CONVICTION Vague Title for Messy Show

Article first published as CONVICTION Review on Seat42F.

ABC has a new series coming out called CONVICTION (the third show this millennium to go by the name, by the way). In case that vague title doesn’t tell you anything, although it’s perfectly in keeping with the trend of not-really-descriptive single-word dramas on the alphabet network, this one involves a team in New York City called the Conviction Integrity Unit. Basically, they investigate people who are in jail and claim to be innocent, which would be a daunting task for anyone, given that most prisoners claim they didn’t do the crime. Can they right the world and find justice?

In short, I don’t think so. CONVICTION has one of the weakest pilots I’ve seen this year. Besides being more of a cop show than lawyer show (the difference is the focus is more on gathering evidence than battling it out in a court room, and in my opinion, lawyer shows are almost always better), it’s also a very weak cop show.

The initial installment finds the team gathering evidence on an eight-year-old case. Yet, the experiments they do and the questions they ask are at such a basic level one wonders why they couldn’t just look at the notes from the original file to get their answers. The case is ridiculously fresh and well-remembered for everyone involved, including the detective who screwed it up in the first place. And when our heroes close in on the truth, there is a very clumsy attempt to cover it up.

Look, I know and expect that the CIU people are going to find innocence more often than not; that’s the type of show this is. But they should at least have to work for it. Given the format, how little time they have to pick new cases in the huge stacks of paperwork they receive, and their five-day timeline on all investigations, the premise is hokey, completely unrealistic, and it’s handled in a very elementary way. The last pilot I remember being structured this badly was CSI: Cyber, which thankfully was put out of its misery relatively quickly.

Adding insult to injury is that there are some really great actors in the show. Shawn Ashmore from The X-Men films and The Following plays Sam, the man who should be running the crew but who has been forced to take a back seat. Emily Kinney, a veteran of the excellent series The Walking Dead, is the fresh-faced newbie, Tess, who doesn’t shy away from pig corpses. Manny Montana, who was great in Graceland, is a former prisoner fighting for those locked up because he knows how bad jail can be. Eddie Cahill (CSI: NY) is great as the slimy politician, Conner Wallace, who puts together the team and flirts with the lead. And Merrin Dungey (Alias) is in it, too.

Leading the group is Hayley Atwell, fresh off her brilliant run as Agent Carter, stuck in the confusing role of Hayes Morrison. She is blackmailed by Wallace into taking this job she doesn’t want, but then seems to enjoy with little shown to change her mind. Is she a party girl who wants to keep living a wild life? Or is she a brilliant legal mind who really gets into helping people? I can’t tell, and I don’t think the show can, either. There’s also a convoluted backstory between Hayes and her no-longer-together parents, one of whom used to be the President of the United States. Yeah.

The one good thing I can say about CONVICTION is that the exterior shots in the streets of New York are cool. They may get One World Trade Center in the background a little too often, but at least we can feel the city in the presentation. Well, for those shots anyway. Most of the series is filmed in Toronto, but I give them credit for getting in those key city views.

Anyway, CONVICTION premieres Monday, October 3^rd at 10/9c, and if quality counts, it’ll be off the air before Christmas.

Is This the "Best" ONCE UPON A TIME Can Do?

Article originally written for Seat42F.

This week’s ONCE UPON A TIME is called “Best Laid Plans” because the characters in it don’t always get what they want, no matter how hard they try and how much thought goes into it beforehand. Whether it’s Regina (Lana Parrilla) trying to play the villains until she finds out their plan, or Snow (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Charming (Josh Dallas) attempting to ensure their child ends up with a clean soul, things don’t go the way they think they will. It’s hard to control the outcome of anything in life.

In fairy tale land flashbacks, Snow and Charming ask The Apprentice (Timothy Webber) to help ensure their unborn daughter will be good. He tells them a vessel is needed to channel the darkness into, and they decide Maleficent’s egg is just the thing. By the time they realize there’s a baby within, not a monster, it’s too late, and baby, Cruella (Victoria Smurfit), and Ursula (Merrin Dungey) go tumbling into our world.

