Review: Once Upon A Time Season 6

Fairy tales have certainly influenced my writing of children’s books, and even come to life to some extent in my novels (particularly BONES AT BREAKFAST).  It is no secret that I enjoy them, but am very picky about what I choose to watch.  Once Upon a Time has always grabbed my attention because of its inclusion of not just Disney versions of the tales, but also classic literature.

While Season 5 was a big dud in my mind, it had its high points.  Season 6 goes back to what made Season 1 so good, and included more classics.  It escaped the fairy tale world and made its way into some great fiction literature.

The Good: The additions of Aladdin, Mr. Hyde, Count of Monte Cristo, and a few others worked quite well, while characters like Cinderella finally got a proper back story.  The Evil queen vs Regina started out a little rough, but by the end I liked what they did with it.  The whole season provided a great canvas to end the current run of characters and it properly sets up season 7 as a reboot with Henry being an adult.

The Bad: There were still flaws with some of the narratives.  I feel that the Wicked Witch was wasted here, and Rumpelstiltskin was slightly under used, even though they both played a key role.  Emma and Hook were great together, but to me it seemed very redundant with Emma’s role this season.  Her performance didn’t move me at all, nor her story.  Even though they used other classic tales, I feel like it still lacked for the most part in diversity (as far as types of stories).

Overall: It wasn’t the best season, but way better than the worst.  The fact that they are rebooting next season is a welcome addition, but I’m still cautious with my hopes.  It could go two ways… 1) it could end up being a fantastic reboot, pretty much ignoring or only referencing the original characters.  Using them as cameos as fine, but I no longer want to see those people as a focus (except Henry’s story).  Although I wouldn’t mind Regina and Rumple still having significant roles.  They have a blank slate where they can go more horror with Dracula, more Frankenstein, etc etc that would really make it feel new.  Or 2) They could just rehash the same formula and have nothing new to bring to the table.  I’m hoping for the former, but in the meantime I’ll rate Season 6 with 4 out of 5 sCrypt coffins.

What were your thoughts?  And Where would you like the series to go from here?  Comment below.