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I was just thinking what "price" Rumple would extract from Giselle to give her that wand and scroll, LOL. He would have loved extracting all that magic from Andalasia, maybe to power the Hat so the stars would align?

Not much activity on this forum since the beginning of this month. I guess most of the people who planned to watch the show and comment on it already has. Prime Video has released behind-the-scenes "The Making Of..." videos for each episode if anyone wants to revisit them again (heh). https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/the-making-of-the-rings-of-power-prime-video-1235438879/

The evil stepmother stuff was the most entertaining part of this movie, but I agree. A lot of it was just for the sake of fun, not really adding to the story or character development. Snow as The Evil Queen wasn't that interesting because it was a straight-up role reversal. Regina played the Bandit Snow role and vice versa, and we had already seen that a thousand times before.

Yes, it's hard for the characters to get any development the way it's set up. Maybe it would have been more interesting if we focused on how Nancy got used to living in Andalasia. Pip said in the prologue that after happily-ever-after, nothing happened again. So I guess Edward and Nancy never had any conflict? They just had an "uneventful" life fending off ogres and dragons? I was reading a review that criticized how Amy Adams couldn't pull off the young bright eyed ingenue anymore. As good as her performance, it was indeed more of a stretch due to her age, and trying to do that again seemed like an attempt to recapture that aspect of the original. Maybe the story could have shown Giselle acting like a "normal" human after years of being in New York, and she saw herself as middle aged and couldn't handle it, and that could be why she casted the spell, which would turn her not back into the young carefree princess, but into a jaded stepmother? In that case, Morgan could be the one with a level head and help save Giselle and make her realize/accept they still love her as much as ever.

It looks like there are two deleted/unused songs on the soundtrack. One was a song for Robert and the commuters called "Hard Times for Heroes". The Asian lady commuter sings that she was once a warrior, which is weird. Did the people in the town get fake memories too? There was also another song for Morgan and the popular high school guy ("Something Different This Year").

I guess I will have to give this episode some props for taking salicious tabloid material, and showing what it might have meant for the people involved. It was funny how he was complaining to an entire table at the beginning. I guess for the guests, anything for a good dinner. Having a private conversation like that leaked would have been deeply embarrassing, and this episode did a good job of making that clear. People are good at judging celebrities, and some revel in it forgetting they are actual people with feelings living a situation that is more complex with details we are not privy to. Anne and Charles' conversations were nice. She was frank with him but also sympathized with him. This actor really looks nothing like Charles, which bothered in previous episodes, but in this one, I think he did a good job and sort of made me forget about the appearance for a bit. I find it interesting that the previous Charles actor said before he accepted the role, he made sure he would not have to play out this phone conversation. Yeah, I really enjoy the seemingly polite but cutting insults that can be delivered by British high society. Five episodes in, and they still haven't given the Queen a centric yet. They made her and Philip quite rigid and out of touch again in this episode. Though Philip's tirade at a middle aged man was nicely staged.

I guess Robert was more jaded than the others, so Giselle's magic didn't make him dance and sing? Yes, that's why I thought it was a bit inconsistent with the repair people at the house. I thought it was funny to see those commuters again. Momentarily in my mind, I was wondering what would happen if they missed work, but those other questions didn't enter my mind. I guess the practicalities of how everything worked wasn't thought out, which is par for the course for "Once Upon a Time". I wonder if the writing would have been approached differently if it had been a theatrical release. I was looking at IMDB and Brigitte Hales wrote the screenplay while "story by" gave credit to J. David Stem and David N. Weiss. The other two worked on Shrek 2, but mostly had TV credits as well. The movie was in development since 2010, so they probably went through many variations of the story before they decided on this one. I mean, it was no worse than some of the recent Disney revivals/remakes that were sent to theatres. On another note, I watched the movie with the misconception that the girl was the same actress as in the original movie, so I thought it was neat they got everyone back. But now I know they picked a younger actress since they needed someone who could pass as a teenager. One of the lyrics in the double villain song was amusing, about how there couldn't be a story with both Maleficent and Cruella. I would think that's a reference to "Once" but I'm not sure if the lyricist Stephen Schwartz would have watched that show. I am listening to the soundtrack again on Youtube and thinking about which "Once" character could sing each song and have it make sense.

I was thinking about how Giselle can sing and people around her joined and didn't think it was strange. Maybe all along, there was a bit of magic from Andalasia that accompanied her when she sang which had that effect on people. The memory tree concept could have benefitted from a flashback, so we could have seen what it meant to a young Giselle.

