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 5 had a lot to live up to after Season 4 being as impressive as it was. As far as Season 4's episodes go, they were all decent to brilliant with the only small dip being "Family Business" (though "Heart of Gold" was uneven) and the best being the "Smash the Mirror" two parter, "Best Laid Plans", "Mother" and the first part of "Operation Mongoose". So was expecting a good deal from Season 5 and "The Dark Swan" didn't disappoint at all. All the episodes between that and this ranged to me from decent to brilliant.
"Devil's Due" is great and among the stronger episodes of the second half of the fifth season to me.
Occasionally it could have done with more clarity with a lot going on.
Milah was a little on the bland side as well.
However, there is lots of character development advancing and the set up for what's to come with the Underworld still showing a lot of potential and the Dark Ones arc intriguing still if in need perhaps of more clarity. The story has enough moments where it is absorbing and balanced with assurance and coherence on the whole.
It's the character interaction that shines just as much.Particularly good too are Hook and Hades, anything with Mr Gold and with Regina, Snow and Emma. The character arcs are solid, the drama full of intensity and heart and a couple of nice twists.
All the acting is strong, Greg Germann continues to be a great fit for Hades and one of my favourite "new" characters of the later seasons, imposing threat, menace and surprising humour and it makes it easy to see what characters see in him and are easily manipulated. His treatment of Hook is indeed extreme somewhat, but it does show what he is capable of.
The other standout is Robert Carlyle, he was always one of the show's best and most consistent actors and that can be seen in Carlyle in an adept mix of ruthless and vulnerable. Mr Gold never fails to be interesting, and "Devil's Due" doesn't make the mistake of softening the character too much or making him standard villain. Colin O'Donoghue also brings a lot of authority and intensity to Hook, at this point of the show since the Dark Ones arc was introduced Hook's character and writing have become significantly darker than before and this reflects in O'Donoghue's acting.
Lana Parrilla, Ginnifer Goodwin and Jennifer Morrison are similarly terrific, but it's Germann, Carlyle and O'Donoghue that stand out here.
Furthermore, "Devil's Due" is a very handsomely mounted episode visually, 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 theme tune.
Writing has the right balance of humour, pathos, mystery and intrigue mostly. This aspect has come on such a long way since when 'Once Upon a Time' first started, much more complexity and nuance, or at least at this point (with a few exceptions of course) before it took a nosedive in the last season.
In the end, great. 9/10 Bethany Cox
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