Passages of the Pen: Review: Once Upon A Time: The Shepherd (ep 1.6)

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From imdb.com
David - aka John Doe - must choose between staying with Kathryn or leaving her to be with Mary Margaret, with whom he's fallen deeply, and inexplicably, in love; and Emma catches Sheriff Graham in a lie. Meanwhile, back in the fairytale world that was, Prince Charming is about to encounter a life-changing event that will forever alter his destiny.

I do try to keep it spoiler free :D Oh, and a month ago (I think), Josh Dallas held a tweetcast and it was at this episode when it happened. Too bad, we were still three episodes away. I'm not complaining since I'm happy StarWorld is showing it at near-match airing times.

My thoughts
As if the show couldn't get any more interesting. :) We were given another revelation to Prince James Charming and his real origins *gasp* and this time around we see King Midas. I do wonder who would he be in Storybrooke. I also thought King Midas was a Greek myth. *Googles* *wink* Nevertheless it still worked into the fairy tale and that's the thing! Who would have thought all these fairy tale characters have indeed interacted which each other. Someone has a clear channel to a kid's dream. :D

I think it's quite a tricky balance for the writers to create an inciting event while at the same time having a clear grasp of the big picture. I often wonder if the writers' room has a story map on their white board with numerous branches denoting the episodes. :D

Relive the tale

Another thing I like about the episode was when it referenced back to other episodes not long ago shown, which was still fresh to the viewers' minds. This episode told us of how James meet Princess Abigail in the first place and not a long-time acquaintance as I previously thought back in episode 3: Snow Falls. One thing made me wonder though that a man sent to fill in someone else's boots (literally) wouldn't he still have his provincial way of carrying his words. You know, like for us, you can tell if one is a city born and one live most of his life in the country. So did Rumpelstiltskin magically gave the shepherd the knowledge to think Prince-speak? What do you think? What about the implications of this one-sided switch? No one else really knows except Rumpelstiltskin and the king, right? Will we find more expansion of James before his untimely demise? I don't think so because it wouldn't be the shepherd's memories then. So I think we'll be seeing more of his time spent with Snow in Fairytale Land and the things in between.

The setting of where the farm was located was a peaceful place and I could run all day too. The cinematography was great. Whenever I shoot the video cam on an wide expanse of green, it comes a little flat to me. lolz.

I thought the action sequence with the dragon was thrilling which came from the timely edits done by series film editor, Geofrey Hildrew. The dragon was very menacing and the composites happening in the scene were very seamless that the interaction with the actors appeared real. Kudos to the visual and sfx effects team.

Set decoration of the chamber set by Midas for Prince Charming, his father and his men to use during their stay was another thumbs up. Was every thing set in gold? I was listening intently to the conversation between Rumpelstiltskin and the king for me to afford a look. I hope another re-run will be in the midst. I can clearly see Robert Carlyle was having a ball with his character. hehehe

The intercuts from Storybrooke to Fairy Tale Land were smooth between scenes that it didn't appear abrupt or jarring and flowed easily along with the story. All in all, another 5 stars for me.

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