How has this season been awful?

[Phee]

*points at everything Keb and RumplesGirl said* Yeah, that! 🙂

@AngieBelle wrote:

And yes, I agree that last season was more clearly structured. This season was all over the place. However, my obsession with this show has reached heights this year that it never quite reached last year, so they are clearly doing *something* right!

With season 1, there was a clear objective that we as the audience knew from the getgo: make Emma believe. I think that’s why that season appeared more structured as we were in the process of watching it. The season 1 finale was a major gamechanger though, one we hadn’t necessarily seen coming, so we went into season 2 blind. K&H knew what the season 2 endgame was, but we didn’t really have a clear focus of that, so stuff along the way seemed more all over the place from our perspective. Personally, I was fine with that, because I was just enjoying the ride, no matter where it was taking me.

But if you look at the season finale, they tied it together nicely. They couldn’t have tried the plan to throw the failsafe down a portal if they couldn’t make the callback to the Wraith. They couldn’t have shown Nealfire landing in FTL and leave us wondering how on earth he’s gonna get out of there if we hadn’t seen the state that the place is in earlier in the season. I think that upon re-watch, the season as a whole will appear more cohesive, now that we know where it ended up and how all the pieces fit together.

And for all the ups and downs that the characters have been through, in the end, I think it all served a purpose because all of their paths and trials and developments ended up converging in a believable way in the finale, and now Henry has his family united, like he’s always wanted, (with the exception of himself being kidnapped of course).

[kfchimera]

This season wasn’t awful but it wasn’t as cohesive as Season 1. Reading the interviews where it sounds like they changed things up a lot mid-season or early into the season sort of explains why. I felt there were a few things that were rushed, such as Cora, MAP, GOAT, and Spencer/George. We can hang on to the hope that these stories will pay off in a bigger way down the line.

I do sort of worry that ONCE will suffer the same fate as Heroes–there’s a kind of similar trajectory in that the first season was strong, but the second suffered from too many new faces, and attempts to redeem the main S1 villain. So then the third season of Heroes was just (in my opinion) awful. The mythology of the show just became too convoluted and ridiculous. The plot gaps of “Well, why didn’t x just do THIS?” began to pile up.

Hopefully Once gets the 5 years to play the story out.

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?” -- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

[RumplesGirl]

According to the interviews I’ve read thus far, H and K recognize that they took too many toys out of the box and plan to just focus on the cast from here on out and if background characters are introduced, they will serve a greater purpose.

S2 may not have been as cohesive, but I think Phee makes an excellent point. We knew the trajectory of S1 from the start: get Emma to believe to break the Curse. We knew the season was headed in that direction from the first episode. S2 kept me guessing. I didn’t guess we were leaving SB until Paley when they announced the final titles.

I understand that they did change some stories in the process of writing, but all writing is rewriting. It’s a shame about Ruby, but Meghan is talented enough to get picked up right away, and we will see her every now and then. And I enjoyed the Cora arc, and even though I hate GOAT, I’m super intrigued by what they’re up to.

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[Myril]

There is a town in Maine, where every storybook character you’ve ever known is trapped between two worlds, victims of a powerful curse. Only one knows the truth, and only one can break her spell.

For most of season 1 this was told by a narrator in the opening (with slight variation, beginning episode 1×19 they changed the opening, dropped this and replaced it with a simple “previous on Once Upon a time”, which they have used as well in season 2) This was the story for season 01 in short, it was clear, simple, and thanks to the opening even new viewers were able to get it. I think this is why many feel, that season 01 was better structured, the story was clear.

Since the final of season 2 aired I’m trying to find an equally short simple way to describe the story of season 2. Without much success so far. “There is a town in Maine, where every storybook character you’ve ever known is living with the memories of two worlds. Is there a way back to their home or what will be at stake if they have to stay in our world?” – not so poetic but this could sum up what I expected to see in season 02, before it began, and still expected during the first half of the season. After the winter break though things began to change and pretty soon I was and still am somewhat at a loss, what was, is the story the creators, writers wanted to tell. Think, that is the problem of this season. We got a big bad with Cora (never saw Hook as big bad, more with potential to be an anti-hero, stay around longer and be a real pain in the butt later), but then they killed her way before the final episode. Meanwhile they threw first Greg, and then Tamara at us, combined their forces, turned them into some stupid pawns of a bigger scary (?) thing called Home Office, and couldn’t wait to drop the “Peter Pan is not who you would expect to be”-bombshell on us. Yeah, the temptation of the big toy box, to play too may toys at once.

The season was not awful, but they messed it up a little in the end in my opinion. There were enjoyable episodes, okay episodes, and a few episodes which were a bit like rushed mash thrown on the plates, edible but not appetizing. As I see it: it was rather okay til winter-break, still working mostly until they killed Cora, and what followed then would have been better pushed to 3rd season (not saying the episodes were all bad, just displaced). And particular in the second half, when they rushed things to get the Neverland thing into the show, character arcs were neglected for the sake of plot. Well, when I want to watch action movies I go and watch action movies, but OUaT promised to be a more character driven show, so I expected something different and feel somewhat disappointed about it at the moment.

