Once Upon Time Season 3

I only give this season four stars because of the truly great first half. Season two was transitioning to the two-fold story-structure that this and all of the seasons to come will follow. Well, with this first execution of the binary structure, we are given a very endearing first act. It's kind of hard not to give spoilers away at this point, so I'll just say that this review probably has a number of SPOILERS if you haven't watched the first two seasons and may allude to future seasons (but I'll try to restrain myself on revealing things that happen in seasons 4 and 5 that might damage your viewing).So, as hinted strongly at the end of the previous season, Emma, Captain Hook, Rumplestiltskin, The Evil Queen, Snow White, and Prince Charming have gone to Neverland to save Henry from Peter Pan. Yes, I know that sentence sounds funny, doubly so if you consider the interpersonal dynamics among these character over the past two seasons. But Henry is a figure who unifies them all, as revealed to some degree in the last season, and will be revealed as you press on. Neverland is the first act, and it's one of the most concise and carefully constructed story-lines you'll get with this show. While there have been subversion of commonly known heroes into villains before, Peter Pan is the shows most effective application of this tactic. He actually carries a lot of the implied omnipotence that J. M Barrie alluded to but didn't really explore too deeply in the original stories. Though, I think this was more of a happy coincidence of the writers wanting to make the character as evil as possible rather than actually researching and exploring many of the implications surrounding the original character. Before I get to Pan himself, I'll deliver some good news.I don't think this is really a spoiler since it happens in the first episode of season three, but I'll just give the warning anyone. Remember the Greg and Tamara subplot that, while being the necessary transition to season three, was a trainwreck (especially with Tamara's road to the void beyond nowhere's backstory)? That plot is killed, mercifully for we the viewers, very quickly and in a satisfying way by Rumple. There is a sub-plot about the Darling children (Wendy, John, and Michael) that seems almost as bad as Greg and Tamara's, but at least it ties up some loose ends concerning another major character, and becomes a minor sin if you consider the season as a whole.Back to Pan, he's so wonderfully hate-able. He's probably the closest thing you'll get to OUAT's version of Joffrey from Game of Thrones (the comparison was begging to be made). But, like Joffrey (and even like Umbridge from Harry Potter), Pan's hate-ability is essential to the character. He's reaches Cora level, but Cora has certain qualities that make her somewhat likable (mostly because it's Barbara Hershey). This is not to say that because Cora is more likable that she is a better character than Pan or that because Pan is more hate-able he is a better character than Cora: both are two of the show's top tier villains who play to different evil archetypes. While there was some uncertainty as to whether Cora could best Rumple, who is always the most powerful and cunning of all the characters, that uncertainty is taken from us this season: Pan is just as, if not more, powerful than Rumple and can actually intimidate The Dark One--and it's actually believable. This has everything to do with Carlyle's amazing ability to create chemistry with anyone he's acting with and Robbie Kay's relentlessly strong performance as Pan (Kay's acting is possibly the strongest in the whole season). While he's always Peter Pan, he is a great manipulator and, for the most part, doesn't have to use his Rumplestiltskin-level magic to damage his opponents. He's a great puppet master of emotionsThis is the season where Hook really shines for me. His connection to Henry is a little convoluted, though given his sense of honor understandable and logical. What makes him a more intriguing character is that he is very aware of how dangerous Neverland really is but is still willing to act as the group's jungle guide. He also serves as a more human augmentation of Pan's menace. Rumple is wary of Pan on a number of levels, but the Dark One's fears are formed from a sense of magical knowledge and esoteric knowledge known only to Pan and hilmsef. Hook is scared of Pan because the Captain knows himself to be very mortal (with a lack of magic and a huge number of relatable human weaknesses) realizes that the boy who never grew up is a pure evil with lethal power who has total control over a deadly living island The grouping of Emma, Snow, David, Regina, Hook, and Rumple will become the basic core protagonist group from here on out, but there are plenty of tensions, old hatreds, and a slew of recurring bad personal habits to make the dynamics and drama of the group a constant. Regina's a good guy this round, but she's really not happy about it at the beginning of the save Henry quest--which makes her both amusingly terse but also a very important practical voice that the group desperately needed.The character gratuity slows down a bit since the major players spend half of the season on an island. The appearance of Tinkerbell isn't without purpose, but she is mostly there to set up a larger plot-line. The only additional Disney princess addition--so glad they pumped the breaks on bringing in every princess ever out of the woodwork--is the appearance of Ariel. Now the linking of the Neverland mermaids to Ariel's plot is actually a smart choice, even if her character is mostly there to jump through some pesky plot hurdles that the writers appear to have been too lazy to work around. The mermaid princess is given her own episode, and it's actually one of the best of the entire season (and a welcome moment of levity and revisiting of a tried and true plot).I'm sorry that this review is long, but everything that the first act of season three does so well is largely undone by the second act. With the second act, the Neverland plot almost feels