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Sidelined Henry needs some better parents on Once Upon a Time

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Maybe part of what’s occurring on Once Upon a Time this season can be explained by the wisdom of Patty and Selma Bouvier on The Simpsons.

In a long-ago episode of The Simpsons where they were flashing back to the story of Lisa’s first words, toddler Bart, feeling threatened by baby Lisa, was preening for attention.

Bart’s aunts Patty and Selma glared at him. One of them coldly observed, “The older they get, the cuter they ain’t.”

Same could be said for most of us, to be fair.

But does that philosophy relate to the conspicuous sidelining of Henry, played by Jared Gilmore, on Once Upon a Time?

It’s the perfect week to consider the state of sophomore fantasy drama Once Upon a Time, which airs Sundays on ABC and CTV. This past Sunday, a new retrospective episode titled “The Price of Magic” looked back at how the residents of Storybrooke have handled themselves and their surroundings since their fairy-tale memories were restored.

Season one had a very cool framework: Fairy-tale characters had been cursed to live in our world, unaware of their true identities.

This season the characters realize who they are – Snow White, Prince Charming, the Evil Queen, Rumpelstiltskin, Pinocchio, Red Riding Hood, Jiminy Cricket, etc. Some of them want to get back to their own world and some of them don’t. But as it stands, if they leave Storybrooke and venture into any other part of our world, their minds go blank and they forget everything.

The thing that’s exasperating about the Henry character this season is that he is experiencing some of the worst parenting in TV history.

With all manner of dangerous and magical mayhem occurring, every time Henry walks into a room, the adults awkwardly change the subject. “Don’t tell Henry” is by far the most repeated phrase on Once Upon a Time.

Don’t tell Henry? Are you serious?

Henry is the reason all of this is happening in the first place!

It was Henry who brought his biological mom Emma (Jennifer Morrison) to Storybrooke, because only he understood that Emma could break the curse.

So now, after Henry spent a year convincing the dim adults in his life that they unwittingly were trapped in something beyond their comprehension, those same adults are patronizing him?

To paraphrase Jack Nicholson‘s Col. Jessep character in the movie A Few Good Men, “You don’t think Henry can handle the truth?”

I’ll bet he can. He probably even can help.

I know Henry isn’t as cute as he was in season one. Perhaps it has affected his camera time. It happens with child actors. In real life, Gilmore turns 13 next month.

But that merely emphasizes Henry is getting older, not younger. He should be able to handle more, not less. They’ve turned the character into an annoying little resentful wimp.

Apparently even fairy-tale heroes can be crappy moms and dads.

bill.harris@sunmedia.ca

@billharris_tv

 


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