Doesn’t help, that I find GOAT and the Home Office thing not the least bit intriguing, despite that I would have loved to have a story line exploring reactions of outsiders to SB, magic and fairy tale characters in our world, but not like that. Because GOAT knew about magic and were looking for SB I don’t really count them as outsiders even, but think thanks to them that option is now close to dead.

And I have to admit, that the Neverland thing not yet has a real spark for me, maybe because Peter Pan was never a storybook character a cared much about (too much a boy adventure dream story for my taste). What I like is the dark twist, so I will take a look where this is going.

¯\_(?????? ?)_/¯

[HappyEndings]

Very nice post above ^ and I agree with you. 🙂

[jade]

I have yet to watch the last 5 episodes of the second season.

Based on what I have seen so far, I don’t think that the second season was awful, but it was less good than the first one, in my opinion. I loved every episode of the first season, because it was perfectly done in every detail. It was basically centered on the curse and the developments leading to the breaking of it. I loved the filler episodes too (loved Hansel&Gretel and the Blind Witch and the Nova-Grumpy love story)
The second was less centered on a particular topic and this created more confusion. But the episodes were still very good per se, like The Miller’s Daughter, The Crocodile, the one about Belle in Mulan’s land, Manhattan etc.

There were some points that I didn’t like:
-Doctor Whale = Frankestein (I would have preferred him being The Wizard of OZ)
-the “time runs parallel” issue (this isn’t exactly explained in the show, but somehow implied). Ok, ok, I have already said this in another thread. 😳
-the flashbacks explaining how Cora created a shield against the curse (I was expecting more footage of Cora in Wonderland in that episode, since it was named Queen of Hearts)

[Killian Jones]

I loved this season from the get go, Emma re-meeting her parents, then Snow and Emma getting to know each other all over again and Emma realizing what it means to have her parents. The beautiful thing from the that story was when Emma saw what her parents gave up and she saw what she gave up with Henry their sacrifice seemed so much larger to her than hers with Henry. I mean she gets to have a life with Henry at 11 they get her at 29. Then the Henry and David story Charming getting the son he wanted, and Henry going from an unhappy situation with his mother to not only getting her to try and redeem herself but getting this ridiculously awesome new family where the most boring part of his day was going with his ware-wolf protector lol

Also I loved seeing Captain Hook on the show starting from his first appearance in The Crocodile “TICK-TOCK dearie TICK-TOCK!”
Then The CaptainSwan beanstalk adventure, paralleled against her relationship with Bae? The sword fight in Queen of Hearts was just about the coolest thing ever. I mean from this season I can literally be named an episode and I can gush all over it for one reason or another. example

The consensus worst episode seems to be S, B & T The one thing I was not really feeling was the stupid taser but in that episode it was still cool to see August living with the consequences of the decisions he made in his life. How he struggled to even get to Storybrooke and only went when he was out of options. This episode sold Tamara as a villain to me showed me that there would be an outside threat that would unite the family. Then that line August said? “I’ve lived of life of cowardice, selfishness and dishonesty” also seeing Geppetto get his son back and Snow’s reaction to finding out that she had to let Emma go because of what Geppetto did (it was also pretty sick to see Snow shooting arrows while jamming out to Bad Reputation lol), I was surprised Emma wasn’t more upset than she was. The whole pace of that episode made me feel like how Pinnochio must have felt, constantly running and escaping his responsibility until at last remembering what it is to be what he was suppose to be and knowingly laying down his life again.

Like I said I can go on and on (havent eaven touched on how great Rumbelle was this year) but suffice to say I loved season two, I just wish the scheduling was better but the episodes themselves I really found it impossible to hate any one of them and not find something I liked about them.

[MatthewPaul]

I am mixed with Season 2 overall. The universal agreement across the fanbase seems to be that Season 1 as a whole was superior, but Season 2 appears to be a love it or hate it Season. The biggest criticism that I’ve seen is that the Charmings didn’t get enough focus in both Storybrooke and the flashbacks, while Regina and Rumple have had too much attention given to them. To play devil’s advocate here, I never saw Once Upon a Time as simply “The Snow and Charming Hour.” I feel like Once Upon a Time is an ensemble show that focuses on ALL of the characters in the Enchanted Forest and the other realms. However, since Snow’s family is the center of the cast, several fans feel that any time spent on characters other than them are “pointless filler”, when it’s really not. Again, there are so many characters to delve into with the potential to be interesting themselves. Could Season 2 have spent a little more time on the Charmings? Absolutely, but I do feel that some fans are being a little too harsh. After all, the Charmings did get top focus all in the first Season, and we did get the majority of Snow and Charming’s story already.