anomalous. There's a lot of really distracting side-plots that are supposed to be clues to solving the mystery of the season's second half: how to defeat the second major antagonist. Undoing the end of the first act, the second act finds our heroes re-cursed (though with all of their memories except for a crucial missing year) and back in the familiar Storybrooke setting. So the second half basically takes place with the town left in a state comparable to that of where it was at the beginning of season two without the threat of previous villains. The new villain is Zelena, the Wicked Witch of the West. She appears to have a lot of promise, but so many elements of her story fall flat. Her plan is absurdly convoluted (which is saying something for this show), and she is written so seriously as to be campy (and not in a particularly good way). I think that it's her motivation that really makes the story feel so forced, which subsequently makes the continued sins of character gratuity, undermining previously established plots and story structure, and re-hashing a great deal of already exhausted themes all the more conspicuous. Where she's supposed to be sympathetic, she's just unrealistically whiny. Where she could be written or acted as psychotic, which would certainly give her more credibility in her designs, she is given a backstory that undermines the better choice of making her unhinged. This is where it is hard to know who's as at fault. Of course the writers poor elaboration of the character (mostly re-using a major number of other villain motivations) and Mader's approach (she's a scenery chewer, not uncommon to "Once" but this isn't really comparable to the show's fun vein of over-acting). All of this, more or less, really just leads to putting everyone in place for the beginning of season four, which is when the show really tests its viewers by revealing that they [the creators] haven't really had a grand, unified vision (as they display in so many interviews) but play on what they feel works (but often doesn't) and cash in on Disney love (both nostalgic and contemporary).It is also disappointment that more care wasn't given to a truly timeless character. With all of the contemporary approaches of exploring why the Witch of the West earner the moniker "Wicked," the writers had a chance to revisit the Margaret Hamilton approach [which will never be rivaled] and make Zelena's evil more profound. Or, they could have continued with the more and more common idea of assessing the Witch as being written as evil by those in power and added some new elements to that idea. This paltry conception of one of the greatest fantasy villains seems to want to sit atop the fence and have it both ways without addressing obvious contradictions in any meaningful or new ways.Once again, Carlyle and Parrilla carry the show. Mader seems like she has a lot to offer, but her performance does no justice to any idea of The Wicked Witch of the West (again, the writers are at major fault here). It is a little insulting the way so many romances are forced into this season, or pre-existing romances are tested in ways that aren't all that believable. Not believable in the sense that no one doubts that there will be any lasting damage to so many romances that wave that very irksome, and quite arbitrary banner, of "true love." The choice to pair Regina with Robin Hood is an odd one that I wasn't initially on board with, but Sean Maguire at least gives a performance that Lana can make work. The two actually become the most endearing of all the lovers (I credit Parrilla's acting again, who shares Carlyle's ability to make pull off an endearing interaction with literally anyone), but this romance buds only briefly and its obstacles are also part of the composition of the second act's cliff-hanger conclusion. Robbie Kay's Pan is the season's break-out performance: Kay is talented enough to hang with a brilliant actor like Carlyle and his Peter Pan gives more adds more dimension to Rumple's story. Rumple is one of the few character whose backstory can be elaborated on in great detail, is more original in its conception, and has an impact on the present-day plot that isn't just arbitrarily conceived to boost a particular episodes themes (at this point, almost Snow, Charming, Belle, and even Hook flashbacks seem quite forced). While characters like Ariel, Tinkerbell, and the Darling children may seem unnecessary characters meant as a tactic on the part of the writer to prove they have credibility via their knowledge of the original, they are pretty well played and are given so much more logical reasons to be a part of the Pan arc in comparison to the Oz characters that appear with Zelena's story. The last point I will elaborate on is that this is the season where Henry actually becomes bearable. I don't know who to credit here, but I'd like to say it's Jared Gilmore's acting. Instead of starting problems and making Regina's life hell, which was solely the choice of the writers and the biggest fault of season one [raised a lot of political questions that the show runners claimed they didn't intend but the points made in the show suggested otherwise], he actually becomes grateful for all of the members of his family and is brought down from the insufferable high horse that the pretension creators, Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, placed him on for the first two seasons. His mellowing and meditation is one of the best changes made in the third season (though I'm sure that the creators will claim that all of Henry's changes are part of his maturity and was what they had planned all along--which seems to be a tactic they stick to when something changes for the better). Always remember, the he was quite young when he played the role in the first season and was heavily reliant on the designs of the creators, writers, and various directors (all of whom were following the orders of Kitsis and Horowitz). So, I say, bravo to Jared for actually doing work to salvage something relatively down-to-earth from a pretty nauseating, unrealistically morally righteous figure.