The whole magic spell in this episode makes no sense, a hole-ridden plot even more shaky than what ONCE UPON A TIME has been delivering on a regular basis lately. If Snow and Charming go to all of this trouble, then Emma (Jennifer Morrison) should be guaranteed to be a hero, right? The darkness has been removed from her. So why do Snow and Charming go to great lengths in the Storybrooke present to try to keep her that way? Why are they worried their fretting over what they did would ruin her as a child? It just doesn’t add up.

This backstory does explain how the female witches came to be on Earth, where Gold (Robert Carlyle) finds them earlier this season. However, when they meet back up with Maleficient a few episodes ago, there is no mention of their disappearance. Assuming they stay on Earth from this point until Gold finds them, why is that not a part of the story earlier in the season? Why doesn’t Maleficent ask what happened to them, or they volunteer what became of her baby, which Gold finally shows her in “Best Laid Plans?”

Lo and behold, Maleficent’s child is none other than Young Emma’s (Abby Ross) friend Lily. Is it just me, or does the coincidence seem too much? ONCE UPON A TIME already shows us how Emma and Lily meet, and it certainly seems like it’s purely by chance. Are we expected to believe there is fate involved, forcing them to come together? That’s not something the show has used before in a major way, especially knowing The Author (Patrick Fischler, Lost, Mad Men) is locked up by this point and can no longer manipulate the story.

Yep, we finally see The Author in “Best Laid Plans,” too. Or, more accurately, we see the last author. He’s the latest in a long line, but unlike his predecessors, he manipulates the story, rather than just observing and recording. Of course, somehow the book continues to be written after he is trapped in the page, as it records the events of the curse, which again, doesn’t make sense.

No amount of great little moments can make up for this gigantic plot holes. Regina and Henry (Jared Gilmore) have a terrific scene in which they communicate with a look, but that is overshadowed by what’s happening around them. Hook (Colin O’Donoghue) is deliciously jealous of Emma’s friendship with August (Eion Bailey), but it’s resolved too quickly. Gold talking to an unconscious Belle (Emilie de Ravin) would be moving, if his character hadn’t already been completely ruined, his redemptive qualities stripped away over the past year. Emma finding out her parents lied to her might be effective, if it weren’t couched in the nonsensical part of the story in which she could still somehow go bad. Ditto for Maleficent’s pain at losing her child to so-called “heroes.” I just don’t get why this show, which delivered half a season of greatness just over a year ago, could fall so far and not recover. It really bums me out.

ONCE UPON A TIME airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

"Poor" ONCE UPON A TIME

Article first published as ONCE UPON A TIME Review Season 4 Episode 16 Poor Unfortunate Soul on Seat42F.

ABC’s ONCE UPON A TIME focuses on yet another “Poor Unfortunate Soul” in this week’s episode. This time, it’s Ursula (Merrin Dungey) who is getting a bad rap based on past wrongs. Can our heroes use that to their advantage and peel her away from the other villains? Hopefully before Regina (Lana Parilla) and / or August (Eion Bailey) are lost to them forever?

The backstory between Ursula and Hook finally comes out. When Ursula is young (and played by The Following’s Tiffany Boone), she is promised help from Hook (Colin O’Donoghue). When her father, King Poseidon (Ernie Hudson, Ghostbusters, Oz), interferes in their deal, though, Hook also fails to hold up his end of the bargain. In a fit of rage, Ursula trades tail for tentacles and becomes the familiar evil monster. Of course, Hook makes up for his bad decision in the present, helping Ursula get her voice back, and the sea witch gives up her dastardly quest to return home with her dad.