[Killian Jones]

I don’t get that criticism AT ALL since everytime I see a character introduced it like nostalgia hour. If Rumbelle is filler to some people I just don’t know what to say to that! Jeez it was a heavy hitter kind of season for the Charmings starting with the reunion in Broken (“You found us”) culminating with Emma’s emotional Mom & Dad moment in the finale. For fans of the Charming family weren’t episodes like Lady of the Lake, Into the Deep, Queen of Hearts, The Miller’s Daughter, Second Star to the Right $ Straight on Till Morning worth it? Just saying…

[surayya]

I guess my question is: for those who though the season was bad: what were you hoping to see? Because I can guarantee that what you were hoping to see, someone else SAW. TV is subjective. No emotional development? I saw tons of it in Emma, Rumple, Belle, Ruby (in her episode, embracing her wolf side), Hook, and yes, Regina. Inconsistent plot? Not in my eyes. The entire plot of this season was “what happens when you bring magic to SB?” I think they answered that: bad things. Both from your previous land and from the outside. And I LOVED the twist at the end of this season. So that’s my overall point, TV is seen through an individual lens. And it’s perfectly fine to say that you didn’t see any of the stuff I just mentioned, but please remember that I–and others–saw it differently.

I guess more than what was shown 😉
I’m not saying this is what you, yourself are implying RG, but I don’t think it is fair to belittle what someone who didn’t think much of S2 thinks/feel, just because others loved it- we all have a right to think & feel the way we do about the show & I’d hope no one would be made out to be ‘less of’ just because the show didn’t live up to their own personal expectations- we all have opinions on the matter & we all just need to respect them either way.

With season 1, there was a clear objective that we as the audience knew from the getgo: make Emma believe. I think that’s why that season appeared more structured as we were in the process of watching it. The season 1 finale was a major gamechanger though, one we hadn’t necessarily seen coming, so we went into season 2 blind. K&H knew what the season 2 endgame was, but we didn’t really have a clear focus of that, so stuff along the way seemed more all over the place from our perspective. Personally, I was fine with that, because I was just enjoying the ride, no matter where it was taking me.

Actually they didn’t – in an interview with Megan (about why she wasn’t in the finale etc), she made it clear that A&E had a change in plans early in the season & ended up changing the whole middle & back half of S2- this could be why things started out so well & then as many felt, turned pear shaped, cramming episodes full of ‘stuff’ to get to where their new direction was taking them (which was so different from the original plan, that 1 regular pretty much is gone, as her story no longer had a place).

I agree with Myril too.

Personally, I started out LOVING S2- I was obsessed with once during S1, so it didn’t take much lol … but had to take a break from the show about mid season for a while & come back to it as I was disillusioned & disappointed with the way things were going- It’s not that I didn’t care what happened at that point, because the problem was I did care lol (I felt the character development was stuttered & at times contradictory, some characters & situations became very plot devicey & OTT predictable with many a very “Oh, that’s convenient” moments {I didn’t really get too much of that from S1}, missing 1/2 the core cast for blocks of time 🙁 ,then at times the show just felt like each ep was 2-3mins with group A, then B & then C storylines, mention storylines E-I & add storylines X,Y,Z + include a 5min block of 1 main…it was just disappointing is all after the delicious, paced out, detailed character development of S1).
I think they really tried to fit too much into each episode (it almost felt like 1/2 the season was stuck in the middle part of a 3ep arc & they were all rushing around to set up the 3rd/finale ep….for 1/2 a season) & that’s what lead to a lot of the disappointment most people felt (at least it was for me anyway). I mean the whole reason that uber fans (rather than casual viewers)- love the show, is the Characters & their development, which went by the way side may times for the sake of another plot line- which is fine every now & again, just please not 1/2 the season at a time.

The best thing they did to keep me interested enough to stay with the show (thankfully for me! 😉 ), was introduce Hook – it was nice to have that mystery back when things got very stale & the awesome CS stuff in Tallahassee (it’s just a shame we didn’t get all we were meant to of Hook, given Colin’s broken leg- bring on S3!)

Over all I don’t think the season was awful (If I had to give it a rating for instance, I’d say 7/10) – it just wasn’t as great for me personally as S1 (10/10) was (& I’m pretty sure that is what most fans who didn’t enjoy this season as much as the 1st are trying to articulate- it was awful compared to the 1st season for them personally- not that the show itself is awful).
It had a few 10/10, AWESOME episodes (generally it was the eps that focused on a 2-3 plots rather 15 😉 ), many 4-6/10, o.k-good Episodes & a number of 1-3/10 less than great episodes (these usually were ones with few of our core cast involved & a zillion plot lines going at once for me).
For me the top 4 are Broken (how can it not be on anyone’s top 10 list…The feels! 😉 ), Crocodile, Tallahassee & a tie for SOTM & LOTL (that Emma & Snow scene in the nursery was just soooooooo touching).
I actually FINALLY left sorry for Regina this season lol – she’s still a twisted …son of a gun, but I did feel sorry for her (& then we didn’t see her for like 4eps soooo typical S2 😆 )

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