Sela Ward Movie:

Once and Again - The Complete Third Season Reviews:
A Must have
2009-07-04 - I've seen every episode of every season of Once and Again, and I loved it. It was the Grand Finale for this wonderful serie. Very interesting and we had and end and it was a very expected happy end. It's a must have to complete the serie.

The final season of a very good show that just kept getting better
2009-06-07 - The worst thing about ONCE AND AGAIN getting cancelled was that it was getting better and better as it went along. In my opinion, Season Two was better than Season One, and Season Three was better than Season Two. One of the reason the show got so good was that Rick and Lily's families moved in together, following the marriage that ended Season Two. The result was a host of great family story arcs. The biggest change of all was the sudden ascendance of Evan Rachel Wood as one of the most compelling characters on the show. In Seasons One and Two she had been very much in the background most of the time, but in Season Three she is given a major role. We already knew that she had some typical teen problems as she struggled with anorexia. In Season Three she struggles entering high school, finding ways to explore her many talents (Wood has a very fine singing voice, which is put on prominent display), finding new friends, and exploring her sexuality in surprising ways. One of the biggest surprises is her increasingly intense relationship with a friend at school, played by Mischa Barton shortly before finding success on THE O.C. One of the saddest things about the show ending was that we never got to see how Jessie and Katie's relationship would have played out, and especially how the family members would have reacted. The irony was that Lily was concerned that Grace might be gay. I loved the riskiness of dealing with a teen same-sex relationship. The show was willing to take some risks.

I also very much enjoyed Grace's arcs in Season Three. She is very much a flawed soul, racked by personal insecurities that cause her to make a string of unfortunate decisions. She undermines Jessie's efforts to get a role in the school Shakespeare play and makes other lamentable decisions. She also has an unfortunate emotional involvement with a teacher, played superbly by Eric Stoltz. Though neither of them do anything wrong, they develop feelings for one another that can only be described as inappropriate. The whole arc is handled tastefully (just as Jessie and Katie's relationship is) and you can feel the conflict they both experience. Both of these relationships (Grace/Mr. Dimitri and Jessie/Katie) represent ONCE AND AGAIN at its best.

What I like about ONCE AND AGAIN is that it is a family drama that isn't, like the endless teen-oriented dramas on the WB and the CW. You get shows like GOSSIP GIRL where the adults are thrown in almost as afterthoughts, or other shows where the adults behave in ways that are almost like you imagine teens think adults behave. But ONCE AND AGAIN at no point, even in the arcs focusing on kids, feels like a teen drama. The show also displays a rare intelligence in its writing. The show does not often resort to cliché or hackneyed story, and often had some nicely fresh arcs.

The only thing I really dislike about this series are the black and white "asides," where character are interviewed away from the central action. Sometimes these have a documentary feel. Sometimes they have feel oddly disembodied, as if we have entered an astral plane of sorts. Sometimes it feels like they are talking to a psychiatrist. I just detest these digressions. MY friend who is a huge ONCE AND AGAIN fan doesn't dislike them as much as I do, but agrees that they are exceedingly odd. Interestingly, the one time these asides work is at the very end of the series finale, when the cast members are interviewed about their experience on the show and their feelings about it coming to an end.

It is absurd that Season Three has never been brought out on DVD and that Seasons One and Two are out of print. I have only been able to see this show thanks to one of my closest friends who not only has Seasons One and Two on DVD but who has recorded all of Season Three. If not for her, I would not have been able to see the entire series. She has for years been checking over and again whether ONCE AND AGAIN will ever be released Season Three on DVD. Frankly, I would like to own my own copies of all three seasons. So now I'm hoping for the whole thing to be issued/reissued on DVD. It is a shame that this fine show was cancelled prematurely. Now it is a shame that it isn't available at all. Except through the kindness of friends.

Call to request release of Season 3
2009-05-04 - Call to request the release of this third season Buena Vista Home Entertainment (Disney) 1 800 723 4763. Talk to a live representative. It's been SO long...

The Best Series Ever Developed for TV
2009-01-28 - I've just begun re-watching Season One of Once and Again. It confirms my original sense that this was by far the best series ever written for television. The scripts, actors---everything about this series is authentic. The fact that Season 3 has yet to be released on DVD is a sad commentary on the studios given the large amount of dreck that is being released daily on DVD. Hopefully, Season 3 will someday see the light of day so that all of the show's fans can complete their collection. In the meantime, we'll have to live with taped copies.

waiting....waiting....waiting....
2008-11-29 - It is really disappointing to me that Once and Again is not even available in Australian outlets. At least we have Amazon :)I really love the strong characterisations and actors are so well cast. Off on holiday next week and have saved Series 2 to be watched while at the beach. Hopefully it wont be long before I can enjoy Series 3 again also.