Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-34924658-20161031211322/@comment-24593235-20170502234308


 * Season 1 - Everything was fresh and new, the characters hadn't been tainted yet, the flashbacks were at their best, and the real-world stories were entertaining. Snow and Charming had a nice flashback arc spread throughout the season, and the Storybrooke drama with Kathryn's disappearance was well crafted. No real complaints.
 * Season 5B - Hades was an entertaining villain, it focused on the core cast rather than bringing on new temporary guests, had Zelena's amazing redemption arc, gave us some extra closure on some dearly departed characters, killed off Robin Hood, and was overall just pretty well written. Only complaint is that awful Underworld filter.
 * Season 6A - Had some Season 1 vibes, also focused on and used its core cast, gave Belle a backbone, had some nice one-off stories, made an excellent antagonist out of the Evil Queen, started putting effort into their flashbacks again, and featured some nice small-town stories. Only big complaint is the Evil Queen's sickening affair with Rumple.
 * Season 3B - It was a nice reboot for the show, gave us Zelena who goes onto be a pretty fun villain/anti-hero, successfully redeemed Regina, gave us a nice change in flashback stories, introduced the Oz mythology, provided some nice development for our lead characters, and gave us the amazing two part time travel finale (which happened to include Rumbelle's beautiful wedding). My biggest complaint is Neal's death.
 * Season 2 - Exciting change to the narrative after Season 1. It was fun seeing Emma in the Enchanted Forest with Snow, and Cora made an excellent villain. We were still establishing some heavy plotpoints in the show (prior to the writers just making it up as they went along), and for the most part it was pretty entertaining. My complaint is almost everything that happened post-Cora's death. Yikes, how it went downhill.
 * Season 3A - This was a good arc for character development and bringing everyone together, as well as gave us some pretty solid Peter Pan/Neverland mythology. However, the arc dragged as they spent far too long just running around the same set which was only made worse being in the dark. Also the exclusion of Belle irks me. Still, overall, I like this arc.
 * Season 4A - The first arc of Once Upon a Time that I don't like. 4A is when I really lost respect for the show and just haven't looked at it the same since. It was clearly a cash-grab/hope to boost ratings, and it was disappointing that they didn't even put their own spin on the story AND they destroyed Rumplestiltskin as a character. I will say though that Ingrid made an excellent antagonist, and I adored the Shattered Sight spell.
 * Season 6B - This was/is just so surprisingly boring. I loved both 5B and 6A, but all of a sudden it feels 6B that they have just given up. It feels like the same effort isn't being put in anymore, the writing is sloppy and the actors just seem over it tbh. Even the episodes I've liked/loved have their flaws. Also, I'm very bitter that Belle is irrelevant in the arc about her son. Just sayin'. Black Fairy though, she's great.
 * Season 4B - Cheap, to say the least. I would've made this my least favorite arc had it not been for Dark Hook in 5A, but I really do not like 4B. All of the characters were just at their worst - Snowing stole a baby, Regina was an entitled brat, Rumple was reduced to this cartoon villain-esque role, and Dark Emma was just annoyingly cringe. I like the Queens of Darkness individually, but the idea of them just felt so cheap and contrived. Also there was a lot of mythology this arc that didn't make much sense, and a lot of it was just filler set-up for 5A that was ultimately abandoned. Even the finale just felt like it tried and failed to live up to Season 3's.
 * Season 5A - Like 6B, I found this arc boring for the most part; however, it wasn't until Dark Hook when I was just so done. He made absolutely no sense being the Dark One and I refuse to believe it was planned from the start. I was really looking forward to the Dark Swan and she was just a big disappointment. Meanwhile I think they overdid it with the arc guests - Merida, Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin, Nimue - it was too much, and they were either resolved last minute in 5B or not at all. HOWEVER, it was all redeemable up until 5x11 which I recognize as the worst hour of the series, no, the worst hour of television I've ever sat through. I could go on a rant about how horrible and unforgivable that episode was, but obviously here is not the place. I'll just say that any admiration I had left for this arc was gone.