Was one of the people who missed Storybrooke, or more what it meant in first season: a contrast to the Enchanted Forest, to the simplicity of storybook lands, where people for example might question, why anyone has the right to rule them just because of heritage, where magic and science collide, where happy endings are something not happening or in a different way. Grumpy asking what would happen if people from our world discover dwarfs, fairies, (were-) wolves and other speaking animals are real was a good question, which they barely explored, rushing instead to get to Neverland sweet Pan. To me Storybrooke was not boring but one of the things that made the show interesting in the first place. Just some other, more or less new twists (IMO less) of fairy tales was only a part of what made me watch the show, and if they had put the story just in the storybook lands I might have tuned out already during first season.
What they made of Storybrooke though was not good. It never was about the town but about the difference in relationships, the difference of a world with different believes and approaches, it was a sort of alternative university setting without calling it an alternative university. Not to mention people missed quite simple the characters left behind in Storybrooke, Belle, Red, Granny, Archie, the dwarfs.
It was said, that all who were in Storybrooke during the first Dark Curse had their original life memories (Enchanted Forest etc. life) and their fake “modern” world ones, and that was hardly explored. That the show didn’t do that is their biggest miss so far, tons of character challenges and development missed out on, and their is no way to make good for that, the moment is gone.
So, right, now Storybrooke is boring.
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