Red-Handed

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.

"Red-Handed" establishes Red Riding Hood's back-story very well, it's a very absorbing and sometimes creepy one and contrasts with the real world parallel cleverly. It's a very good episode in its own right, not quite a 'Once Upon a Time' high point but a big improvement over the still very watchable but disappointing previous episode "Dreamy".

It drags occasionally and it is agreed there is some sloppiness on facts regarding lemurs.

However, visually "Red-Handed" is a very handsomely mounted episode, settings and costumes that are both colourful and atmospheric, not too dark or garish and never cookie-cutter. The effects are also above average, not exceptional but not bad. It is photographed beautifully and there is some make-up that suited the characters perfectly. The music is haunting, ethereal and cleverly used with a memorable main theme.

Regarding the writing, "Red-Handed" shows that it really has come on a long way. There is far less corn and instead the humour, emotional, romantic and scary elements and the balance between them are becoming stronger.

The acting likewise, Robert Carlyle, Ginnifer Goodwin and Meghan Ory particularly shine.

In conclusion, very good. 8/10 Bethany Cox

This was a very interesting plot twist, but the one thing that annoyed me is when the writer in the show talks to Ruby about his trip to Nepal, where he comments that lemurs were running all over a temple in Nepal. Immediately I remembered that lemurs are only found naturally in Madagascar and so I was disappointed that the writers seemed to have been sloppy with their research on this topic. This show is becoming one of my favourites and I particularly enjoy Robert Carlyle's character. He does an excellent job of portraying Rumpelstiltskin. It took me awhile to figure out who he was, but I did eventually realize he was from the Full Monty. Overall this show is great and keeps me coming back each week.

Red-Handed is an improvement over the last two episodes and not only does it do a great job continuing where it left off with Kathryn's disappearance to Mary Margaret being in jail, but it gives a great back story to Ruby's character as Red Riding Hood. Yes, it did drag a bit longer, but there's nothing else to fault this episode with.

The writing's pretty good, the chemistry between Red Riding Hood and Snow White is spot on, the performances are still good, the scenery is still gorgeous and how atmospheric the Red Riding Hood setting was (also I liked how it's connected to the Enchanted Forest), the music score's still beautiful, the script is well-written, and the directing is pretty good.

Overall, an improvement and a great back story to Red Riding Hood/Ruby.

I absolutely love what Once Upon A Time does with the classic fairy tales we all know. Same here with the Red Riding Hood story . The show takes their inspiration from the classics , and make their own little twist to them. I have to say that Ruby/Red is one of my favorite characters, and Meghan Ory does her character justice and gives absolutely great performance especially as Red. The plot twist at the ende of flashback was great too. Red and Snow's friendship is so nice to see, also in Storybrooke, wish there was more. I love how all characters are connected haha even later on it gets soo confused lmao.