Once Upon a Time should have been canceled at the end of season 6

On Tuesday, ABC announced that Once Upon a Time would be coming to an end at the end of season 7, but the show really should have ended after season 6.

When most of the main cast of a show, including its biggest star, decides to leave at the end of a season, it should be time to call it quits on the series. Despite having exactly that happen, Once Upon a Time decided to continue on with mostly new characters and a major time jump.

This season 7 reboot experiment has now come to end as ABC has canceled the show. The series will finish out its run from March until May and then air what will be essentially its second series finale in as many years.

That is because the ending of season 6 was truly the end of Once Upon a Time‘s story, the journey of the Savior, Emma Swan. Henry’s storybook from the pilot got its happy ending and so did all of the characters.

Last year, I wrote that Once Upon a Time should end with Jennifer Morrison’s exit, and having watched the first half of season 7, I maintain that stance. To be fair, there has been some good to come from season 7. It just sometimes feels like an entirely different show while still somehow feeling very repetitive.

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Part of that has to do with the whole setup for season 7 basically just being season 1 all over agin. The early episodes of this season simply felt like watching season 1 all over again. Only it was Lucy trying to convince Henry that he was related to fairy tales and there was a curse on the town.

The standout episodes from the early part of Once Upon a Time season 7 all had to deal more with wrapping up plot points from season 6, including Hook really being Wish Hook so that Hook and Emma could still have their happy ending back in Storybrooke. And then there was was the beautiful Rumple and Belle episode that provided a satisfying ending to Belle’s story, while also explaining why Rumple is still around.

As the season started to flesh out more of this new world, it started to separate itself from Once Upon a Time of the past, and that is a good thing. But there was one thing always holding this season back and that is the convoluted timeline.

Apparently, all of the events in Hyperion Heights are taking place in 2017, which given the ages of Henry and Lucy, does not really make sense. Of course, it could all be explained away by time moving differently in the other realm. Still, season 7 could have easily taken place in the future. Now, Henry is a couple decades older, and the other Charmings will have somehow only aged a few years.

The insistence that all of this is happening in 2017 also means that time had to be taken away from good subplots to explain why all of the babies from season 6 are now all 20-somethings when they should really still be toddlers, timeline wise.

At least for me, knowing that a confusing timeline explanation is coming soon takes me out of the story unfolding in front of me. A story that had some really good twists, like Drizella being the truly evil one, not Lady Tremaine, had less of an impact because of that.

But in the end, Once Upon a Time fell back on what worked in the past. It was Regina who cast the new curse. This time around, it was to save Henry. However, that does not change that fact that Regina casting the curse is just another retread of season 1, and the story was a lot more interesting the first time it was told. With all that in mind, Once Upon a Time should have ended on the high note that was the season 6 finale. Let’s hope the episodes that still remain do at least a bit to change that point of view.

Once Upon a Time: Canceled a year too late

By Leah Smith | Feb 7, 2018

On Tuesday, ABC announced that Once Upon a Time would be coming to an end at the end of season 7, but the show really should have ended after season 6.