The Magic Three Hours

As promised, today you're getting my reviews for the season opener of Once Upon a Time and the last episode of Grimm. However, you'll also be receiving a review of the very first episode of 666 Park Avenue that I watched last night while waiting for my clothes to dry. If you don't want spoilers for any of these episodes, I would leave this blog post now because SPOILERS are about to start.

Once Upon a Time - "Broken"

     Yay, season opener! First question, who the fuck was that guy in the beginning? Balefire? And who's sending him messages? When I popped this up on OnDemand to watch the first ten minutes that I'd missed, I thought I was watching the wrong show... thanks strange guy. You suck. But who the hell are you?

     I really loved the opening scene, picking up where we left off and getting Snow's merry band back together. Everyone was happy, confused, and friggin' brilliant in their limited roles. Cut to Dr. Whale and the ever present question of who the hell is he supposed to be... which we still don't know. And hey, magic's not working like everyone thought it would. Regina is essentially powerless, everyone is still confused and angry with her. Speaking of Regina, I'm really not sure I like Henry's sudden turn around on her. Sure, it's manipulative when she comes into play, but pulling that card on Snow and the others... Weren't you all anti-Regina-as-mom last season? What happened there, Henry?

     Into Fairytale Land now and we get the introduction of Aurora, Mulan, and Prince Phillip. Loved all of them. Kind of sad Phillip had to die, but I like how neither Aurora nor Mulan are helpless maidens. I connected with the pair of them pretty quickly and I'm anxious to see how their relationship develops. Might ship them later, I dunno.

     Now, let's talk a little about magic. We see in this episode that magic works differently -- and we're told as much -- but we don't get so much of the how. It seems Emma was able to jump-start Regina's powers so she could use the hat and those weird wall-vines. Rumpelstiltskin (henceforth referred to as Gold because I can't spell that all the time) and Belle were able to kiss without him losing power... so far as we can tell anyway. But Gold was able to summon the Wraith no problem so... what's different exactly and how's that going to play into the series?

     Anyway, I loved this episode and can't wait till Sunday for "We Are Both."

Grimm - "The Good Shepherd"

     First off, I'm pissed we had to wait so long for this episode. NBC needs to stop screwing with their time slots and leave shows where they put them. Geez.

     Anyway... I enjoyed this episode. The dynamic of the sheep people and the Blutbad in a church setting was interesting. I loved Hank's reactions to Munroe... and well, all the Wessen. The fight with the Nuckelavee was interesting. Even more interesting that he turned up dead. I didn't think Nick beat him that badly. I'm really looking forward to seeing further re-development of Nick and Juliette's relationship. He's gonna have to either leave her or fess up. Hopefully no one ends up dead.

     Yeah... pretty basic episode, by all accounts. The main thing didn't seem to be all that important and the side bits were... side bits.

666 Park Avenue - "Pilot"

     Mostly watched this because I had nothing else to do while waiting for my laundry to dry and I was surprised by how much I actually liked it. It has kind of a Supernatural vibe to it... with more weirdness. The parts I thought were going to give me a bit of a nightmare, didn't. I'm not really into the writer character and his... issues. It seemed a bit tacked on to the rest of the story. The guy with his dead wife made sense but... what was up with the wall-thing? Alternate universe? Death? Entrapment?

     The main character, Jane, was sort of interesting. She seems to be a bit of a sensitive or something. Gavin, the building owner, is creepy as fuck. I don't buy how his character shifts back and forth on things, though. It's unnatural in a bad way. Took me out of the show a couple times. He is awesome when he's being creepy, though.

     Well, I enjoyed the pilot enough to watch next week and see where this goes.

Personal

I found out this week that I'm going to have a nephew. I'm excited about it. That's pretty much it on that front, though. For tomorrow's post... not sure. Might be a rant on life-drama because that seems to be going around. But for now, that's it from me.

Love ya, Jessie.