Critic Reviews

Once Upon a Time is a smartly-crafted reward for fans of light fantasy, with the right mix of cleverness, action and romance.

Fans of the fantastical can do far worse than Once Upon A Time, which manages to both stir the pulse and please the senses with its beautifully imagined medieval times.

Once Upon a Time gets off to a bewitching start.

What's best about Time is its ambition; it glows with a near-theatrical shine, challenging viewers to think about TV drama as something other than boilerplate.

There's gorgeous fun to be had here.

With a smart decision to focus on the lead characters and not the overall "gimmick" plot of the season, Once Upon A Time feels renewed with a dark energy in its shockingly sprightly fifth year.

Once Upon a Time is both family-friendly and smart enough to win viewers of any age and level of sophistication.

The highlight of the show remains newlywed actress Lana Parrilla, who continues to pepper her Evil Queen with just the right amount of realism to make her deliciously wicked deeds seem justified, but Frozen is just the thing that has gotten Once really moving.

For now, it's an enticing cupcake, but I want to see if it's more than frosting all the way down.

The pilot certainly looks great, and it's hard to imagine better choices for the leads than Goodwin and Parrilla.