When 'Once Upon a Time' first started it was highly addictive and made the most of a truly great and creative premise. Really loved the idea of turning familiar fairy tales on their heads and putting own interpretations on them and the show early on clearly had clearly had a ball. Watched it without fail every time it came on and it was often a highlight of the week. Which was why it was sad when it ran out of ideas and lost its magic in the later seasons.
"The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" continues the very good to wonderful standard of the first season up to this point. As said it is demonstrative of 'Once Upon a Time's' first season growing all the time, with the dialogue and acting in particular having come on quite a long way.
It's not a perfect episode. It did feel a little rushed to me, would have liked for it to have been part of a few-episode character-arc without falling into the trap of being dragged out. Not providing a reason for the Evil Queen's grudge was also somewhat of a missed opportunity, a cheat if you will because the episode did cry out for one. This would have been solved if this story lasted for more than one episode.
However, "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" is a very handsomely mounted episode, with improved visual effects over the previous episode "The Shepherd", settings and costumes (especially for the Evil Queen) that are both colourful and atmospheric, not too dark or garish and never cookie-cutter. It is photographed beautifully and there were some make-up that suited the characters perfectly. The music is haunting, ethereal and cleverly used with a memorable main theme.
As said, the writing has come on a lot since 'Once Upon a Time' first started and it's humorous and engaging with emotional impact too. The story is highly successful in making Graham an interesting conflicted character, with a very compelling back-story, and establishes the concept and intertwines and mirrors the real and fantasy worlds very well. The flashbacks are thrilling and give the episode freshness, while the final scene is shocking, heart-wrenching and in a way pretty cool.
Lana Parilla continues to steal all her scenes while one does not expect Jamie Dornan to be as good as he is here, bringing out Graham's conflicts with surprising nuance. The acting is all fine but these two are particularly good as they rightly should be as the story is centred mainly around them.
Overall, great. 9/10 Bethany Cox