Once Upon a Time is a fantasy series which ran from October 2011 to May 2018 on ABC. It takes place in Storybrooke, Maine, where all the inhabitants are fairy tale characters who have forgotten who they are. They are under a curse cast by the evil queen of the Snow White story, and the only one who can break the curse is the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming, who, of course, does not know who she is.

At the beginning of the show, this Savior, Emma Swan, is living in Boston chasing down bail jumpers, when she is visited by Henry Mills who tells her she’s his mother and Snow White’s daughter. She takes him back to Storybrooke and decides to stay despite the objections of his adoptive mother Regilla, the evil queen.

The show goes back and forth between flashbacks to the fairy tale world of the Enchanted Forest to present day Storybrooke. The writers play fast and loose with the tales we all know, which is a large part of the fun. A lot of the fairy tale characters draw on their portrayals in Disney films, sometimes even including snippets of songs.

Characters across stories interact in interesting ways with each other and include not only fairy tale characters such as Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, and Rapunzel, but also Disney characters like Mular and Merida and characters from the books Alice in Wonderland, Frankenstein, and Peter Pan, to name a few.

Throughout all the stories, one character who plays a major role is Rumpelstiltskin (known as Mr. Gold in Storybrooke), played brilliantly by Robert Carlyle (a Scottish actor, whose accent sometimes comes through, if you listen hard enough.). He’s probably the most interesting character in the show because he vacillates between the gold-skinned Dark One of the Enchanted Forest to a man trying hard to be good for the woman he loves.

I was captivated through the first six seasons. Season seven took a different turn. Using a subset of old characters joined by some new ones, it follows an adult Henry Mills in Seattle under another curse, where everyone has forgotten who they are. (Sound familiar?) I felt it was just a rehash of Season one with the same characters in different roles and cannot really recommend it. However, if you make it through to the end, there is an amazing and fitting conclusion to the series.

I had a lot of fun with this show, enough that I’m ready to go back to the beginning and do it again. I’m sure you will, too.