Once Upon a Time — Season 2 Review

The first season of the show felt like held a consistency because of a feeling of domesticity (i.e. a home-like feeling) and the second season moves on from that.
This season, instead, prefers to move the series into a different shift of battles and magic and arcs like a serial drama or something.
(Think True Blood and you'll know what I am talking about; the series begins to prefer using more cliffhangers and all of that.)

First off, there is not just one antagonist, but several.
And because this is has several smaller arcs put together instead of an overarching arc, it's hard not to spoil anything.
However, the series' main antagonists are mainly still the antagonists.
Rumplestiltskin is still here after the curse is broken.
Regina is still here, mostly, but makes attempts to be good, which are foiled by her mother, Cora.
Then Captain Hook joins the fray, teaming up with the aforementioned (i.e. previously mentioned) character.

Captain Hook, of course, has much to do here as he becomes a main character for this season and the next.

He goes from villain to anti-hero to villain and back forth many times.

And then there are the two that come later on. 

The two who have nothing to do with Storybrooke but have much to do with the first arc of the third season.

Emma uses her superpower on Hook.

Anyhow, the first small arc deals with the Broken Curse and how no one was taken back to the Enchanted Forest.

The second small arc deals with something that happens in the second episode: Emma and Mary Margaret are taken back to the Enchanted Forest via a portal from the Mad Hatter and need to find a way to get back.

This is where Captain Hook joins in.

When he joins in and his backstory is covered, well, that is the one and only episode in the entire series where neither Mary Margaret or Emma appear.

(Just a fact.)

Then the next small arc is slow and deals with Regina transitioning from magic to no-magic and from evil to good which is foiled by Cora coming to Storybrooke with Captain Hook because of a petrified bean they found that was made by the giants.

The final small arc deals with Tamara and Greg Mendell trying to destroy the magic in the town. 

This leads directly into the next arc and first arc of season three, as I've mentioned multiple times by now already.

Anyhow, the season felt extremely scattered because of all the different points and shifts of focus.

Like, I loved Regina's mother's backstory.

Although I definitely hated her death, mind you.

It did something to Snow and the blackness in her heart may be difficult to clear.

Then we saw Baelfire.

He's back!

Except now he's an adult...

And he left Emma stranded in jail because of August.

And August is a kid now?

Yikes.

Cora holding the product or Rumplestiltskin's tutoring.

But getting back to the actual review instead of just a rehash of what actually happened.

This season was both good and bad.

It was good because it did its best to not fill it with tons of filler like the first season and it did bad because it consistently feels like it does random things without reason.

Some things are explained in the next season and some are definitely not, like, what's up with that??

Philip in the Enchanted Forest.

Pros of the season: Prince Phillip because, and being completely subjective here, he is the best-looking prince of all the princes, even if his outfit is a bit laughable cause of how big it is.

Aurora because of how she knows of her image as a princess and tries to change it and does her best even though she's unskilled as a fighter.

Mulan because she is a fucking badass, are you kidding me, she's so great, seriously.

Cora because her backstory is great even if it later feels blotched as a result of season 3B.

Henry's birth origin story because it helps you realize just how connected everyone in Storybrooke is, seriously what a family tree.

Cons of the season: Scattered feeling all over.

Some things from the first season are irrelevant, hence me saying what a shame it was that there so much filler there (e.g. Cinderella and her prince).

A lot of things felt like they happened just so that the story would move forward and not because they could be helped; for example, at the very end the final antagonists jump into a portal with Henry and main characters all chase after them on Hook's ship even though only Regina and Emma feel as though they would've felt obliged to do so, like, it's later explained in season 3A why this is so but it still feels very unfulfilling somehow.

Grade:

Watch this but be wary of the way in which it is not perfect because you'll definitely notice either here or there, but it still adds more good than bad to the series as a whole and is worth it if you liked the first season although the formula feels largely different here.