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.
"Pilot" starts off the show and is a very good start, establishing the characters and the world well while understandably still having a not quite settled yet feel. The writing and acting did get better later, which again is understandable as "Pilot" is the very start and a lot of shows don't fully settle straight away and have elements that get much stronger later. Mostly neither are not bad at all but occasionally the writing is a touch cheesy and the acting does try too hard or doesn't look entirely comfortable.
However, "Pilot" is a very handsomely mounted episode, with settings and costumes that are both colourful and atmospheric, not too dark or garish and never cookie-cutter. It is photographed beautifully and there were some make-up that suited the characters perfectly and pretty good effects work, at their best fantastical. The music is haunting, ethereal and cleverly used with a memorable main theme.
Much of the writing is humorous and engaging and while the story is very clichéd it does establish the concept and the alternate worlds pretty well. The wedding entrance is a highlight and it was enormous fun spotting and recognising the different fairy-tale/story-book characters.
Not all the acting is great as said, but there are certainly strong performances here. The acting honours going to Lana Parilla and Robert Carlyle, two of the consistent acting highlights of 'Once Upon a Time'.
In summation, a strong start for a frustratingly uneven show. 8/10 Bethany Cox