I was so relieved that Pei Ling was FINALLY free of The Alchemist, and then she was back within 10 minutes. Kind of frustrating, especially how they let Bo "hide" the blade. Why do they always need to have Pei Ling go psycho when Mei Li is around. I like their scenes together and it's always ruined. I liked the scene with Zhilan and Pei Ling as well. I agree that her redemption was actually handled well. It was cute to see Althea helping Evan with his relationship, but I thought his girlfriend worked at the practice too? Althea's bird watching distractor was fun. I also enjoyed seeing Sebastian as part of the team, though that went south real fast. That was clever how they had Bo switch the plates when Seb/Alchemist distracted Ryan by kissing him (I'm assuming that's what happened). I hope Nicky gets a clue about Bo soon. I thought he would finally be found out in this one, but nope.

Beware: some spoilers below (the major ones I will spoiler tag). I finally got through a pile of work, so I was able to finish the movie, and as much as I wanted to like it, I will have to conclude it was a mixed bag. It wasn't bad per se, but it was lacking in significant ways. I wasn't fully engaged nor emotionally invested, or even fully entertained. The plot didn't pull together, and what happened was either predictable or felt random. The whole climax with And then the credits rolled, and I saw the writer, and well, it figures. I did like the second half of the movie a bit more, and I think it had to do with Amy Adam's transition to the Evil Stepmother. She did a good job with that, and had a few sporadically good lines. That is very true. That was the most original and fun aspect of the first movie. This one's angle was to play with the idea of fairy tale tropes being transplanted into our world, which was sort of fun, but even that concept wasn't fully fleshed out. Once magic came to the real world, no one really noticed. They just acted like they were under a spell. Except for the electrical appliances singing at the beginning, they were basically living out historical times in a quaint town. No one was driving anymore and it was the 18th century all over again with horse drawn carriages and servants wearing powdered wigs. Maybe that's why I wasn't emotionally invested in these characters, because the "real life" premise was so sloppily drawn. Although I thought Morgan was annoying, I too felt it was only Giselle who wanted to move to Monroeville. Clearly, Robert didn't. Robert wasn't even a full character in this movie. He was given the C plot after the spell began. I can't see Giselle still being this wide-eyed 10 years later. In the later seasons of "Once", the real-life emotion grounding was weakly developed, so it became stock characters responding to magical mumbo-jumbo. That is true. Speaking of inconsequential to the plot, for a bit there, I thought they were going to have Morgan and that high school guy become the main focus, Overall, I'm not sure why that guy was there either. The singing reminded me a little of the "Once" musical episode. There was even a line about finding a song inside of you, or something to that effect.

Minor spoilers below (just thoughts on the first 50 min or so - I will read your full review afterwards): I watched the first 50 min last night, and it was fine, though not as engaging or "magical" as I had hoped. Though it was starting to get more interesting when I had to stop. I had been excited to hear we would get some new Alan Menken songs, but they didn't really grab me on first listen and some of the vocals seemed a little muted and the choreography wasn't as fun as the original. I felt a "Once Upon a Time" pilot vibe when they drove over a bridge en route to the small town, like Emma and Henry driving over a bridge en route to Storybrooke. The town itself had less of a atmosphere than Storybrooke, but of course that was due to Storybrooke being a little cold and creepy, being under a Curse. The Regina-equivalent was sort of entertaining, but we didn't really see her sway on the town. I think they needed to flesh out the town a little more before magic came. We only really got to "meet" the villain, her minions and the "Prince". Though at the same time, I think the "normal" our-world problems in the premise was a bit tired, so I was glad when magic came. It felt a little like an obligatory Snowing subplot when they had nothing interesting to write for them, and they were trying to recapture the "magic" while creating some contrived conflicts, not fully successfully. It was hard to believe in Giselle's optimism after so many years. The bratty teenager trope was a little annoying. Though I'm also not sure what I would have done to fix this. It was a little jarring to see everyone looking a bit older (seems to be par for the course nowadays with so many revivals). On the one hand, it's nice to see "old friends" but at the same time, it's hard to avoid being distracted by the sad passage of time. I haven't watched "Enchanted" for ages, though, so I don't know if rewatching would have increased enjoyment or not. I think I will rewatch it after this. It feels like the basic premise is pretty simplistic, with a "all magic comes with a price" lesson, and that real life is hard and needs work, or something equally trite. A major difference I think in this "world" compared to "Once Upon a Time" is that Andalasia really is a fairy tale world where happily ever after does come true, whereas the "Once" Enchanted Forest was a bleak world full of suffering akin to Medieval Europe. In those ways, it could explain why Giselle would have such ideals. So does that mean all stepmothers in Adalasia must be evil, or something? And everything must succumb to the fairy tale tropes? Overall, though, the film so far seems competent and did not feel like a made-for-TV production. I'm hoping the second half of the movie will be fun, since the last 5 minutes I watched did have more of a "spark".

