The history of musical TV shows is a checkered one. You have stuff like Cop Rock, which was derided at the time and, well, is still pretty bad. You have stuff like Glee, which was a hit but collapsed under its own self-importance. The genre is littered with shows that just couldn’t keep up the conceit of its characters breaking into song during scenes. A new series from Spain hopes to change that luck.
Opening Shot: A shot of a barn. “Once upon a time in a not-so-distant land, there was an innocent young man named Diego. And in his search for love, he risked the fate of an entire town.”
The Gist: Diego (Sebastian Yatra), a common fisherman, is having sex with Princess Soledad (Monica Maranillo), and he barely has time to hide before Soledad’s mothers, Queen Dolores (Mariana Treviño) and Queen Fatima (Mariola Fuentes) show up. They tell Soledad in no uncertain terms that being with the fisherman will bring shame on them and the kingdom. Soledad insists she’s in love.
Desperate to prove his worth, he decides to enlist in the war that’s been raging. But the local witch (Daniela Vega) wants to make sure he’ll still be alive when it’s over. She gives him a tiny blue dragon, and tells him to have Soledad take care of it while he is away. During the pink moon, which comes every seven years, they will get together and release him in the lake. Until then, no one in the town will be capable of falling in love.
We see Soledad taking care of the dragon in the massive castle, which transforms into a hotel, which is how it functions in the present day. The hotel attracts tourists with the legend of the blue dragon, who has somehow still survived over the centuries and is the big draw for guests. But the hotel’s owner, Mamen (Rossy de Palma), sees that the little guy is dying. If that happens, the people in the town may never experience love.
Maxi (Yatra), who works at the hotel, looks just like Diego, which is also an attraction: People do photo ops with him and women pay the hotel for the opportunity to have sex with him. He believes he’s Diego reincarnated, and he thinks it’s finally time for the new version of Soledad to come back. When a woman named Juana (Nia Correia) checks into the hotel with her boyfriend, he thinks he’s found the new Soledad. There is a physical chemistry that’s off the charts, and it seems that the little blue dragon has an affinity for her. But little does he know that his best friend Goya (Maranillo) looks exactly like Soledad.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The musical theme and fantasy backdrop reminds us of Dan Fogelman’s old ABC series Galavant.
Our Take: There’s a story somewhere within the fantasy setting of Once Upon A Time… Happily Never After (Original title: Érase una vez… pero ya no), but the first episode tells us that it might be exhausting to find. There’s a lot going on with this show, from its two settings, with most of the actors playing roles in both, to the musical element, to the CGI blue dragon floating about, to what’s going to amount to a love triangle in the present day.
We couldn’t even capture all that was going on and who was who in our summary above, because trying to keep track just made our eyes glaze over. It would be better if the story was compelling or even gave us a few laughs, but the only funny thing was when Soledad told her mothers that their harshness is going to bother her unicorn.
It’s actually another way it reminds us of Galavant, which we mentioned above. Fogelman tried to cram so much funny into each episode, along with the musical interludes, that the story collapsed under the weight of all the devices he used. That’s the problem with Once Upon A Time… Happily Never After, but with the added device of two timelines and the same actors playing roles in each.
At a certain point, things between Lexi, Juana and Goya will shake out; perhaps he’ll even come to his senses and figure out who Goya is. But it feels like the road to that will be a frustrating, unfunny slog. The music is OK but not particularly memorable, which doesn’t help that feeling.
Sex and Skin: Both Lexi and Diego have some pretty athletic sex with various folks.
Parting Shot: During a thunderstorm, the dragon escapes and a singer named Candela (Itziar Castro), who lives at the hotel and tried to take her own life earlier that day, passes out.
Sleeper Star: The dragon. We know he’s only CGI, but he’s pretty adorable.
Most Pilot-y Line: We can’t even begin to pinpoint what part of the first episode goes wrong, because there are so many characters to keep track of, our head was spinning.
Our Call: SKIP IT. There are better examples of musical comedy series out there (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, anyone?); there’s just too much going on in Once Upon A Time… Happily Never After to recommend it.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
