Welcome back to White Rose of Avalon my Darlings. Today’s post is another season-by-season ranking of a television show I adore. As always with a ranking like this one, these are my very biased opinions about the quality of each season of a series. Today’s ranking is of all seven seasons of Once Upon a Time. I have long loved this fantasy fairytale television series that did a very interesting take on fairytale lore by entwining many tales together! Oh, and I have to give a brief spoiler warning here, as I will be going into specific plot points about why I ranked the seasons as I did. So, without further ado, here is my ranking.
Number 7:ONCE UPON A TIME SEASON 7
~Let’s get this out of the way right now, like most fans of the series, I thought this final season was very lackluster. To be honest, I found the idea of having a season seven to be completely unnecessary, as Emma’s story was wrapped entirely in season six. The only things I liked about this season were Regina getting her story wrapped up, the exploration of Rumple’s fight with the emotions relating to the cost of his immortality, and getting to see Emma and Hook in the time after their marriage in two episodes. All of those things could have been easily addressed in a continuation film that would tie up the loose ends, instead of making an entire season and filling it up with mostly new characters that we had no emotional investment with!
Number 6: ONCE UPON A TIME SEASON 6
~This was a tough one, as I do truly enjoy this season, but it was simply not as strong as the seasons ranked above it. I truly love how the season ends, and thought that it could have easily been retooled into a series finale. Even as it stands the final episode of this season is a very sweet Swan Song to Emma Swan as a character, finally giving her and Hook their happy ending, which is also a happy beginning! The rest of the season has some complex and unnecessary ups and downs. While I enjoyed the Black Fairy, I honestly thought she could have been utilized better. Overall, most of the great stuff in this season hinged on how it wrapped up at the end. I also do enjoy the musical episode, because as a bit of a theatre nerd, I really enjoy any chance for a musical episode, even if some people (like my husband) find it strange and grating.
Number 5: ONCE UPON A TIME SEASON 1
~Okay, so I know that many fans will question why I would rank the first season of this show so low. The truth is, I do really love the first season, but it suffers from what I believe most introductory seasons of long-running series do, and that is the fact that much of the season is setting itself up for future installments. The major stakes are only raised in the final two episodes. All that being said, I really enjoyed all the set-up, especially learning who was which fairytale character and all of the Enchanted Forest flashbacks. I love the Enchanted Forest sequences in every season, even where they used a lot of pretty poor CGI, as I forgive the bad CGI because the story itself is so entertaining, and at this point, I have a lot of nostalgia for it!
Number 4: ONCE UPON A TIME SEASON 5
~Now is where I really struggled for which season would be where, I knew my top-ranked season but each of the rankings for number two through number four is very close. I settled on season five being the number four choice because it is a really fun season, but I do not know if I would count it as quite as strong as a whole as the ones above it. I loved the Arthurian setting for the first half, Emma as the Dark Swan, and even the chaotic Hades-centric energy of the second half. In all most of my complaints are minor and about specific episodes or plot points that I will not go into here, as that would make an already long post even longer! Overall, it is a very entertaining season, with very interesting diversions of expectations and character development.
Number 3: ONCE UPON A TIME SEASON 2
~This has been a very high-ranked season since my first time watching it. Expanding the fairytale lore and adding much more magic definitely sold me on this season. Plus it is the introduction of Killian Jones, aka Captain Hook, one of my favorite characters in the series! I was such a fan of Hook and Emma from their very first on-screen interaction that I knew they would be the end-game couple. This season is basically very similar in tone to the first season, but with so much more lore and characters that finally are not cursed and know what is going on, making it far superior to the first installment! It takes what season one set up and expands upon it beautifully.
Number 2: ONCE UPON A TIME SEASON 4
~I have to admit this has always been one of my favorite seasons of the series, even if some people question adding in the characters from Frozen, but they fit beautifully into the first half of the season. I also truly appreciated the expansion on the Frozen characters and story by adding in elements from the original Hans Christian Andersen tale The Snow Queen! The second half of the season is not nearly as good as the first, but I do very much enjoy getting to see so much of Maleficent and Ursula. I will be candid in stating that of the villains featured in season four, I thought that Cruella was sorely lacking, especially given how entertaining both Maleficent and Ursula were! The season finale also provided a very interesting look at what it means to be a hero versus a villain showing Emma become the Dark One, setting up for all that Dark Swan insanity of the next season!
Number 1: ONCE UPON A TIME SEASON 3
~My number one had to be the third season, as it took what was great about the first two seasons and kicked it up several notches. It also provided a solid foundation for the next three seasons to build off of. To be honest, this season does exactly what a middle season of a show should do, and does it very well! The introduction of new characters does not feel bloated or just filler, as we have several more seasons to catch back up with them. It also is one of the most re-watchable seasons, even if I find all of the first six seasons insanely re-watchable as this is a major comfort show for me. This season is a favorite rewatch. I personally really adore the second half of the season so much that I view it as the high point of the show, the second half of season three is where they got the formula just right. Finally, I need to say that the season three finale is my favorite season ending in the entire series! In fact, it ranks as one of my favorite episodes of the series, probably tying with the mid-season opener ‘New York City Serenade’ as my number one from this season, and honestly could be argued to be my two top-rated episodes from the whole series! However, stating that with certainty is nearly impossible, as I just really love the show overall.
~I hope you have enjoyed this very biased ranking of the seasons of Once Upon a Time! What is your favorite season? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
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