I thought the title of the episode would mean this episode was centered around the Queen, but it turned out to be more about Princess Margaret retreading old sun and old waters. The flashbacks did make me a little nostalgic for the first season again. Too bad they didn't get the original Margaret actress back to show us something new, though. This Margaret resembles the Season 1-2 one moreso than the Season 3-4 one. I did remember how Margaret was a tad irritating with her blaming, and it was hard to get behind her whiny tirade about why Anne in the 1990s is being "allowed" to do what she couldn't. Still, the actress playing older Margaret gave an excellent performance, and I did feel for her for much of the episode. Though I was a bit disturbed by the chain smoking and constant drinking. I was hoping there would be more build-up and context to the Annus Horribilis. We've hardly seen the Queen, so I couldn't really feel the extent of why this was a horrible year for her. They could have shown us some scenes in Windsor Castle to show us the Queen's connection to it. I don't know why they have shied away from Fergie. She was always in the news way back when. It was hard to relate to why the Queen felt divorce was worse than destructive dragged out relationships full of anger and infidelity. I actually thought the Queen Mother was hilarious. "Apology" shouldn't be in your vocabulary. Don't show any weakness! Pretty motivational, I would say, LOL.

I almost forgot I was watching "The Crown" with this one. I remember seeing Dodi on the tabloid covers while waiting in line at the supermarket, so it was interesting to see his family's backstory. After the initial hokey birth scene, I became quite engaged in the story. I almost welcomed it as a break from the main cast who mostly didn't resemble and/or act like the real people or their past season selves. I was aghast when Mohamed casually singled Sydney out to be fired. Though I did end up liking their scenes together. I was wondering why they had Edward in the flashback at the beginning, and it did come together and made sense by mid-episode. Mohamed's determination to become part of British society was interesting. He ended up being pretty likeable caring for Sydney, though why wasn't he at a hospital? Dodi was portrayed as a shy fellow who lacked confidence, which I did not expect. I thought he was quite likeable too. They really made the Queen look bad at the end. I agree Diana being friendly to Mohamed was nice, and I think that was the first scene where she was likeable, though again, she was airing dirty laundry to a stranger. Overall, I think I enjoyed this episode a bit more than the last one, so at least the quality has improved with each episode (though ironically with progressively less and less focus on the one wearing The Crown and the one who will wear The Crown). Regardless of the new cast, this show is still able to make me want to watch the next episode to see what they will show us next.

It was interesting to focus an episode on the spouses - Philip and Diana. Philip was fairly likeable in this episode and seems to capture the spirit of the previous Philips. I'm glad they didn't show anything romantic with his godson's wife, though maybe they were implying it with his speech to Diana about being creative to enjoy life in other ways and the slightly cold conversation we saw later between Philip and the Queen. I'd rather see Philip as being genuine in trying to help the woman get over her grief. The way it was portrayed, I felt Andrew Morton was opportunistic, and it was a mistake for Diana to trust him. Though both in this episode and the last episode, the show is acting like Diana wanted to complain to anyone with a pulse about how difficult her life was. Heck, they had her saying this to her friend while touring the hospital with people and reporters all around, which seems a little ridiculous. Overall, I think this was a slightly better episode than the season premiere, but was only mildly engaging. I'm not sure what the hawk was trying to symbolize either, except it overstayed its welcome.

This episode was alright. It was beautifully filmed as usual, though some of the brighter shots looked a bit overexposed. As the show gets closer to current day, it feels harder for me to become immersed in the story when I think about how they are providing a certain narrative about real people without their consent. Making up a "Sunday Times" headline that didn't exist to cause a fictional conflict over abdication might have been a convenient way to frame a story, but the analytical part of my brain made it difficult for me to properly respond to the story on an emotional level. It took me awhile to adjust to the new cast in Season 3. Back then, I felt the characters weren't acting the same as they used to, especially the Queen. This time, I didn't get that sense as much, though I'm still not used to the new cast. I didn't find anyone particularly likeable in this one. The Queen seemed entitled, Charles seemed power hungry and Diana seemed catty. Hopefully, the season will improve as I get used to the cast.

This pretty much made me stop yearning for another episode to watch right away.

I forgot which season I stopped watching the show. Good thing for this forum I could see I watched the last episode in 2018. I considered starting from the beginning again, but I watched this episode and it was pretty understandable and basic, so I guess I will just continue from here. I didn't find it that funny, and it was mostly uneventful. It was kind of annoying that they lost out on hiring those engineers who really wanted to work on this new project because of their pickiness.

Yeah, that made no sense. Though I suppose they can just say that this was the next progression of his power, to take on the source of someone else's source of illness. At first, I thought he was getting frostbite again or something. Unfortunately, the interviews seem to claim he is truly dead.