I don’t know that I really buy this. This is the trade deal Hook is so ashamed of he can’t tell Emma (Jennifer Morrison)? Seems he is at least sort of in the right, even if he’s not noble. Ursula, while plagued by grief, gives up everything because her singing voice is gone, rather than fighting to get it back? Then, a long, long time later, she switches sides again just because she gets the voice back?

And how does Ursula get a happy ending with her father? She’s a villain, right? The rules that ONCE UPON A TIME establishes are that villains cannot have their happy endings. Yet, Ursula gets one, and Hook is having one with Emma right now. Regina would be near one had Robin (Sean Maguire) not been forced to leave, which had nothing to do with the story. This is all quite flimsy and doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.

That is, unless we find out all of Rumple’s (Robert Carlyle) character development, including his redemption arc from the first two and a half seasons, is magically taken away by the book because of the story rules, and the same happens for Ursula and Hook. That would fix a large number of the problems I and others have had with the last year, and help get ONCE UPON A TIME back on track. Though, there’s no evidence of that happening in “Poor Unfortunate Soul.”

Speaking of the bad guys, the witches and Rumple torture August for information, which they don’t get. However, Regina manages to get a message off to the good guys, who then come and rescue August. Because Rumple doesn’t trust Regina, this actually works in her favor, making sure she’s not around to blame for August’s escape. This is a clever twist.

Will August stay in the show? I don’t think Once Upon A Time will toss in a true Emma / Hook / August love triangle because Emma and Hook are already quite far down the romantic path, so what would August’s purpose be? Honestly, I don’t care; I’d just like to keep him around.

August reveals that the author is trapped inside the book, which makes him much harder for the villains to get to. I don’t know why Regina tells Rumple that Henry (Jared Gilmore) has the missing page, as she should do everything possible to keep from endangering her son, especially after seeing Rumple torture August. But for now, as long as Henry holds onto the page, the author will be safe and the villains won’t get their happy ending.

Yet, going directly for the author isn’t Rumple’s plan, anyway. He wants to turn Emma’s heart dark, since the bad guys can’t win as long as the Savior exists. Wouldn’t the Savior, by definition, have to be a Savior? How can she be swayed to the other side? Does that negate what she’s done? I don’t get this bit of logic, or lack thereof, either.

“Poor Unfortunate Soul” isn’t totally bad. A dream sequence Regina has involving Robin and the Evil Queen is cool, even if the writers then have Regina over-explain it to the audience. There are also some good lines and touching moments, including when Ariel (JoAnna Garcia Swisher) returns and saves Hook. The problem is, the story is so disjointed and poorly planned out that it’s hard to see how the show will twist itself into something even resembling a satisfying resolution. Not to mention, when did Elsa get the power to shrink ships and store them in bottles? ONCE UPON A TIME has been driving on the edge of a cliff, frequently teetering, but I think it’s finally gone off completely.

Once Upon A Time airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

ONCE UPON A TIME On the "Edge"

Article first published as ONCE UPON A TIME Review Season 4 Episode 13 Darkness on the Edge of Town on Seat42F.

In this week’s episode of ABC’s ONCE UPON A TIME, there is “Darkness on the Edge of Town.” A down-on-his-luck Mr. Gold (Robert Carlyle) brings Ursula (Merrin Dungey) and Cruella De Vil (Victoria Smurfit) to the edge of Storybrooke with a plan to get them inside. If only our heroes weren’t such goodie-two-shoes, as a couple of them apparently aren’t, the hamlet might be safe. Alas, evil is allowed within the protective spell once more.

This is supposedly about the lowest Gold has ever been, yet he’s easily able to manipulate not just his cohorts’ way into Storybrooke, but his own as well. If this doesn’t give you an idea of how powerful and forward thinking the Dark One is, nothing will. He may look pathetic eating a cup of ramen noodles in Ursula’s sad apartment, but this is merely cosmetic. Gold is still very much a force to be reckoned with, and far from done with his plans.

