OUaTiW 1x05: Heart of Stone
Jul. 13th, 2020 10:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedi_of_urth posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
tori_reviewsOUaTiW 1x05: Heart of Stone
So after last episode was mildly surprising in how well done it was, this one is pretty much the opposite. This was meh-to-bad I'd say, there's no tension, the elements that are narratively predictable do detract from it being enjoyable as I'm just waiting for them to get to the 'twist.' Even though technically there is forward movement on the plot everything feels like it's just spinning wheels with this one. My big question inspired by last time still remains in play but mostly only by disappointed feeling that the writers definitely didn't think it through.
Let's start with a good; as much as I still think the Queen's acting is grating, this goes further with the idea that it's kind of supposed to be. She picked it up as an affectation of the court she didn't understand when she entered it. I still think the actress still isn't the best, even as Ana, but this turn does show some thoughtfulness on the writing and directing in how this happened, and I can respect that.
Otherwise the backstory is shallow, but I'm not sure what could actually have been done to make it deeper. Yes there is a full story that could be told of Anastasia's impulsive decisions that brought her to this point, but that would have to be her story not part of a bigger tapestry of stories where she's less important. If the story was about her, the way I'm sure she sees it, it would be a story, but this isn't it. I ended up not commenting on it last time, but the confrontation between Will and Ana when he's imprisoned was actually very charged, but mostly from his side, where the anger and hurt is very powerfully conveyed, her feelings were (intentionally I'm sure) kept vague.
But the flashbacks we see here actually diminish that relationship in my eyes. Because she was an impulsive kid who ran off with her boyfriend and found out that life is hard; I came out of this not really believing she loved him. She was using him to escape her clearly bad home-life, thinking she was grown up enough to handle it. But hearing more or less the same pitch from someone who wasn't her mother, about how love isn't enough (especially when it's clear her relationship with Will was already struggling when tested), she gives in and takes the easier path.
I don't even really feel bad for Will, because I don't get this version of Will. Because to me it looks so much like Ana never really loved him to start with, he sort of looks like a dumb simpleton; and I think he seems that way because we're supposed to be in Ana's head for this story, which only further shows that she was no longer wearing the love goggles that I guess he was. I found the flashbacks a couple episodes ago to be awkward because we were in Will's head, and I still felt we got very little of his character that explained the choices he was making. Here we're in Ana's head and he just seems like a dumby who can't provide any of the things she wanted him to, so I almost feel like she made the right choice in dumping him and trading up. I may be coming around on angry-Will and evil-Queen to some extent, but dumb-Will and naive-Ana don't do anything for me.
And that's as good a place as any to bring up my age rant from last time. Ana was already Queen and Will the Knave when Alive came to Wonderland the first time, and she's become an adult but they're basically the same age as they were before they took on those roles. I said it last time, but it bears repeating because it's really confusing me.
There's very little to say about Cyrus' side of the story, or with Jafar and the Rabbit, so let's move on to Alice. I'm starting to think that so far Alice's character arc was basically done after the first episode and they haven't really replaced it with anything yet. In the pilot she's broken and grieving, and declared insane because Victorian England didn't like to deal with women having feelings and depression; she was also borderline (on one side of the line or the other) suicidal, just wanting the pain to stop no matter what it took to get it to. She's also got a bit of the Susan Pevensie thing going on; on some level she did doubt it was all real, because if it wasn't real then it didn't hurt to lose it so much. Even when Will shows up she doubts that it's really happening and not her mind playing tricks on her.
There's a little bit of an arc the rest of the pilot, of her struggles to have faith in the hope that Rabbit and Will are offering; with something that might have been an inverse arc to Ana's, deciding that love is enough to endure hardship for. But it also never seemed that big a choice to her, and once she did accept it, she hasn't really struggled to maintain that faith.
And what we definitely haven't seen from her is issues with anger. The show did not set up that she carried any great deal of anger towards the people who took Cyrus from her; recognizing that someone has hurt you and is trying to continue to hurt you so viewing them as an enemy you are fighting against, is not being driven by anger at them for hurting you. It would be a reasonable arc to have written, but they haven't.
And thus the conflict in this episode amounts to nothing. The show has not portrayed Alice as that complex a character that I had any doubt she'd be judged pure of heart. And by the show's logic that seems to be a good thing; unless they're setting up to turn that on its head and I've forgotten. Because what we've been shown is that Cyrus is Alice's first, last, and only priority; and that is just as dangerous as anything else. It comes back to the question Will asked a couple episodes ago, what would Alice be prepared to sacrifice to be with Cyrus?
I guess one predictable 'twist' the show didn't empty was that I wondered if it might go the route of what kind pure of heart they were talking about. Pure might mean a single driving purpose just as easily as it means untarnished. I don't think it ended up going for that, as much as Alice could be argued to be on either side; I'm sure it was going for Alice being so good and pure because she wouldn't kill the Queen or give into anger, and as far as I recall that's what tends to be approved of throughout the Once-verse.
But the show needs to challenge its lead in some ways. I know we've been getting insight into the other characters since the pilot, but I feel like it's letting Alice's character atrophy while they're focusing elsewhere. And this didn't actually do anything to change that.