The "twist" of Peter Pan as a villain is one that didn't really surprise me as I've always considered him one (if you had your hand cut off by some smug teenager who then fed it to a crocodile, you'd try to kill him too). He just never came off as a threat to me though I will say Robbie Kay did a fantastic job playing him. All Pan did was poorly manipulate everybody (if Henry didn't believe him about his parents abandoning him then why did he all of a sudden believe him about magic dying in Neverland?) and jump cutting his way around the island. Why was he considered so dangerous? This has been the most boring story the show has done: the endless cutting/walking around through jungle, the snail pace progression of the story until Pan gets what he wants is unbearable. Every time I re-watch the show, I binge these first eleven episodes as quickly as possible. That's not to say there aren't good things in this first half. I liked the episodes featuring Tinker Bell, Ariel, Rumples' flashback to his childhood are really interesting. My favorite scene in this first half is when Regina reluctantly gives up Henry so she can break Pan's curse (also could've been a way to end the series) which always manages to make me tear up. However the episode that shows Rumple not trusting his son in the flashback from "Nasty Habits" has a been there, done that mentality since we've seen the wedge in their relationship after he became the Dark One. While it is great to see Hook's past in "Good Form" to right before he became a pirate is OK but at the same time, it doesn't do anything for me.The flashback in "Lost Girl" with Snow gaining confidence to fight Regina also doesn't do anything for me but I like since not only do we get another reference to Camelot but probably the most subtle reference to a Disney movie (which also happens to be my favorite movie of all time) this series has ever done; in the commentary, the writer states they referred to "Excalibur" as Dumbo's feather.Now the Wicked arc on the other hand is my favorite of the season. I know there are those who didn't like it and found Zelena annoying and petty, but i thought she was a huge step up from the blandness of Pan. She was an active threat and routinely made sure her plan was succeeding. Is it cliche that she's "green with envy"? Yes but I find it more believable than "my mother had sex with a guy after drinking a green elixir" and she's actually, oh what's the word, oh yes WICKED!!! I've seen the musical (loved it) and I'm in the process of reading the book, but Elphaba is sympathetic from the start (which I get) but never during the entire show did I feel she became this iconic character that many associate with the Wicked Witch. Zelena however, while receiving a sympathetic backstory showing how her mother abandoned her and her father never loving her, gives in to darkness and seeks vengeance. Neal unfortunately is wasted this entire season. While now a main character, he's separated from the others for six episodes (a reunion with his father does occur in the fourth episode but it's short-lived) then separated from Emma again after wanting another shot at a relationship only to get (SPOILERS) killed off so the creators could push Emma and Hook together. The only real boring episode for me in the second half is the one with Rapunzel, which is unfortunate because if they hadn't have made just a one off character whose only purpose was a plot device for David, it would've been cool to see her return in the future. The finale was a lot of fun but despite that, something more evil than any villain reared its head in Storybrooke: Marketing.

We love this series on season 5 already. Awesome storyline thank you ☺️

The first two episodes on the dvd played normal; unfortunately, the third episode would not play at all. Skipped the third and was able to watch the fourth, but the fifth episode did not play either.

Can't believe that no channel has taken series 3 up after channel 5 dropped it. I won't go into detail for those of you who watched series 1 & 2 as I don't want to spoil it, but the ending is very clever. If you love fairy tales that you have watched over and over with your kids then you will love this - fairy tales for the grown ups :)

Exellent purchase. Have waited patiently for season 3 to be shown in the UK, after Channel 5 dropped the show. Then waited even longer for a UK dvd region2 release! Thanks to other reviews, saying that ABC studios do not region code their dvds, I ordered the region1 boxset. Thankfully, it DOES work perfectly on my ancient UK dvd player!! Ive only watched 6 episodes so far, but its the best season yet, well worth the nearly two year wait to see it!

I love Once Upon a Time, I have waited for sooooo long to watch this season, definitely lived lived up and more to expectation. Only downside was having to watch it on my laptop because my DVD player won't accept the region. Bring on season 4, I can't await to find out what happens next!

DOES NOT WORK IN UK. Ordered this after people saying it played in uk. Didnt work on 2uk dvd players, dvd in tele and xbox.I was really disappointed

Underrated show bit cheesy but great, love the way they look at classic charecters we know, but from a different angle