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When is that??? I’ve been waiting for an announcement forever but feel like I never see it whenever Netflix puts out their “Coming soon” list.
I spoke too soon! For some reason, I thought it was coming out in June, but apparently it’s not until December. Darn! Also, Capheus is being recast. 🙁 I’m trying to stay open minded, but I really liked the original Capheus!
YES. Do it! It has a bit of a rough start but by the time you hit the midseason finale (episode 8) it’s amazing and then the back half only gets better with each passing episode.
Well, thanks for letting me know! I’m more excited for it now. It’ll be great to get back into the OUAT universe with a story that’s well done.
Oh, and I might also try out ‘Chesapeake Shores’ in July, simply for Meghan Ory.
[adrotate group="5"]‘Pretty Little Liars’ is my current staple. I have 5 seasons to get through. Also, ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ and ‘Sense8’ as soon as S2 becomes available. I’ve never watched ‘Once Upon a Time in Wonderland’, so this might be a good time for that too.
But I also read that article as a commentary on A&E’s inability to learn from their mistakes, or to take critique in a productive way that would allow them to grow as writers. There’s something very basic about A&E’s failings, and that’s their utterly idiotic refusal to admit that they don’t plan ahead very effectively.
Yep, I was speaking in very general terms, responding only to the content of that article. In regards to A & E, I agree with yourself and others here about their failings. I think they lack a well rounded writing skill set and are incapable of managing a large scale project like OUAT. They fall short in so many different ways that I can’t attribute it to any one weakness; it just seems to be incompetance.
Here’s an amusing example of A & E’s inability to learn from their mistakes. In its later seasons, ‘Lost’ was criticized for its many and confusing time jumps. In S5, I heard the exact same complaints about OUAT, especially in ‘The Bear King’. It’s confounding that A & E managed to reproduce this very specific problem so faithfully. I mean, I can’t imagine that they were unaware of the confusion it caused on ‘Lost’. So I can only presume that they’re wearing blinders and plowing ahead with the mantra, “Anything ‘Lost’ did was good, so we’ll copy it.” The same goes for flashbacks. On ‘Lost’, they started feeling repetetive around S3, so the writers switched over to flash-forwards and flash-sideways. A & E have been nowhere near as adaptable.
Sometimes, I wonder how much this is a factor of the audience (whether fandom or GA) extending them undue credit because of their association with Lost. But of course, it’s not just them — there are other people, from the cast to folks like Jane Espenson, who lend their name to the show, and prevent it from tanking completely, without being able to pull it out of the bog of mediocrity within which it is mired.
I’d say that OUAT’s success and endurance flatters A & E. I think it can be attributed to the following three things:
1) A very clever idea which leveraged the pre-existing popularity of Disney characters.
2) Phenomenal casting. These days, Lana and Bobby’s acting is what carries the show, along with Colin’s sex appeal.
3) Luck. A & E were lucky to be associated with ‘Lost’ and they’re lucky that ABC has no contenders to usurp OUAT’s time slot.
So it seems like we’ve moved on a bit, but I wanted to comment on the article @RG posted about fan culture and entitlement. Interesting read.
I don’t necessarily agree with the article’s central premise though, which the author sums up in her final paragraph:
Fans don’t need to get what they want, and much of the time, they probably shouldn’t. Sometimes, they will; it’s unrealistic to expect that every piece of art or pop culture with any kind of dedicated following can find a way to satisfyingly sidestep or subvert the expectations of every person in that following. But the more often that can happen—the more often movies can assert themselves as creative works made by directors and writers and editors and actors and cinematographers, not in service of fans—the better.
There’s an assumption here that without pressure from fans, writers, producers and other artists will be free to assert themselves with originality and boldness, completely free of any expectation. That’s not the case. Art is nearly always a form of fan-service, especially commercial art. Writers, artists etc usually create with the intention of sharing their work. Many, if not most, want their work to be as popular as possible. Popularity depends on including ideas, characters, relationships that will appeal to a mainstream audience. So these are often included in the work. In other words, fan-service.
This type of fan-service is implicit, rather than explicit (which is the type the article talks about). It is more subtle than a hashtag campaign, but also more ubiquitous, deeply ingrained and influential. Certain privileged groups, straight white males for example, hardly ever have to send a tweet in anger. Writers and producers will meet their needs and wants without having to be told. White males are vastly overrepresented in Western media. Most books, movies and TV programs feature straight relationships. I’m certain that there have been countless instances where a producer or an editor has requested an author to include a romance (straight), or change the gender of the protagonist to make it more appealing to a mainstream audience. All fan service.
The author worries about fan culture “promoting a form of conservative stasis rather than active engagement”. While I can understand what she’s trying to say, I think she misses the point that culture itself usually has this influence on creative work. This is why we have underrepresentation of minority groups, heteronormativity and other issues. Artists are by no means completely free to create what they want. Societal, cultural, religious and other influences, either conscious or unconscious, will always shape the choices they make when they create. These influences usually nudge them into decisions that favour majority or privileged groups in society. If art really were as pure, uninhibited and free without fan pressure as the article seems to imply, then #MakeElsaGay would be redundant. There would already be Disney princesses who were gay.
With regards to Amy: which arc? I’m not sure I remember her getting mad in 5B but there was the whole Twitter debacle in 5A with her cut scene in 511.
That’s the one. From ‘Swan Song’ I think. I was under the impression that that scene gave her arc some kind of closure in 5A and that’s why she was mad. It’s understandable because she made that threat against Arthur that ended up being empty and there was no point at all to including her in 5B.
There are definitely times when you rue that a scene had to be cut because it would’ve added so much to the episode. But this is not one of those times. I want to see the scene where Robin reunites with Roland and also the one Amy Manson got angry about. Will S5 deleted scenes be released before the DVD comes out?
I think the show’s unique and imaginative concept itself could be shown in a fresh way again.
Agreed. The world they’ve built is still compelling. I’d watch a spin-off with some of the side characters. Mulan and Aurora rescuing Philip could lend itself to becoming a mini-series. But the spin-off would need new producers because A & E seem to have lost interest.
