What Happened to my Once Upon a Time Posts??

I get a lot of emails from people who read my blog (and thanks to everyone who takes the time to do so!) And in the past three weeks, my blog-related emails have probably quadrupled. Has there suddenly been a run on my Finding Lost books? (No, but you can make that happen… go here!) Has Joss Whedon cited me as his critical inspiration when working on The Avengers? (Well, not out loud, but…) No.

I stopped blogging about Once Upon a Time. And people kinda noticed.

So, I should have just come here and explained why I stopped instead of answering that question individually over and over and over again in emails, but I didn’t. And so here I am, explaining to all of you. Don’t worry… there’s no sinister reason why I didn’t blog on it.

I last blogged on the show with “Red-Handed,” written by the wonderful Jane Espenson. The following week was “Heart of Darkness.” I was out that night with my family, and the next night running around with all of the children’s extracurricular activities. I finally watched it Tuesday night, I think, and it was really late at night and I had come down with the office cold (that has officially gone around the office 42 times now, and made everyone sick numerous times as it just keeps evolving and changing), so I figured I’d do it the following night.

But then, I completely forgot. Because, as those who follow me on Facebook know, my family left for the Dominican for a week-long (much-needed) vacation on March 23, and we were packing and getting things ready for that every evening, and it just fell by the wayside.

And… there’s the reason why I missed the March 25 episode: I was in the Dominican. So, with the conviction that upon my return on March 30 I’d watch the episode from the 25th and do a quick blog on both, I sat back and enjoyed my vacation, even though — sadly, this is absolutely true — the Kardashians showed up the last day we were there because they’re filming the next season of the show at the resort we were staying at. Their production team was there the previous day, swarming the poolside and flicking their cigarette butts all around while little children were playing in the pools. It made for a good story after, but I honestly thought our timing couldn’t have been better. We checked out as they were checking in.

ANYWAY. So then we came home, very tired, put the kids to bed, and then we passed out in our own bed, not even turning on the TV. (You know Nikki’s tired when…)

The next morning I flipped on the TV and clicked on the PVR button, and it wouldn’t show the PVR guide for some reason. I reset the PVR, and when everything was back up and working I clicked again, and there it was. Everything seemed to be in order – the last things recorded were The Soup and Fringe, which should be the last things recorded on a Friday night. (Yes, I know The Soup moved to Wednesdays but because it’s been a Friday night tradition for so long, we still record it then.) But then I paused, and felt a cold shiver go down my spine. “Why is there only one Fringe??” I asked my husband. The panic began rising as I clicked on it and realized it was dated the week before. As was The Soup. And Community and 30 Rock and OH MY GOD WHAT IS HAPPENING??

I’ll tell ya what happened. Bell PVRs (this is Canadian speak for DVRs or TiVOs) have a very limited shelf life. Our last one pooped out one day after our two-year agreement ended. This one has apparently given up a week after the warranty ended. Well played, Bell. Well played. Maybe I should look into Rogers.

Anyway, sure enough, it appeared the last things my PVR had recorded were on March 23rd – the day we left – and (HORRORS!!) it had just shut itself down. For the week. It wasn’t full – despite my copious TV viewing, it’s a 200-hour hard drive and still had a good 50 hours open on it – it just turned itself off. And now I have to manually update it once a week so the guide keeps going forward. But long story short, everything I had set to record that week was gone. The new Fringe. Downton Abbey. 30 Rock. Modern Family. The freakin’ season opener of Mad Men. The Big Bang Theory. Saturday Night Live. Awake. South Park. Canada's Got Talent. The season finale of Alcatraz. Community. Ringer. Grimm. (Behold all the TV I watch and don’t have any time to blog about… it’s because I’m always about 2 weeks behind on everything and then it’s too late to write about it. Since then I've added about five new things to it.)

And… Once Upon a Time. Sigh.

This past weekend I finally sat down with my daughter and watched the magnificent “Hat Trick,” with the two of us throwing out guesses of who the guy was (I guessed Mad Hatter as soon as he was holding tea and we were both squealing when it turned out to be him – I’ve passed on my love of Alice in Wonderland to her) by streaming it on the network’s site, and then flipped back over to the TV to see “The Stable Boy.”

So, I’m finally caught up. And while I’m actually out of town again this weekend (I’m giving a paper at the Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin College on Saturday on Lost and issues of faith on the show), I’m hoping to be able to post something on Once Upon a Time soon after, and finally be back up to date with everything. But very, very briefly:



“Heart of Darkness” :
• I loved the idea that the one thing Rumpel can’t bottle is love, but that he manages to do it with Snow and Charming.
• The image of Snow White singing to the bird like in the Disney movie, only to try to kill it, was hilarious.
• If that height chart in the police station is correct, Ginnifer Goodwin is taller than me! But she looks so tiny…
• I was surprised to see Jiminy Cricket; we haven’t seen that guy in AGES and I’d like him to come back more regularly. I’m hoping in S2 we get a backstory of his life with Geppetto.
• The writer comes to Henry and tells him he’s here to try to show other people the light. Intriguing!
• He tells Henry that people like us go on faith; others need proof. He and Henry are the Lockes… they need to convert the Jacks.



“Hat Trick”
• Holy hotness, Mad Hatter. Desmond, you may have been replaced. (I laughed out loud when my 7yo daughter said, “Mommy… don’t you think he’s kind of ugly?” with her nose all wrinkled up in disgust. I said, "Actually, I think he's quite handsome!" She looked at me like I had the Worst. Taste. Ever.)
• Those hats were divine.
• This episode was intriguing because of the fact the fairytale being referenced wasn’t clear, and the guessing game took much longer. What a WONDERFUL way to retell the Wonderland story.
• Wonderland!!!! Fantastic. PLEASE have more of that.
• Why the veil over the queen? What could be hiding there?
• How did the Hatter disappear? (Did he just vanish and reappear in his hat-making room again?) Please please please please be back.



“The Stable Boy”
• Could someone just give an Emmy to the casting agent who discovered a little girl who not only looks exactly like a young Ginnifer Goodwin, but talks like her, too? That girl was brilliant.
• The actress who plays Regina has a very mature look about her (and her deep voice always makes her seem older) but I was entirely convinced when she was playing the younger version of herself.
• We finally discover that what she hates about Snow is that she caused her to leave behind her one true love and marry Snow’s father. I actually thought in the scene in the barn that it would be more than that. I thought the queen would watch her mother kill her lover, and then her own magic would bubble up so strongly in her that she’d turn and kill her mother. Then she would blame Snow for both deaths. (The constant mention of how important a woman’s mother is in her life really felt like it was leading to that.)
• Kathryn’s alive! I guess this helps Mary get out of jail free, but what happened to Kathryn, what will she tell everyone, will the curse lift, and how the heck could Kathryn’s DNA be on that heart if it turned out not to be hers? Did Regina fix the records?

I can’t wait until this week!

Coming soon: My apologies for not covering Fringe. ;)