What 'Once Upon a Time' had going for it primarily when it first started and throughout its seven season run was its creative premise and a vast majority of the episodes for me from the beginning up to the Underworld arc in Season 5 were good to brilliant. For much of its run 'Once Upon a Time' was compulsive viewing. Actually mostly liked that arc, namely for Hades, but it was an uneven one and had problems.
Have been less enamoured though with Season 6. Not unwatchable in any way as some of the episodes were good, especially "The Saviour", "A Bitter Draught" "The Other Shoe" and "Page 23", actually thought all were very good to great. The rest has been hit and miss, leaning towards the disappointing, with a lack of original ideas, not enough of the characters advancing in development (along with the odd character distortions, Baelfire in "Ill-Boding Patterns" anyone?) and a real decline in the writing, compensated by the production values and much of the acting. Feel bad for saying this, after loving "Page 23", but "A Wondrous Place" takes a few steps backward and returns to the disappointing and very much less than wondrous standard.
There are definitely good things, haven't seen a 'Once Upon a Time' that's irredeemably bad. The production values have a lot of beauty and atmosphere, nothing drab or gaudy here, while being attractively photographed. The music doesn't ever sound cheap or out-of-kilter, fitting well with the mood and never found myself questioning its placement. The main theme is still memorable.
Regina and her and Emma's chemistry for me make "A Wondrous Place" and they weren't even the main focus. Have always found Regina one of the most interesting characters and it is evident here how far she has come development-wise, of the characters here she is the only one where the development actually felt advanced. Loved her chemistry with Emma, not the good versus evil conflict but a more sympathetic side that was great to see. Great to see Ariel again and she is entertaining, though her time-line may have people scratching their heads. Hook's story did have moments of intensity and emotional power.
Didn't have an issue with the performances (mostly, Karen David still doesn't do an awful lot for me as Jasmine), with splendid Lana Parrilla coming out on top. JoAnna Garcia Swisher is also a real charmer as Ariel.
On the other hand, neither the storytelling or characters advance properly, Regina coming off the most successfully. The most interesting characters here are Regina and Ariel, Hook/Killian has shown far more spark before and personally didn't properly invest in his mostly fairly dull subplot. Some of it felt rather implausible, really didn't buy the other characters' reactions when he disappeared which neither made sense or were in character. Aladdin and Jasmine come off worst, too soap-operatic and contrived for my tastes and the characters are bland, Jasmine works better with Ariel but mainly because Ariel is the more interesting and better written character.
"A Wondrous Place" is another episode that tries to do too much with too much going on and with not enough time to explore everything properly, meaning it felt rushed and cliffs notes. Structurally it also came over as disjointed with the subplots not tying together enough and like more than one different episodes in one. The writing is soapy and can be very corny.
Summarising, watchable episode but disappointing. 5/10 Bethany Cox
