The Valley Wire October 2011

Hollywood and the Magic of the New TV Season By Mary Beth Gentle Hollywood has built a very successful business by capitalizing on the world of make believe. We learn about this world when we are very young. We enter it willingly and happily. It is where we are able to climb Mount Everest by simply scaling the heights of the jungle gym. It is where a young boy can battle a dragon and a young girl can live in a beautiful castle. It is where our imaginations first come alive. Hollywood makes a small fortune every year by helping us escape into our old worlds of make believe even if it’s only for a little while. The new television season is upon us and with it comes the normal fare of medical dramas, family sitcoms and murder by the number mysteries to solve. But, this season, mixed amongst the vampires struggling with teen angst and the “C” list dancing stars are a few shows that hold the potential to reawaken our worlds of make believe. The shows this season that hold that promise for me are Terra Nova and Once Upon a Time.

With Terra Nova comes hope for a dying world, a return to the past for a people with no future. It is about a family entering into a world of dinosaurs and danger for their only chance at a new life. The Shannon family leaves behind a world that is dark and grey, a world where they were separated from one another for the hope of a new life together. They leap back through time to an Earth that has not been ruined by misuse and to a world that is fresh and new. It is a world of our imagination, a world of make believe dinosaurs and adventures. Once Upon a Time is a new series that is based on the classic Fairy Tales of our youth. It tells the story of Emma Stone, a woman drawn to a small town in Maine where the fairy tales we all know just may be real. It is where we will be reminded that there are two sides to every story, the good and the evil. Emma soon discovers that everyone in the town is held there by a curse, whether they know it or not, they are all characters from fairy tales. It will be up to Emma to unravel the mystery. Once Upon a Time is television show that holds the promise of an escape into the kind of make believe that all Fairy Tales are made of. So as this new television season begins, it will be up to you to decide which Hollywood world of make believe can help you rediscover the imagination you held so dear in childhood. Whether it be an escape into the world of dinosaurs or the pages of fairy tales, settle in for an hour a week and enjoy a little of the magic of Hollywood.