EW 12/1 – JMo Defends Excess of Curses

I actually think this curse is intriguing and am ready to see what it will do to the town next week but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s the same thing again: Curse, SB in danger, 11th hour save.

Wash, rinse.  Repeat.

It’s the visual representation of the curses as ominous clouds that bothers me — it’s symbolism with a capital “S” and a bunch of exclamation points, and used again and again it just becomes a parody of itself.

(When I first saw the subject line, I thought the actress must have gone on a Twitter rampage or lashed out at gawkers or something like that.)

The Spell of Shattered Sight isn’t a curse. It’s a spell.

However, I get the point that there have been too many curse and curse-like spells for the climax/main problem. There needs to be other types of battles that our heroes need to face.

I think if the Spell of Shattered Sight had been depicted differently from the CGI cloud of doom used for the dark curse, then it might not have felt so repetitious. Perhaps if the spell had been depicted as a heavy gale or as a snow storm, it might’ve just looked different enough to feel new.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what would do as the ”main problem” for a plot arc instead?

That’s the problem you run with fantasy. After a certain point, you’ve used all the tricks of the trade such as memory losses, witch fights, and even walking brooms. I think this show probably needs to come to a close at the end of S4. I think once the author of the book is revealed (assuming there is one) and the sorcerer’s identity confirmed, then that would be the appropriate end point for the show.

Don’t get your hopes up. Once is still doing well enough for ABC, and remains as one of their top rated shows.

I was just expressing the opinion that I think it would be more natural for the show to conclude at the end of s4 rather than to drag it out another season. The show may be performing better than other shows in ABC at present, but the network is known to have a problem on its hands in that it has had a series of flops in comparison to other network channels.

In recent years, ABC has thrown more shows on the air than other networks and thus endured even more failure. It’s ratings continue to decline and for the 2013-14 TV season ABC was third in total viewers and fourth in the key age 18-49 demo. That erases the storyline that NBC is the cellar dweller and CBS is only for the elderly: ABC can now be mocked on both counts. Link

So while ABC might consider Once to be a success in comparison to its other shows that get canceled, the show went form around 10 million viewers in 4×1 to around 6 million in 4×9. The show might hold steady, but that is a very heavy loss. Frozen brought in enough curious viewers for one episode, but the show’s plot couldn’t maintain them. So, the network may offer the show another season to get syndication, but I think that would be a detriment to the quality of the show, which has been in decline for a while now. It seems at least one TV critic would agree with me.

ABC Entertainment Group president Paul Lee, who has a tendency to charm while talking in bland generalities about how all the new shows are fantastic and “delicious,” met the press this morning and once again failed to be humble and made excuses left and right (according to Lee, “Once Upon a Time” doesn’t get the attention it deserves because it’s a family show, not because it’s a blah show). Link