life with more cowbell

Sunday night just got an extra dose of magic realism with the addition of Once Upon A Time to its evening line-up (CTV at 7 p.m. and again on ABC at 8 p.m.). And I gotta say, the premiere lived up to the great promo. This show features Ginnifer Goodwin (Big Love), Jennifer Morrison (House) and Robert Carlyle (who I remember best in the movie The Full Monty). WARNING: Spoilers from the premiere ahead. Morrison plays Emma Swan, a streetwise single gal who works as a bail bondsperson, and finds a 10-year-old boy at her door on the night of her 28th birthday. Like her, Henry was given up for adoption and turns out she’s his birth mom. She drives him home to Storybrooke, Maine, a town the boy (played by Jared Gilmore) claims is trapped in time and peopled by cursed fairy tale characters who can’t remember who they are – and his story book foretells that Emma, the daughter of Snow White (now Henry’s teacher) and Prince Charming (now John Doe coma guy in the town hospital) is the one to break the curse (set by the Evil Queen from the Snow White story, now Henry’s adopted mom, the town mayor). Carlyle plays Rumpelstiltskin – known in Storybrooke as “Mr. Gold” and he owns the town. Big, big fun – and gorgeous art direction. Check it out on IMDb (my fave t.v./movie source): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1843230/

A bit later in the evening, I turned to Showcase at 9 p.m. for what I thought was going to be a new episode of Lost Girl only to find a repeat of the last (new) episode: BrotherFae of the Wolves, which features our man Dyson and a peek into his past, along with fabulous guest appearances by Jayne Eastwood and Dan Lett, and a possible new face on the scene (Keira, a woman Dyson knows from way back – played by Lina Roessler). Apparently the next new episode will now be on October 30 – which is fine; I was just chomping at the bit for the next episode, a story that looks like it will feature the lovely Dr. Lauren (and, possibly, something about her back story). Last night’s episode did have some great Lauren moments – nice to see Zoie Palmer getting some great get-her-teeth-into scenes and some comedy too. Check it out – thanks to 2011HappyHappy for editing and posting the Bo/Lauren scenes:

Lauren is so adorable doing the baking thing at the clubhouse, all jonesing for the lab and needing to find a reasonable facsimile. You go, Lauren – you be as sciencey on the baking as you want! Anna Silk is showing some really nice range as Bo and Ksenia Solo, as Kenzi, is the queen of hilarious one-liners. Man, I so wanna go to the Dal and have a pint with these guys.

Sunday night is now also The Good Wife night – and I was very happy to see Lisa Edelstein (also formerly from House) back on the show after her debut last week – and I’m hoping she’s there to stay. That lady does good bitch! As always, Julianna Margulies is a treat to watch in the powerful, complex – and sexy – title role. And speaking of sexy – more Kalinda, please! Archie Panjabi rocks that character hard. And, as always, Alan Cumming is perfectly delicious as Eli Gold.