I contend, though, that things go far too easily for Gold in “Darkness on the Edge of Town.” Gold is very intelligent, to be sure, but so is Belle (Emilie de Ravin), and he not only tricks her into releasing a demon on the town, he does so without anyone suspecting his spell. Then, while Emma (Jennifer Morrison) and Regina (Lana Parrilla) do have reason to think villains can be redeemed, they don’t question how convenient it is that two baddies who can stop the demon show up at just the right time to do so? Not to mention, after allowing Ursula and Cruella in with a magic scroll, our heroes don’t get this key back, allowing the women to sneak Gold in later. This all adds up to a pretty weak story.

Weak, uneven story has been the problem with ONCE UPON A TIME for at least the past year. Ever since the excellent Neverland arc ended, it seems the writers can’t quite manage to come up with a cohesive tale that makes sense. I am very interested in Gold’s past with these villains and how they ended up in the real world, but we need a framework that makes sense to get us there. Having coincidence and laziness move characters that are supposed to be the best of us is sloppy, and it’s hard to get into the story when this exists.

That being said, there are some cool teases in “Darkness at the Edge of Town.” Snow (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Charming (Josh Dallas) apparently have a past with Cruella and Ursula they don’t want exposed. This is intriguing because the pair are usually so good as to be boring. The few times their darkness has come out have been among the best moments for their characters. I’m anxious to see what their secret is this time.

Also, after the Blue Fairy (Keegan Connor Tracy) is rescued from the sorcerer’s hat, she speaks of the sorcerer and the author of the story book being two very different people. As has frequently been the case in ONCE UPON A TIME, Blue seems to know a lot more than she’s letting on. Given the importance of the author and how the show has been teasing his or her identity for awhile, it’s heartening to see this arc moving forward.

Lastly, Gold says that the heart with the darkest potential in Storybrooke is Emma, not Regina. Given just how bad Regina used to be, that’s hard to believe, but our Emma is certainly not as pure as Snow (he he), with her own checkered past. Emma’s use of magic has been slowly growing, and we’ve seen that magic can corrupt. Might Emma be reaching a tipping point where her soul is pulled towards the wrong path? That would be an interesting plot, if done right.

“Darkness at the Edge of Town” manages to be a pretty intriguing hour, despite the flaws in the central plot. The series certainly can’t afford to let every installment be this flimsy, but if it focuses on the established strengths it possesses, Once Upon A Time could get back to being great again in short order. There is enough good stuff here to build a half-season upon. The question is, will they?

Once Upon A Time airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

ONCE UPON A TIME "Heroes" Threatened By "Villains"

Article originally written for Seat42F.

ABC’s ONCE UPON A TIME wraps up its current Frozen arc in just a portion of this week’s mid-season finale, “Heroes and Villains.” The Arendelle trio return home through a portal, easily overthrow their conquers (off screen), and end with a blessed wedding (also off screen). It’s the fairy tale happy ending, one they deserve and it is satisfying to see them get. There’s even a portrait of Ingrid, The Snow Queen, shown in better times with her sisters, to add a bittersweet remembrance.

But while heroes have their dreams come true, villains do not. The rest of the hour is devoted to Rumple’s (Robert Carlyle) quest for power and Regina’s (Lana Parrilla) desire for a happy ending. It’s actually a pretty good episode, if one can finally bring themselves to accept Rumple as he is, rather than as he was. I’m not talking about Rumple developing into a different person through growth and natural story flow. He is instantly made completely different, and now the show is using revisionist history to ‘prove’ that he has always been this version, which doesn’t at all line up with the first two and a half years of the series. A mention of him changing while being under the Wicked Witch’s control is flimsy, at best, though that’s about the time the transformation happened.

I have come to the conclusion that Rumple’s devolution is made to serve Regina’s tale that villains don’t get a happy ending, but if only his shift were to be tied into the storybook, with an explanation that he got too close to a happy ending and so had to be re-written, then I could get on board. Sadly, it looks like that will not be the case and the show runners just want us to forget a rich, layered character who sacrificed himself for love. Bah humbug.

