as we were led to believe and some of the villains may be a little bit more sympathetic than we last remembered. Another aspect I enjoy is how it seamlessly ties all these stories together into a cohesive whole and even brings up events that happened seasons ago.
A perfect example of this is shown in a flashback to The Enchanted Forest where the Evil Queen is still focused on getting her revenge against Snow White (who ruined her life when she was younger), but her father is trying to convince her to put this all behind her. What followed was a turn of events that, at first, left me wondering how this would fit in with prior events that I remembered from previous seasons, but then skillfully managed to solve other problems from past seasons that I had never even thought of until they actually happened.
Additionally, it's explained early on in the episode that, once one enters the Underworld, it's very difficult to get back out. This proves to add tension when some characters are given opportunities to leave their team members behind for either their own benefit or the benefit of a loved one. Will they choose to leave? Will they stay with the others? Who knows? It's not always as clear cut as it may seem.
Something else worth noting is when one of the souls has their business taken care of and moves on to a "better place". This makes the simple mission of finding and bringing back just one soul even more complicated as they're clearly trying to set up the fact that they're attempting to give other souls their happy endings. However, this doesn't sit well with a certain flaming-headed ruler of the Underworld revealed in the final minutes (who they're very clearly setting up as the main villain for the rest of the season).
Overall, this episode has got me very interested in seeing where the story will go and the fact that the series has already been picked up for a 6th season starting in the latter half of this year has got me all the more excited.
Anyways, if you happen to be a loyal Oncer like me, I'd like to know what your thoughts are on this episode. Does it have you excited to see where the show will head? Does it leave you feeling kind of underwhelmed? Mixed? Leave your comments down below and stay tuned as I'll be giving you another review tomorrow centering around a rather "icy" villain. Plus, speaking of 6th seasons, I'll be providing a review for another show that's starting its 6th season 3 Saturdays from now. Until then, keep loving movies and TV Shows and I'll see you on the next review. Later.
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