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Once Upon a Time: Ranking all 7 seasons

By Leah Smith

ONCE UPON A TIME - 'The Final Battle Part 1
ONCE UPON A TIME - 'The Final Battle Part 1 /
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With Once Upon a Time set come to an end, it is the perfect time to take a look back at the series and rank the seasons.

After seven seasons, it is time to say goodbye to Once Upon a Time. That makes this the perfect time to take a look back at some of the highs and lows of the series.

This is ranking of all seven seasons of the show from worst to best. The seasons will be judged as a whole, even if they had two distinct halves. Thus, a season could be brought down by a bad half, or saved if the quality improved after the winter hiatus. Read on to find out how the seasons stack up against each other.

ONCE UPON A TIME – “The Bear and the Bow” – In a Camelot flashback, a chance encounter with Merlin, David, Hook and Belle gives Merida new hope in her quest to save her brothers from the usurping clans of DunBroch. Unwilling to leave anything up to fate, Merida brings Belle along on a dangerous journey that culminates with an invaluable lesson in bravery. In Storybrooke, Regina, Mary Margaret and David discover the spell that would allow one of Merlin’s chosen to communicate with him, but when Arthur fails to reach the missing sorcerer the heroes grow suspicious. Meanwhile, Emma commands Merida to kill Belle in hopes of forcing Mr. Gold’s heroic transformation. With Merida unable to disobey Emma’s orders, Gold must find the courage to fight for Belle’s life or risk losing her forever, on “Once Upon a Time,” SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network (Ed Araquel/ABC via Getty Images)
ONCE UPON A TIME – “The Bear and the Bow” – In a Camelot flashback, a chance encounter with Merlin, David, Hook and Belle gives Merida new hope in her quest to save her brothers from the usurping clans of DunBroch. Unwilling to leave anything up to fate, Merida brings Belle along on a dangerous journey that culminates with an invaluable lesson in bravery. In Storybrooke, Regina, Mary Margaret and David discover the spell that would allow one of Merlin’s chosen to communicate with him, but when Arthur fails to reach the missing sorcerer the heroes grow suspicious. Meanwhile, Emma commands Merida to kill Belle in hopes of forcing Mr. Gold’s heroic transformation. With Merida unable to disobey Emma’s orders, Gold must find the courage to fight for Belle’s life or risk losing her forever, on “Once Upon a Time,” SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network (Ed Araquel/ABC via Getty Images) /

7. Season 5

There was so much potential going into this season. Once Upon a Time looked like it was about to make the game-changing move of turning its hero dark. The back half of season 4 built up this idea that maybe it was Emma’s destiny to go dark. And by turning her into the Dark One, her parents had to come to terms with failing in their mission to keep their daughter good (more on that when we get to season 4).

What worked: The back half of the season in the Underworld was a massive improvement over the Dark Swan storyline of the first half. Forgotten characters like Cora got some strong send-offs as they found peace. Zelena and Regina finally got to start acting like sisters. Too bad it came at the price of Regina having to lose Robin Hood.

This half of the season also showed off the great pairing of Dorothy and Red. And Milah got a great moment where she was able to call out the messy web of relationships that is Once Upon a Time. Milah calling out the weirdness of Emma being in love with both her son (Baelfire) and her lover (Hook) remains a high point for me in the lacklustre final seasons.

What did not work: The entire Dark Swan arc was a total mess, mostly because the show was never going to fully commit to turning Emma into the Dark One. It all just ended up being a very long way of turning Rumple back into the Dark One. As by this point in the series, it was clear Once Upon a Time would never be able to let go of Rumple as a villain.

Going to Camelot should have been great, but this version of King Arthur was awful. Not to mention that the Dark One history became incredibly convoluted this season.

In second half of the season, the Greek gods were suddenly a thing in this universe. Zeus even brought Hook back from the dead, something that only pops up here and is never mentioned again.