• Network: ABC
  • Series Premiere Date: Oct 23, 2011
Season #: 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 129 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Negative: 10 out of 129
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User Reviews

  1. Nov 23, 2014
    1
    Once upon a time, ABC was in talks with an amazing creator named Bill Willingham, whose comic series "Fables" is a long line of brilliance, mature exploration of character and fairy tale tropes blended into a modern setting. It is hands down one of the best series I have ever read, and it's still going (at least into 2015 when the story comes to a close).

    At some point, those talks fell
    Once upon a time, ABC was in talks with an amazing creator named Bill Willingham, whose comic series "Fables" is a long line of brilliance, mature exploration of character and fairy tale tropes blended into a modern setting. It is hands down one of the best series I have ever read, and it's still going (at least into 2015 when the story comes to a close).

    At some point, those talks fell through. Then, half a year later, ABC announces Once Upon a Time, based on the same basic conceit as the Willingham comic from Vertigo (DC). I'm sad it's not Fables, but I'm excited at the idea.

    Then, I watch it. I tried. I really did. It's so watered down, trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator, with annoying leads (though I liked Jiminy Cricket and I liked Rumpelstiltskin for what they were worth). It had a less-intriguing premise. It was far too soft and Disney-fied. They basically took this amazing mature story and tried to make it have mass appeal to the family audience. Already not what I wanted, but hey, I like a good family show on occasion, so I stuck it out.

    And the writing sucked. The plotting, the dialogue, the generic tropes done with a straight face, bland as could be. The kid is obnoxious. Snow's 'daughter' is obnoxious. Snow is less interesting than a bottle of Ambien (and it's sad, too, I loved the actress in Big Love).

    Jiminy and Rumpel are the only reason this review didn't get a '0'.

    If you want something that's actually good in this vein, go read Fables. Or watch Grimm.
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  2. Nov 11, 2015
    3
    I hope you like going in circles with the same predictable outcomes and characters because that's what you are in store for. The show is really repetitive with nothing really going anywhere and characters that play out more like a cheesy soap opera rather than a gripping fairy tale character.