When 'Once Upon a Time' first started it was highly addictive and made the most of a truly great and creative premise. Really loved the idea of turning familiar fairy tales on their heads and putting own interpretations on them and the show early on clearly had clearly had a ball. Watched it without fail every time it came on and it was often a highlight of the week. Which was why it was sad when it ran out of ideas and lost its magic in the later seasons.
Season 1 was a solid season, with most of the episodes very good to outstanding. Season 2 showed enormous promise from the get go, with everything feeling more settled, expanding on old characters and plot lines and introducing new ones with richer content. That can be seen in "Tallahassee", but the previous five episodes and the succeeding ones handle it better.
"Tallahassee" is another case of it being even better if it tried to do less and didn't introduce as many plot lines and new characters, instead giving more development to those already existing. It's a pretty good episode, it's just not a great one. It is convoluted in places in the present-day otherworld storyline, which was still very interesting but not quite fully thought out.
Most aspects of the visual production values are good, but generally "Tallahassee" is not one of the better-looking 'Once Upon a Time' episodes. The special effects are some of the most limited of the show up to this point, especially for the giant, and there is some sloppy use of green screen. Jorge Garcia from personal opinion does a decent job as the giant, he just falls victim to the character not looking or being written well and that after long associating him as Hurley from 'Lost' imagining him in another role fairly atypical for him it is not as easy to accept him as any other character.
However, "Tallahassee" does have a lot to like. Emma's flashbacks are beautifully written, illuminating and quite touching. Love her witty chemistry with Hook too. Much of the acting is fine, Jennifer Morrison continues to grow as Emma, Ginnifer Goodwin is charming as ever and Jamie Chung and Colin O'Donaghue prove that Mulan and Hook are the two best newly-introduced characters up to this point of the season.
Effects and the green screen aside, the production values are impressive in other areas. Enough of the settings and costumes are both colourful and atmospheric, not too dark or garish and never cookie-cutter. It is photographed beautifully too. The music is haunting, ethereal and cleverly used with a memorable main theme.
Humour, mysterious intrigue, charm and pathos are beautifully balanced, any signs of corniness that crept in here and there in the previous season are nowhere in sight here. Hook here has the best lines, only the dialogue for the giant and not so smooth chemistry between him and Emma missteps. The parallel and now merging of the two alternate worlds is as ever handled intriguingly.
In summary, interesting and pretty good but not wholly satisfying. 7/10 Bethany Cox
Season 1 was a solid season, with most of the episodes very good to outstanding. Season 2 showed enormous promise from the get go, with everything feeling more settled, expanding on old characters and plot lines and introducing new ones with richer content. That can be seen in "Tallahassee", but the previous five episodes and the succeeding ones handle it better.
"Tallahassee" is another case of it being even better if it tried to do less and didn't introduce as many plot lines and new characters, instead giving more development to those already existing. It's a pretty good episode, it's just not a great one. It is convoluted in places in the present-day otherworld storyline, which was still very interesting but not quite fully thought out.
Most aspects of the visual production values are good, but generally "Tallahassee" is not one of the better-looking 'Once Upon a Time' episodes. The special effects are some of the most limited of the show up to this point, especially for the giant, and there is some sloppy use of green screen. Jorge Garcia from personal opinion does a decent job as the giant, he just falls victim to the character not looking or being written well and that after long associating him as Hurley from 'Lost' imagining him in another role fairly atypical for him it is not as easy to accept him as any other character.
However, "Tallahassee" does have a lot to like. Emma's flashbacks are beautifully written, illuminating and quite touching. Love her witty chemistry with Hook too. Much of the acting is fine, Jennifer Morrison continues to grow as Emma, Ginnifer Goodwin is charming as ever and Jamie Chung and Colin O'Donaghue prove that Mulan and Hook are the two best newly-introduced characters up to this point of the season.
Effects and the green screen aside, the production values are impressive in other areas. Enough of the settings and costumes are both colourful and atmospheric, not too dark or garish and never cookie-cutter. It is photographed beautifully too. The music is haunting, ethereal and cleverly used with a memorable main theme.
Humour, mysterious intrigue, charm and pathos are beautifully balanced, any signs of corniness that crept in here and there in the previous season are nowhere in sight here. Hook here has the best lines, only the dialogue for the giant and not so smooth chemistry between him and Emma missteps. The parallel and now merging of the two alternate worlds is as ever handled intriguingly.
In summary, interesting and pretty good but not wholly satisfying. 7/10 Bethany Cox