once upon a time, there was tuna on sunday nights.

so i am watching "once upon a time" which is a new television show starring gennifer goodwin. why do i like the show? let me count the ways.

firstly, i like gennifer. she is very pretty and in the movies she always plays the smart, spunky character. i am a fan of the smart and the spunky.

secondly, it's an intriguing premise. all the fairy tale characters - snow white, prince charming, jiminy cricket, gheppeto & pinocchio, rumplestiltskin, the dwarves, the trolls, the stepsisters - all live in a place called storybrooke, maine. they've been enchanted by an evil spell, so they don't know they're fairy tale characters. they think they're real people. from the fairy tale, snow white and prince charming had a daughter who escaped the spell and was delivered "elsewhere" and is named emma. turns out emma was sent to the real world and grew up in foster care and is now a bounty hunter. ten years ago, she had a son, put him up for adoption, and he landed in storybrooke. he's studied the tales, and knows that emma's the one who can unlock the spell. he finds her (turnabout on the bounty hunter!) and gets her back to storybrooke where she meets snow white, who is her mother but locked in time is like her same age and who in storybrooke is a schoolteacher named mary margaret blanchard. anyway! emma is the key to unlocking the spell. that's all you really need to know. what if you're the key to unlocking the spell? what if you're locked in the spell??

thirdly, maine! one of my favorite states.

fourthly, the dialogue isn't sparkling with newness, but i've heard a whole lot worse. and, it's not merely about the words themselves - it's a matter of delivery. the little boy henry, who is adorable, says, "the hero never believes at first. if they did, it wouldn't be a very good story." seems trite here on the page, but to hear him deliver it. so cute! i do wish the evil-queen-slash-mayor would stop calling red delicious apples honeycrisp because they are clearly not, but other than that, it's highly watchable.

fifthly, sunday night is time for disney and although this isn't disney, it's ABC and that's close enough. ABC-disney, tuna salad sandwiches, pickles, and deviled eggs. and, maybe some chips. and, a slice of cheese.