Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-34924658-20161031211322/@comment-24674051-20161102180016

Well, I agree that it does not make sense to rate different chapters in a book, which would be comparable to rating the different episodes of a season. But it is possible to rate different books within a series (like comparing Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone to The Prisoner of Azkaban or The Goblet of Fire). Each half season generally stands on its own merit. So with that in mind, here are my thoughts.

1. Season 1 - Very enjoyable, and established a solid foundation to build the series. Character building was solid, and the main story through the season was well thought out. The conflict between Regina and Emma really moved the show.

2. Season 2 - Picked up where Season 1 left off. Started to show Regina's struggle between being a good Mom (and a good Person) vs her inner darkness. additional character development for the mains, and the 3 main story lines flowed well together into a whole. Faded a little toward the end with Tamara and Greg.

3. Season 6 (at least so far) - looks like it is finally picking up where season 2 left (just before the departure to Neverland)

4. Season 3b - Introduction of Zelena and Oz into the Continuity, and the story was entertaining. The additional character building both in the "missing year" flashbacks and the current day was nice.

5. Season 5b - Started to return more to the roots of the show, and had many nice callbacks to characters that had been previously killed. Again, some characters, even some of the dead ones from the previous seasons, were built up a little. Hades was a major disappointment, as was the concept of his love with Zelena. But overall, not a terrible half season.

6. Season 3a - Interesting twist making Pan the Villain (though when you consider his character, he is a bit on the shady side to begin with), though making him Rumple's papa was a bit much. The story itself was prolonged, and did not provide many opportunited for growth of the characters. But, it had some great moments, especially in the finale when Rumple sacrifices himself to save everyone, followed by Regina undoing the Dark Curse and sending everyone back to the EF. If they had ended the series there, it would have been satisfying. (though I like this show enough that I'm glad they didn't end it there).

7. Season 4b - Great in concept, poor in execution. They tried to fit too much into the 11 episodes, and as a reasult were not able to really provide any character growth (though they did do some character demolition for no reason). In my opinion, the thing that save 4b was the Alternate Universe type story that was the finale.

8. Season 5a - Again, Great in concept, poor in execution. They had so much they could have done with Dark Swan, with Emma fighting the Darkness. Had they stayed that course, it could have been better. Instead, they had it ultimately be about Killian, which was a failure (imo). And as for Camelot, there were things that just didn't work. Arthur being a shady king was not a good approach.

9. Season 4a - First, let me say that just because i put the "Frozen" arc here in no way means that I hated the arc. Actually, I enjoyed the way that they cast and portrayed Anna and Elsa, and the stories were entertaining. But, the entire arc is just shoved into the middle of the show with no buildup (it was seriously a last minute insert into the season 3 finale), and ended just as abruptly. The focus of the arc (most episodes dealt with the Frozen Cast) took attention away from any story or character building involving the core cast (including derailing any chance of substantially including Michael Socha and the whole Wonderland storyline). It was a Marketing ploy to attempt to take advantage of the (over)Hype of Frozen, and it is one that, I feel in the long run, did not pay the dividends expected and took the show well off track.