So after last episode was mildly surprising in how well done it was, this one is pretty much the opposite. This was meh-to-bad I'd say, there's no tension, the elements that are narratively predictable do detract from it being enjoyable as I'm just waiting for them to get to the 'twist.' Even though technically there is forward movement on the plot everything feels like it's just spinning wheels with this one. My big question inspired by last time still remains in play but mostly only by disappointed feeling that the writers definitely didn't think it through.
Let's start with a good; as much as I still think the Queen's acting is grating, this goes further with the idea that it's kind of supposed to be. She picked it up as an affectation of the court she didn't understand when she entered it. I still think the actress still isn't the best, even as Ana, but this turn does show some thoughtfulness on the writing and directing in how this happened, and I can respect that.
Otherwise the backstory is shallow, but I'm not sure what could actually have been done to make it deeper. Yes there is a full story that could be told of Anastasia's impulsive decisions that brought her to this point, but that would have to be her story not part of a bigger tapestry of stories where she's less important. If the story was about her, the way I'm sure she sees it, it would be a story, but this isn't it. I ended up not commenting on it last time, but the confrontation between Will and Ana when he's imprisoned was actually very charged, but mostly from his side, where the anger and hurt is very powerfully conveyed, her feelings were (intentionally I'm sure) kept vague.
But the flashbacks we see here actually diminish that relationship in my eyes. Because she was an impulsive kid who ran off with her boyfriend and found out that life is hard; I came out of this not really believing she loved him. She was using him to escape her clearly bad home-life, thinking she was grown up enough to handle it. But hearing more or less the same pitch from someone who wasn't her mother, about how love isn't enough (especially when it's clear her relationship with Will was already struggling when tested), she gives in and takes the easier path.
I don't even really feel bad for Will, because I don't get this version of Will. Because to me it looks so much like Ana never really loved him to start with, he sort of looks like a dumb simpleton; and I think he seems that way because we're supposed to be in Ana's head for this story, which only further shows that she was no longer wearing the love goggles that I guess he was. I found the flashbacks a couple episodes ago to be awkward because we were in Will's head, and I still felt we got very little of his character that explained the choices he was making. Here we're in Ana's head and he just seems like a dumby who can't provide any of the things she wanted him to, so I almost feel like she made the right choice in dumping him and trading up. I may be coming around on angry-Will and evil-Queen to some extent, but dumb-Will and naive-Ana don't do anything for me.
And that's as good a place as any to bring up my age rant from last time. Ana was already Queen and Will the Knave when Alive came to Wonderland the first time, and she's become an adult but they're basically the same age as they were before they took on those roles. I said it last time, but it bears repeating because it's really confusing me.
There's very little to say about Cyrus' side of the story, or with Jafar and the Rabbit, so let's move on to Alice. I'm starting to think that so far Alice's character arc was basically done after the first episode and they haven't really replaced it with anything yet. In the pilot she's broken and grieving, and declared insane because Victorian England didn't like to deal with women having feelings and depression; she was also borderline (on one side of the line or the other) suicidal, just wanting the pain to stop no matter what it took to get it to. She's also got a bit of the Susan Pevensie thing going on; on some level she did doubt it was all real, because if it wasn't real then it didn't hurt to lose it so much. Even when Will shows up she doubts that it's really happening and not her mind playing tricks on her.
There's a little bit of an arc the rest of the pilot, of her struggles to have faith in the hope that Rabbit and Will are offering; with something that might have been an inverse arc to Ana's, deciding that love is enough to endure hardship for. But it also never seemed that big a choice to her, and once she did accept it, she hasn't really struggled to maintain that faith.
And what we definitely haven't seen from her is issues with anger. The show did not set up that she carried any great deal of anger towards the people who took Cyrus from her; recognizing that someone has hurt you and is trying to continue to hurt you so viewing them as an enemy you are fighting against, is not being driven by anger at them for hurting you. It would be a reasonable arc to have written, but they haven't.
And thus the conflict in this episode amounts to nothing. The show has not portrayed Alice as that complex a character that I had any doubt she'd be judged pure of heart. And by the show's logic that seems to be a good thing; unless they're setting up to turn that on its head and I've forgotten. Because what we've been shown is that Cyrus is Alice's first, last, and only priority; and that is just as dangerous as anything else. It comes back to the question Will asked a couple episodes ago, what would Alice be prepared to sacrifice to be with Cyrus?
I guess one predictable 'twist' the show didn't empty was that I wondered if it might go the route of what kind pure of heart they were talking about. Pure might mean a single driving purpose just as easily as it means untarnished. I don't think it ended up going for that, as much as Alice could be argued to be on either side; I'm sure it was going for Alice being so good and pure because she wouldn't kill the Queen or give into anger, and as far as I recall that's what tends to be approved of throughout the Once-verse.
But the show needs to challenge its lead in some ways. I know we've been getting insight into the other characters since the pilot, but I feel like it's letting Alice's character atrophy while they're focusing elsewhere. And this didn't actually do anything to change that.
