Okay, this post is going to be a bit of a weird idea, but I’m curious to ask and debate, could ONCE work NOW not in the beginning but NOW as a Episodic series with slice of life concepts mixed with fantastical elements? It’s just a weird thought that popped into my head when I was doing my regular dose of thinking about stuff. Let the debate begin!
By episodic, I assume you mean that every episode has a clear beginning, middle, and an end that doesn’t connect to previous episodes and doesn’t necessarily carry forward next week? Like, for instance, procedural crime drama (CSI, NCIS?)
The answer is yes it could but they would have to alter the concept of the show. Instead of introducing new villains, new myths, new lands every season with the intention that by season (or mid season) end, the villain is defeated, a lesson is learned, and we move on to the next villain-of-the-arc, ONCE would have to keep the storyline to the absolute core–Snow, Emma, Charming, Rumple, Regina, Belle, Hook, and Henry–and not bring in wide sweeping villains like they do and instead focus on the interactions of the core and with the occasional side character, like Ruby, the dwarves, Granny, ect.
In other words, it could work, but it cannot work as the show stands now. It actually worked this way in S1, a bit, thought not as extensively as it does in other episodic TV. There was no clear villain (Regina was trying to get rid of Emma but she wasn’t set up to be the end all be all villain at the end of the season who is defeated. Rumple also played a part in the villainy of S1, but again with no agenda directed against a specific person). We stuck with the EF for the most part–side trip to WL. And overall, the episodes focused on character interaction–Ruby and Emma, Emma and Snow, Regina and Mary Margaret, Regina and Emma, Emma and Henry–and developing bonds or antagonistic feelings.
S2 is what changed that when they decided there would be an actual set villain–Cora for the most part, followed by The Home Office plot. It has since continued, each half becoming more “this land and this villain for this many episodes.” In the process, we’ve lost (more than a bit) of the character interaction between core.
Eddy made a joke once that they’d love to give Emma a day off to go shopping but that’s now their story works. THAT would be episodic but each episode needs to fit into their mythos of the season, so while it could work, they’d have to alter their understanding of storytelling.