Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24674051-20160602175241/@comment-24674051-20160604184508

I agree that the focus needs to stay on the Main cast (currently at 9, and no announcements have been made to increase or decrease this amount), and one or 2 guest stars that are integral to the story being told. (for 6a at least, it will be Jekyll and Hyde).

Now, assuming that they go with a shorter hiatus (and the occasional 2 week interval to accomodate various awards shows and specials), I would personally like to see 1 season long storyline, but have that one be the B plot for the season. Then, the A Plot could be either several short arcs of 1-3 episodes (enough to cover 1 untold story each arc) or 2-3 arcs of 7 episodes each. Or (heaven forbid) they start moving back to having more episodes during a season (older series actually had 25-26 episodes in a season), which would allow a little more leeway to tell the tales. I know, only 2-3 episodes more than we got the past 2 seasons, but that 2-3 episodes can do a world of good to allow for pacing of story and character development. C Plot lines could involve character develoipment for characters, and provice some opportunities for alternate interactions (like Belle and just about anybody other than Rumple).

And rather than a midseason finale and subseqauent midseason premiere, it would be nice to see A & E write single bridging episodes (without the extreme fanfare of finales) between the arcs, and then maybe write one or 2 episodes in the middle of the arcs. If a season had 3 story arcs, that would have A & E write the Season Premiere, the season finale, 2 additional bridge episodes, and maybe one or 2 mid-arc episodes. 5-6 episodes a season with their name penned as the writerst is really not much more than what they currenty do, and that could also have a positive benefit for the overall story.