Once Upon a Time

:

Season 4
  • Network: ABC
  • Series Premiere Date: Oct 23, 2011
Season #: 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
User Score
7.3

Generally favorable reviews- based on 91 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 64 out of 91
  2. Mixed: 16 out of 91
  3. Negative: 11 out of 91
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User Reviews

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  1. Wudd
    Oct 14, 2014
    3
    This show is as formulaic as they come. Henry still cannot act. The ice cream shop is literally NEXT DOOR to Granny's and we haven't seen the shop or the owner once in any of the previous seasons? How do people just keep turning up like this? Not to mention, what happened to all the peasants and stuff living in the Enchanted Forest when the Evil Queen cast the first curse? Why did only theThis show is as formulaic as they come. Henry still cannot act. The ice cream shop is literally NEXT DOOR to Granny's and we haven't seen the shop or the owner once in any of the previous seasons? How do people just keep turning up like this? Not to mention, what happened to all the peasants and stuff living in the Enchanted Forest when the Evil Queen cast the first curse? Why did only the A-list people get pulled into our world?

    Love, trust and family solves all problems (and have for 3 previous seasons), but still the characters seem surprised that these things are the answers to the problem. Emma always has a hang up with her love interest. It's been 3 and some seasons of her telling men who "love" her that she's not ready to be with them. There is also so much convenience built into the plot. Emma can't use her powers (even though Rumple, the Evil Queen, or the Blue Fairy could probably teach her to use them) unless they've written themselves into a corner...of course this could be explained away because love or whatever. The constant oscillation between good and bad for both Gold and Regina is distracting and designed to drum up suspense. This happens because the viewer knows that the good guys will ALWAYS win. This is true of a lot of shows, but this one doesn't really offer anything else as far as action, intrigue, or romance.

    I'm invested in this show for whatever reason, and I am totally understanding of the fact that it's Disney/ABC so it can't be too dark, but at the same time it's too bubblegum to be watchable. I'm holding on because Robert Carlyle is great and I still miss LOST. I'll probably end up finishing the season but this may be my last unless the show takes a drastic turn and I do hope it does.    … Expand
  2. seventhbeacon
    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.    … Expand
  3. MikeSunderland
    Dec 14, 2014
    2
    The show started with promising ideas, but nowadays on its fourth season, those ideas are gone for good. The show started to seem very wasted last season, but now it's clear that the writers ran out of ideas quickly. As an example of that, you can see that every arc is resolved suddenly with a forced twist that comes out of nowhere, cause yeah, we have "magic" as excuse for everything, soThe show started with promising ideas, but nowadays on its fourth season, those ideas are gone for good. The show started to seem very wasted last season, but now it's clear that the writers ran out of ideas quickly. As an example of that, you can see that every arc is resolved suddenly with a forced twist that comes out of nowhere, cause yeah, we have "magic" as excuse for everything, so the plot is "magically" poorly executed.… Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
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No score yet - based on 2 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 2
  3. Negative: 0 out of 2
  1. People Weekly
    Reviewed by: Patrick Gomez
    Sep 29, 2014
    75
    The highlight of the show remains newlywed actress Lana Parrilla, who continues to pepper her Evil Queen with just the right amount of realism to make her deliciously wicked deeds seem justified, but Frozen is just the thing that has gotten Once really moving.
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  2. Variety
    Reviewed by: Brian Lowry
    Sep 26, 2014
    70
    The “Frozen” crossover is indeed a bit of a blast, and the visual effects are especially good.
    Read full review