When 'Once Upon a Time' first started, it was highly addictive and made the most of a truly great and creative premise. Really loved the idea of turning fairy tales on their heads and putting own interpretations on them and the show early on clearly had a ball. Watched it without fail everytime it came on and it was often a highlight of the week. Which was why it was sad when it ran out of ideas and lost its magic in the later seasons.
Although with a few not so great episodes, Seasons 1-4 gave me a lot of pleasures. Season 5 was decent to brilliant from personal opinion in its first half but the quality became uneven in the Underworld arc. Season 6 started off very promisingly, really liked the first three episodes while feeling more mixed on "Strange Case". "Street Rats" however left me quite conflicted. So did "Dark Waters" and actually even more so, once again feel the same here with "Heartless". Like "Street Rats" and "Dark Waters", it is not a terrible episode by all means, but there is not enough of what makes the show so good when it's on form and it is a good example of the run out of ideas and lost the magic criticisms. Something that can be seen in the decreasing ratings and the relatively mild critical opinions.
There are definitely good things about "Heartless". As is always the case with 'Once Upon a Time' it is a visually handsome episode, it's photographed beautifully and the settings have colour and atmosphere without being too dreary or garish. The costumes are much better than they were in "Dark Waters". The music is haunting, ethereal and cleverly used with a memorable theme tune.
From personal opinion, the cast mostly do very well with what they had to work with. It is hard to go wrong with Lana Parrilla, Rebecca Mader and Robert Carlyle, and Josh Dallas and Ginnifer Goodwin show charm in their performances and chemistry.
Parts of the story engage. Do love Regina and Emma together and Regina, Zelena and the Evil Queen, for me the best thing about the episode, continue to be awesome and the characters that seem to be most in character. There is some heart, including a sweet moment between Emma and Hook and the character writing for Zelena. The Charmings' story and development, nice to see them finally interesting in quite some time, was very charming and good fun, even if there are a few random parts and things that happen too hastily or glossed over.
However, some of the story is again messy and there is definitely a sense that the show has run out of ideas. Too over-stuffed and rather rushed, meaning things don't make as much sense as they ought to. The Evil Queen's motivations and plan should have been made much clearer and everything with the tree felt muddled and didn't seem explained enough.
Other episodes do a much better job at character and plot advancing, as with "Dark Waters" it doesn't feel like the story is progressing or adds much to what was seen before in the previous episodes feeling like somewhat of a filler episode. The characters have also been more compelling elsewhere and the writers seem to have forgotten what made them great in the first place, when you compare some of them from the earlier seasons to now they are unrecognisable and it's not for the better. Felt for Emma in the first three episodes but since "Strange Case" have increasingly started to like her less with her lack of honesty and the somewhat over-the-top way she's starting to be written. The writing is far too camp and often very melodramatic, Belle shows little personality, her chemistry with Gold feels very tired and over-stretched here and while initially fascinating when introduced everything with the Evil Queen and Gold is on the uncomfortable side.
Summarising, after a promising start Season 6 is sadly continuing to underwhelm. 5/10 Bethany Cox
Although with a few not so great episodes, Seasons 1-4 gave me a lot of pleasures. Season 5 was decent to brilliant from personal opinion in its first half but the quality became uneven in the Underworld arc. Season 6 started off very promisingly, really liked the first three episodes while feeling more mixed on "Strange Case". "Street Rats" however left me quite conflicted. So did "Dark Waters" and actually even more so, once again feel the same here with "Heartless". Like "Street Rats" and "Dark Waters", it is not a terrible episode by all means, but there is not enough of what makes the show so good when it's on form and it is a good example of the run out of ideas and lost the magic criticisms. Something that can be seen in the decreasing ratings and the relatively mild critical opinions.
There are definitely good things about "Heartless". As is always the case with 'Once Upon a Time' it is a visually handsome episode, it's photographed beautifully and the settings have colour and atmosphere without being too dreary or garish. The costumes are much better than they were in "Dark Waters". The music is haunting, ethereal and cleverly used with a memorable theme tune.
From personal opinion, the cast mostly do very well with what they had to work with. It is hard to go wrong with Lana Parrilla, Rebecca Mader and Robert Carlyle, and Josh Dallas and Ginnifer Goodwin show charm in their performances and chemistry.
Parts of the story engage. Do love Regina and Emma together and Regina, Zelena and the Evil Queen, for me the best thing about the episode, continue to be awesome and the characters that seem to be most in character. There is some heart, including a sweet moment between Emma and Hook and the character writing for Zelena. The Charmings' story and development, nice to see them finally interesting in quite some time, was very charming and good fun, even if there are a few random parts and things that happen too hastily or glossed over.
However, some of the story is again messy and there is definitely a sense that the show has run out of ideas. Too over-stuffed and rather rushed, meaning things don't make as much sense as they ought to. The Evil Queen's motivations and plan should have been made much clearer and everything with the tree felt muddled and didn't seem explained enough.
Other episodes do a much better job at character and plot advancing, as with "Dark Waters" it doesn't feel like the story is progressing or adds much to what was seen before in the previous episodes feeling like somewhat of a filler episode. The characters have also been more compelling elsewhere and the writers seem to have forgotten what made them great in the first place, when you compare some of them from the earlier seasons to now they are unrecognisable and it's not for the better. Felt for Emma in the first three episodes but since "Strange Case" have increasingly started to like her less with her lack of honesty and the somewhat over-the-top way she's starting to be written. The writing is far too camp and often very melodramatic, Belle shows little personality, her chemistry with Gold feels very tired and over-stretched here and while initially fascinating when introduced everything with the Evil Queen and Gold is on the uncomfortable side.
Summarising, after a promising start Season 6 is sadly continuing to underwhelm. 5/10 Bethany Cox
