Fairy Tale and Place: Between Portland and Storybrooke, PT 1

When it comes to fairy tales on television, the big heavy hitters are, of course, NBC’s Grimm and ABC’s Once Upon a Time (OUAT). Both of these fairy tale shows are live-action and share a protagonist that is introduced to the hidden, fairy tale world. These protagonists, Nick from Grimm and Emma from OUAT, first inhabited our world—Nick from Portland, Oregon, and Emma from Boston, …

Beauties and Beasts on TV: The Problem with Rumbelle

In honor of BYU’s December stage production of “Beauty and the Beast,” we will be looking at the lovely beauties and the brutish beasts on our weekly television screens. And luckily, we have a slew to choose from. Courtesy of our twin site, FTTV.byu.edu, we are able to trace the tale’s appearance on numerous shows from …

Redheads and…Dead Heads?: “OUAT” 5.1 Review PART 2

  We return to the season five premiere of ABC’s Once Upon a Time (OUAT), which we first covered in this post. OUAT is known for its character-a-minute cameos, but this week featured the best untamed mane in the business: Merida, from Disney/Pixar’s Brave.   AUDIENCE ACCESSIBILITY It’s a good season for Disney/Pixar’s Brave–not only does Merida appear in this premiere but she’ll …

When is a Tale not a Fairy Tale?: “OUAT” 5.1 Review PART 1

  Season five is now upon us! The glitzy, cringe-fest, character-studded opera that we love, hate, and hate to admit we love, is back. ABC’s Once Upon a Time (OUAT) opened its season five with “The Dark Swan,” returning to the dilemma we last left: will Emma be more Savior or Dark One? MINING WHAT MATTERED That said, …