Once Upon A Time

Once Upon a Time is the best. I repeat BEST show in existence.

From the creators of 'Lost' and ABC (owned by Disney) have created a masterpiece. Because ABC is owned by Disney, the fairy tale characters closely resemble the Disney costumes (ex: Belle and Cinderella shown below).

The season finale came out last week and I absolutely loved it. This is a series that I would actually consider buying instead of just watching it once it was that good.

Belle

Cinderella

I don't want to give too much away but...

Once Upon a Time, if you don't already know is the story of Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin, He's just Not that Into You, Something Borrowed) and her prince (Josh Dallas) but combined with every other fairy tale imagined.  It starts as the classic tale, the prince and princess defeat the evil queen and live happily... for a while.

Snow White and Evil Queen Regina in Fairy Tale world

As Snow White and Charming prepare for the birth of their first child, the evil queen (Lana Parrilla) casts a curse on the kingdom that moves every fairy tale character into our world, which has no magic so the she will be the only one with a happy ending.  The only way the curse can be broken is by Snow White and Charming's daughter, Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison, How I Met Your Mother), when she turns 28, sent to the our world beforehand to avoid the complications of the curse. On her birthday, her son (given up for adoption at birth), Henry (Jared Gilmore) finds her so that he can help break the curse, he is the only one who knows the truth.  Emma Swan travels to the tiny town of Storybrooke to protect and care for her son who has been adopted by the evil queen who is mayor of Storybrooke.

Snow White, Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood in our world

As the series progresses, you learn about the character's pasts in fairy tale land and the effects of the curse in Storybrooke with some surprising twists and turns. Need I mention that Rumpelstiltskin or Mr. Gold (Robert Carlyle, 28 Weeks Later) is behind most of the schemes that arise?

With this all-star cast and amazing plot line, I am going to be addicted to this show for a while. I wonder how they will continue season 2... If you haven't seen it yet, catch up while there is still time!

Emma Swan

Smash

Marilyn Monroe

Smash is a new NBC American musical original show produced by Steven Spielberg which is following the creation of the new musical based on the life of Marilyn Monroe. It focuses on the behind the scene work of the creation including the audition, script writing processes and the family and home life of the characters involved.

Smash premiered February 6th and is currently on it's 4th episode (I have seen 2 so far and plan on getting through the rest during this break!) and IMDb suggests that there are 11 more set to be released (15 in total for the season).  It has stars from both the big screen such as Debra Messing (Will and Grace, The Wedding Date) and stars from Broadway such as Megan Hilty (known for Glinda in Wicked).  Katherine McPhee is also a lead in this show, playing the newcomer to Broadway. (McPhee broke into show business from being the runner up on American Idol).

Smash is shown Monday nights at 10pm Eastern time, right after NBC's hit show The Voice.  This may or may not be a good thing.  It shows right after The Voice, hoping to retain at least half of  The Voice's audience.  Smart idea considering that the audience that watches The Voice has overlap with Smash.  Smash  has also been heavily advertised and promoted but according to The Chicago Tribune, Smash is failing and The Voice is climbing.

My grandma (who shares my love of theatre) called me up the day after she watched it (surprising because it's on so late) gushing about how amazing Smash was and how I needed to check it out.  While watching, I was incredibly impressed by the vocal skills and I absolutely love the leading ladies and how the show is trying to bring in a touch of Broadway and call attention to the behind the scenes attributes.  However, it is such a slow start and seems to be missing something with the plot.  I can't exactly put my finger on it but the show seems to be just okay.  Disappointing because of the huge promotion and huge names involved in the making of Smash.  I am however, going to stick with it at least a few more episodes before I consider it a complete loss.

Watch Smash here or Monday nights at 10pm Eastern time (I sadly have to Hulu everything with my schedule).

What do you think of Smash?