Reply To: First Half of S3 in Review

[sweetgrass]

1) Overall grade for the season? B.

There were many things I liked/loved.  I loved Pan, Tink and Ariel.  These characters and the actors playing them were phenomenal.  I liked the Charming family moments.  Snowing seemed more liked a cute couple than in Season 2.  I liked snarky Regina, who is way better than self-pitying weepy Regina of Season 2. I liked the Regina finally showed self-awareness.  It started with Tink and reached the climax in episode 11.  I loved that Colin makes the best of even the smallest scenes because he really did not get many scenes even though they were in Neverland.  I liked most of the CS scenes, the only exception was the infamous lighter scene. Hook’s “I will win your heart” speech was amazing to me. The absolute faith and confidence Hook has in Emma is incredibly sexy.  I realize not everyone on this board agrees.  I liked the mid season finale.

 

So why a B?  I think that the Neverland arc was severely impacted by the decision to make Pan Rumple’s father.  It threw all the pacing off so that they could have a late season reveal and it also resulted in sacrificing all the classic iconic Peter Pan relationships.  Pan-Hook rivalry was essentially eliminated so that the showdown could be between Rumple and Pan.  I deeply resent that as well as the fact that we never saw Pan and Tink interact at all.  These are iconic relationships.   Until this season, I have never minded making Rumple part of other fairy tales, but here he distracted from the original fairy tale.  He did not enhance the Tale.

I wanted Neverbacks.  I wanted to see how the iconic Peter Pan characters got along in Neverland during Hook’s stay there.  It a travesty because Robbie Kay, Colin and Rose really breathe life into their characters and have amazing chemistry on screen.  I have no idea what the relationship between Hook and Tink was.  I am not sure if they are friends, for enemies, friends with benefits, reluctant allies, or something else?   Secondarily, I wanted to see Hook and Bae Neverbacks.  The Pied Piper flashback added absolutely nothing to the story or OUAT mythos, but a flashback to Hook and Bae post Bae leaving the Jolly Roger would help flesh put both Bae/Neal and Hook.

I think that Neverland arc began to wear on people because A&E refused to take advantage of what truly made Peter Pan Classic fairytale unique instead we got a meandering quest that went nowhere, just so that they could give us the “Pan is my father” reveal near the end of the arc and we were robbed of the sword fight confrontation between Pan and Hook, who are supposed to be both master swordsmen.  The midseason finale did not make up for the missed opportunities.  Frankly, pan didn’t need to be Rumple’s father to have Rumple redeem himself.

2) Top two favorite episodes –  last episode and the episode introducing Tink.  I really liked Tink and I liked her unlikely friendship with Regina.  The Neverland parts of Lost Girl were very good but I didn’t yet another flashback of Regina trying to exact revenge on Snowing.  To be honest I wish the show would stop with the Regina Snow flashbacks and  instead used that screen time on the present Snowing Charming family relationships.

3) Least two favorite episode –  Nasty Habits  (yawn) and  (edited to change my selection and fix typos) Think Lovely Thoughts.  Hated the whole Pan is Rumple’s father thing.  It also reduces the greatness of Pan who went from being this incredibly all powerful deliciously creepy kid into a sad pathetic creepy in a highly inappropriate way loser of a middle aged man.

I am all typed out so I finish this later.