I recently discovered the wonderful TV show that is Once Upon A Time, and I have developed a slight addiction. By slight, I mean absolutely massive. There are a lot of reasons why I like it, but here are the main ones (and be warned, there may be slight spoilers in this list).
1. DUH, it is based on fairy tales.
I love all things fairy tale related. I love the originals, the Disney versions, random rewrites, anything. In fact, my novel for NaNoWriMo was fairy tale rewrites where the heroes were the villains. I knew that I would love Once Upon A Time based on this, but I had no idea how much.
2. The character development is out of this world.
Once Upon A Time does an amazing job with character development. They are good at having character's personalities subtly grow and change over time. My favorite example of this is Regina's growth through the course of the show. The writers did an amazing job with having her grow and change, but made it really believable.
3. The way they handled the breaking of the curse was so well-written.
The writers of the show could easily have had the characters act like their life in StoryBrooke under the curse was not theirs. They could have had them refuse to go by their StoryBrooke names, but they didn't. They had the characters acknowledge that, even though they had false memories during their lives under the curse, the lives they led were still a part of them.
4. The adorable romances will steal your heart.
I am a shipper. When I see two characters that I think would be cute together, it does not take me long to start shipping them. Once Upon A Time is a goldmine for beautiful ships. There is, of course, Snow White and Prince Charming, but there is also Hook and Emma, Regina and Robin, and so many more. There is never a shortage of cute ships in StoryBrooke.
5. But the true love also goes far beyond just romance.
The fact that there is no shortage of amazing, romantic love does not stop the show from acknowledging the love within a family as well. Curses can be broken by family members on this show, and they often are. There is also no shortage of scenes demonstrating that the other types of love exist.
6. The main characters are a family.
Emma, Snow, David, Henry, and Regina are a family. Most of them are related by blood, and technically Regina is step-something to most of them, but it is more than that. Their family all loves each other dearly and won't give up on each other. I have no doubt that if it was needed, any one of them could kiss any of the others and break a cursse.
This also brings me back to the character development point. When I was watching season one, I could never imagine Regina liking the other characters, them liking her, or even me liking Regina. She grew as a person and did eventually become family, though.
So there are six reasons that Once Upon A Time has quickly become one of my favorite shows. I could talk all day about why I love this show, but I will stop because I doubt you want to hear it.
