Fall TV: airplane previews

So, my favorite thing about flying internationally is the personalized entertainment systems that allow you to choose from tons of movies to watch.  Except for when the airlines don't have this luxury available; then there's nothing nice about flying internationally -- it's just long, uncomfortable, and your sleep schedule gets all screwed up.

On a recent flight, I got lucky and one of my many legs had my favorite personalized entertainment system and believe me, I made use of it. I watched Something Borrowed (fun enough), Midnight in Paris (really enjoyed it and thought-provoking in the Woody Allen way), Bridesmaids (fun!), Arthur (not horrible), and two sneak season premiers: Revenge and Once Upon a Time! I have no idea why they were available on the flight, but since they're on my list of shows I plan to watch this fall, I took full advantage of the opportunity!  At this point Revenge has already aired, but Once Upon a Time won't premier for another month... Here are a few of my thoughts on both premiers!

[Incidentally, the funniest part of my movie watching experience is that the 40- or 50-something Asian American man sitting next to me on the plane watched pretty much all the same movies as me during this flight, with the exception of Arthur I think. Every time I glanced over at his screen, he was watching the SAME MOVIE AS ME.]

Revenge
So, as I blogged previously, my knowledge of this show was minimal and my expectations were low. I was definitely wrong to assume this would just be another run of the mill drama -- I'm hooked!  The show drew me in from the opening scene and as we watched the complex relationships between all the characters unfold, I was impressed! It was everything Ringer failed to be; it didn't fall into the trap of being a pilot that needed to set up a story.  It accomplished all that but it really unveiled the story beautifully and everything about it was just fantastic!

Short synopsis: Emily Thorne (born Amanda Clarke) has returned to the Hamptons to enact revenge on the families that helped destroy her father and thus her childhood. From her father's lover, the wife and queen of the Hamptons, Victoria Grayson, to his secretary Lydia Davis, who was having an affair with Victoria's husband, Conrad. Additionally, the story starts with Emily's engagement party to Victoria and Conrad's son, Daniel, who is shortly found murdered on the beach. If that doesn't build a complicated enough social network, Amanda's best friend as a child, Jack Porter still lives in the area with a boat named after Amanda; and she's able to afford this Hampton's lifestyle due to the success of a business partner of her father's.

Yeah it's complicated, there are a lot of characters and even more storylines accompanying each of the characters and their relationships with each other.  But despite ALL that craziness, it was laid out beautifully in the pilot. I'm excited to see where this show goes and I'm already rooting for Amanda and Jack! :)

Once Upon a Time
I was super excited about this show, as evidenced in a previous post. Fairy Tales, Ginnifer Goodwin (I'm not sure why, but I really like her), and well, that's all I needed to be really excited.  I was less excited about Jennifer Morrison (better known as Cameron from House), but you know what?  I liked her in this show!  I was worried that my high expectations would lead to disappointment, but it did not. If anything, I am even more excited to see where this show goes; unfortunately, I have to wait another MONTH before they even air the episode I already watch.... meaning 5 weeks before another new episode. Sigh.

Synopsis (ignore this if you want to be surprised by the premier): Snow White and her Prince have their happily ever after only to have it threatened by the evil stepmother.  The kingdom discovers that the only way to save it is through the child of Snow White and the Prince who is placed in a special closet for safekeeping (the evil people were attacking).  This child (a daughter) grows up in normal, non-fairy tale world and has a child of her own who she gives up for adoption at birth because she's so screwed up herself from not having had any parents. The next generation child is adopted and raised in the town where all the fairy tale people ended up after the evil attack, having forgotten their true identities. Now the previous generation child needs to go and save fairy tale land. Following all that? :)

Basically, fairy tale world existed but it got melded into regular world and now Snow White's child needs to go and save fairy tale world and bring the happily ever after back.  I loved how the fairy tale was shared and I thought the cast was all perfectly chosen to play the parts.  There's so much more to unravel and so much potential with where this show can go -- I'm really excited! And really hating that I have to wait another five weeks...