This Fantasy Drama’s 155 Episodes Were Groundbreaking — Until It Became One of TV’s Most Painful Watches

Back in 2011, network television looked radically different. Streaming hadn't yet taken over the TV space, and the big broadcast channels like CBS and NBC were still willing to give ambitious shows a chance. That year, the boldest effort came from ABC, which took several iconic fairytale characters — with special attention paid to their Disney counterparts — and brought them to life in a premise that was at turns creative and baffling. It was the fall's buzziest series, and it ultimately ran for seven seasons — for better or worse. Few shows are as wild and fascinating as Once Upon a Time.

Created by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, Once Upon a Time centered on the magical town of Storybrooke, Maine, a secluded little place where everyone is seemingly normal, save for one major detail: they're all fairytale characters. The Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla) casts a curse designed to take away happy endings, stealing everyone's memories and sending them to the real world. Heroes like Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Prince Charming (Josh Dallas) are permanently trapped, with the curse only able to be broken by the Savior, Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison), Snow and Charming's daughter, who grew up in the real world and definitely does not believe in magic. At its best, Once Upon a Time was an uplifting comfort watch, but at its worst, it could be the exact opposite.

'Once Upon a Time' Could Turn Beloved Fairytales on Their Heads in Clever Ways

Once Upon a Time built its cast of characters from the most well-known myths and Disney movies, roping in everyone from Cinderella (Jessy Schram and Dania Ramirez) to the Mad Hatter (Sebastian Stan). Season 1 established the show's formula, utilizing flashbacks to reveal how everyone's fantasy lives contributed to who they've become in the present day. This gave Once Upon a Time the opportunity to put its own spin on tales that every viewer had seen a million times over. For example, the trickster Rumpelstiltskin (Robert Carlyle) also became Cinderella's fairy savior, the crocodile who took Captain Hook's (Colin O'Donoghue) hand, and Belle's (Emilie de Ravin) Beast.

As the show went on, it widened its scope to classic novels too, bringing in characters from Frankenstein, The Wizard of Oz, and Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. It inevitably had to shift away from its original premise, but at its core, Once Upon a Time was always about the importance of hope and the strength of true love. Snow White and Prince Charming's relationship remained the ideal depiction of fairytale romance, and even those who started out as dark-hearted villains, like Hook and the Evil Queen, became heroes, with their arcs serving as inspirational redemption tales.

For Disney fans, Once Upon a Time was a fun twist on the expansive animated world they knew so well, and its position as an ABC show meant it could make use of the Mouse House's specific versions of those characters. Only a year after Frozen became a worldwide sensation, its characters made their live-action debuts in Once Upon a Time Season 4, and their storylines were chock-full of Easter eggs. To this day, the show's bold swings — which, admittedly, veered into absurdity and camp from time to time — amaze viewers both new and old, reaffirming that Once Upon a Time was a creative blast at its peak. Ever heard of Little Bo Peep the mob boss? Exactly.

Later 'Once Upon a Time' Seasons Hit the Same Plots Over and Over Again

Like any long-running show, though, Once Upon a Time ran into story fatigue in its later seasons, and it kept resorting to the same plots to keep itself afloat. What was once a clever storytelling trick became a crutch as the episodic flashbacks retread familiar ground and added little to the characters' arcs; at least twice, a flashback ended with the characters erasing their memories to keep the status quo, effectively making those threads pointless. In fact, amnesia was a common trope on Once Upon a Time, cropping up in every single season at least once. It could be for either a single character or the entire cast, but it eventually became the writers' go-to trick for smoothing over inconsistencies.

There were plenty of other repeated plots. As Hook at one point wryly points out, "just about everyone's related." Revealing a long-lost family member — who was usually introduced as a villain — was a frequent twist, and virtually every villain was revealed to have a tragic backstory. It worked for someone like Regina, as it added depth to the Evil Queen that she's rarely afforded in other tales, but by the time Season 6 rolled around, and the Black Fairy's (Jaime Murray) sympathetic past was revealed, the tactic had lost its potency. Season 7 only doubled down on the repeats, as it served as a complete reboot of the series and reinstated the original premise, albeit in a new location and with a largely new cast.

It didn't help that some of the twists Once Upon a Time repeated were downright icky. Viewers were left unsettled in Season 4 when it was revealed that a male character had been deceived into conceiving a child with a woman lying about her identity, only to be confronted with the same exact situation in Season 7. The more Once Upon a Time reused the same tricks, the less effective they became. The show couldn't surprise people anymore, making it a more exhausting watch.

As a result, Once Upon a Time leaves behind a complicated legacy. These characters and their relationships remain adored by longtime fans, but those same fans are all too willing to point out the flaws that surround them. Any show that runs for 155 episodes is going to have some low points, and Once Upon a Time certainly has plenty of those. At the same time, it's a fascinating glimpse into what was once possible on network TV, and it won't be so easily forgotten.