That being said, if you’re able to look past these inconsistencies and accept things as they now are, which has been a struggle to do but I’m getting there, “Heroes and Villains” provides a cool showdown. Actually, a couple of them. In flashback, we see Rumple face the Queens of Darkness, Ursula (Merrin Dungey, Alias), Cruella De Vil (Victoria Smurfit, Dracula), and the returning Maleficent (Kristin Bauer van Straten, True Blood), demonstrating his true colors and his devotion to power. In the present, Belle (Emilie de Ravin) figures out that Rumple has been tricking her and banishes him from Storybrooke in the most moving scene of the finale, stripping him of his magic in the process.

Runner up for emotional scene goes to the moment Regina and Rumple share in the car, which is an excellent moment, though makes no sense to the story. I’d understand it if Rumple were trying to recruit her for his aforementioned villains team-up, but Belle hasn’t caught him yet at this point.

Rumple and Belle’s confrontation has been a long time coming. She has faith in him, faith that he has been abusing behind her back. She arrives at this conclusion very naturally, accidentally seeing something that raises her suspicion. Thank goodness she has the strength to stand up to him and kick him out, something Belle should be able to do, but not something I had faith that she would, given her inconsistent handling this year. The couple now appears back on track, story-wise, at least within the confines of the new Rumple character.

Now, Rumple is out in the world and is seeking Ursula’s help. One can surmise, given the flashback scenes, that Rumple learns that bad guys cannot win on ONCE UPON A TIME, but hopes that by teaming up with others, he might stand a chance against the mysterious Author, whom only Rumple seems to know. Though it is odd that Rumple tells Ursula they have two stops when we know Maleficent is under the library inside Storybrooke, a place Rumple can’t get to at present. And how did Ursula get outside the town to New York? Hmm. Will there be more story problems going forward?

A few hanging threads from this: Rumple does abandon his plans to take Henry (Jared S. Gilmore) with him, but that makes sense. Earlier, he is saving Henry from a town falling apart. Now, Henry’s mothers are still around and Rumple doesn’t need to save the boy. Secondly, Emma (Jennifer Morrison) forgives Hook (Colin O’Donoghue) for his misdeeds, but since she catches Rumple with Hook’s heart in his hand, she can be forgiven for assuming Hook only acts under Rumple’s control, which isn’t completely true, but close enough to reality to give ONCE UPON A TIME a pass on.

Regina’s story, as has been the case for many episodes now, is better in “Heroes and Villains” than Rumple’s. Robin Hood (Sean Maguire) chooses her over a re-awakened Marian (Christie Laing) and Marian doesn’t fight back. But the Snow Queen’s lingering curse forces Marian to leave Storybrooke to be cured, and Regina isn’t heartless enough to send Marian away without her son and, by extension, Robin, who cannot be separated from his child, leaving Regina alone again.

Luckily, while not having a romantic partner, Regina isn’t really alone. Henry is still set on helping the woman who raised him, and finds the Author’s library where he (or she) writes the stories. Emma also agrees to help, and for once, Regina seems happy to accept it. I think Regina is at a low point in “Heroes and Villains,” and having Henry and yes, even Emma, on her side helps relieve the pain a bit. People care about her, and thus she will be able to go on and love again, whether it be a returned Robin or someone else.

Though it is funny to think Emma, Snow’s (Ginnifer Goodwin) daughter, is buddies with Snow’s step-mother. The age differences and dynamics on this show are some of the weirdest on television.

“Heroes and Villains” is a pretty good episode of ONCE UPON A TIME, mostly consistent with the rest of the season, tying up the current stories and teasing out new ones. It doesn’t match all the previous years, but for the direction the show is going in now, it works well. I’ll miss the Frozen people, but their time naturally comes to an end, so I’m not complaining they’re gone.

ONCE UPON A TIME will return March 1st to ABC.