Yeah, it would have been really easy. The "Missed call" notification could have been there and Eden could have clicked on that and then it dialed Angelina. Angelina can clearly do the impossible, so that would be easy for her. Maybe it's her parents' phone or she stole one off someone she pushed down the stairs. How did she even find Eagen that quickly?

It can, but I think the context referred to low frequency sound waves, which are mechanical not electromagnetic. Since Saanvi also referenced animals using the waves for communication. It seems like they were mis-using the term ULF to refer to infrasound.

Overall, I think this season was better than the past ones. The plot was always ridiculous, but knowing the death date of the show and being constrained to an episode limit made the storyline tighter. The character interactions felt more natural for the most part, and there were some nice moments, and neat connections to past passengers. I think the season started well, and then it had a dip and then went back up. Now, this mid-season finale, though, went a tad too far with the All Powerful Indestructible Angelina, to the point it was just frustrating to watch. I'm not sure where else the character can go from here. She's irredeemable and as said above, she's not a fun villain, either. I was wondering when we would get a cameo from Grace. Though it was frustrating that she was just a trick from Angelina that both Ben and Cal fell for. I sort of dislike it when shows bring back a dead character to do this kind of thing but at least they didn't have Grace morph into Angelina or something equally sickening. I was happy that TJ was back, but again, he was poorly integrated back into the plot, so the character felt awkwardly shoehorned in. We should have seen more of a reunion with Ben and Cal, with him getting a Calling or something. What was up with the dialogue with Cal asking if TJ was coming over, and Olive said no, and later, she asked Ben if she and TJ could use the attic? That scene when he walked in and spoke to a really ill Cal was very stilted. I liked Vance's lab, so I'm disappointed it's gone for the second half. Dr. Gupta's jerk personality came back in full force, I guess. The government is as much the enemy on this show, with its treatment of the 828 passengers. Though it's nice that everyone in the Registry is deaf and couldn't hear Drea saying out loud in the office, "I'm more help to the 828-ers inside the belly of the beast" en route to Jared's new desk. Drea and Jared might as well have done a song-and-dance number called "We're the Moles!". Why didn't Ben or Michaela try to grab the sapphire from Angelina while she was distracted in the Calling with Cal? Did Cal actually help anything since Angelina apparently now has the sapphire embedded in her hand, now? When the stained glass window fell on her, I wondered if she was just going to get back up and that's exactly what she did. Before I started watching the season, I saw a headline on Google News about the death in the Manifest season finale, and I assumed it was about Grace, but it was about Zeke, so I spoiled myself for what happened in this one. I still found it sad, though. That was a nicely done sacrifice.

Hmm... I wonder which annoying psycho clobbered Eagen on the head and stole the sapphire? They only took a few crayons from Eden and she had the rest of the box. Why did Ben have to give her the phone to play with? It is so frustrating! "Manifest" should be re-titled "Mani-coincidences". Thanks, Calling, for leading us to the sapphire! But no thanks, Calling, for sending the most opportunistic passenger to find it. Maybe the Callings can't decide whether they want the entire world to be destroyed or not, so they're just waiting to see which side will win to determine the outcome. It was nice to see Thomas the stow-away reunited with his lost love, though we hardly got to see Thomas at all, which was a shame. That was one of the more memorable plotlines in Season 1. I'm glad TJ is back, but was the actor only available to film for a few days, so they stuck him in the attic? Why wasn't he at the anniversary dinner? I mean, they invited the awkward third wheel. TJ, having someone pick a Tarot card is never going to make anyone feel better. The Registry sure gave Jared a lot of time to decide. He regularly visits his old friends the Stones and he thinks he can realistically pretend to be a 828 hater? Having Marco make another appearance was nice, too. Eden got the volcano Callings ages ago. Keep up, people. How did Eagen know to remove and then keep all those roman numerals from atop the door? LOL that the show thinks they need to ramp up the stakes by having the entire planet possibly experiencing an apocalypse because the 828-ers having a death date wasn't enough. I think I might go ahead and watch the remaining episode tonight.

It would have been nice to have a subplot built around that. With Eden getting memory flashes of Ben and Grace before she was kidnapped or something.

Yeah, I really don't understand Adrian's motivations either, and maybe it's because I don't remember much from previous seasons. They're BFFs and bare their souls because they don't trust Callings? It looks like Adrian tracked Eagen down to express his anger? But then he proceeded to tell Eagen everything even though he's clearly not to be trusted. Now that they are no longer on network TV, they feel they can be edgier? They are clearly sprinkling in a few line swear words here and there. Adrian probably got a little wet himself grabbing Eagen at that moment and swinging him towards the wall if he was indeed midstream.

I must say Edward's line in this short teaser/trailer was very apt, and works for "Once Upon a Time" too! Minus the word "smart". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u18JHm49Fo