TV Underdogs: How ‘Once Upon a Time’ season 5 could use more Robin Hood

Our TV Underdogs series this month is meant to recognize players who often don’t receive the love they deserve, but what’s fascinating about “Once Upon a Time” in relationship to that is there are really so many different people you could choose from. When you look at the show’s main and recurring cast, it’s a massive crowd of people. There are characters who were popular in early seasons who we’d love to see more of (Archie, Dr. Whale, Red), and then there are also some people who are currently a big part of the show who could benefit from something more.

This brings us to Sean Maguire and his character of Robin Hood, someone we enjoy watching on the show, and also someone who could benefit from having even more story framed around him now that he is starting to get immersed in the Storybrooke community.

Why he’s an underdog – Just look at his story: A famed bandit back in the Enchanted Forest, known for helping out more of the disenfranchised. For some time, it looked like the road to his safety (let alone true love) would be impossible to travel, and while he and Regina have since found happiness, there’s a little issue known as her still having countless enemies out there in the world. He’s still a relative newcomer to Storybrooke compared to some other people, so he and his son are still finding their way.

Why we don’t see more of him – Mostly, it’s an issue of both timing and also a change in format for the show. We feel more like if this was season 1 or 2 of the series, we’d probably get a full flashback episode of Robin similar to what we saw in “Lost.” However, he came in at a time when there are so many things happening and the show moves at a much faster pace. With that, finding space for him outside of the Regina relationship and Zelena’s trickery has proven to be rather difficult.

Ways to give him more airtime – Given that Mulan is spending more time on the show in season 5, how about giving us more backstory there? Or, how about giving us an episode where we see Storybrooke through the eyes of this man, still trying to get used to what a normal life really means? He has vulnerabilities, but really cannot show them too much publicly for Roland’s sake. Give Robin more opportunities to be a hero, especially since we could see pairing him with Josh Dallas to be a rather good time! It’d be like the Charming / King Arthur adventures without all of Arthur’s ulterior motives. This is a guy who, more than anything else, needs a few minutes to have some fun. Everyone deserves a little bit of a break from the pain every now and then.

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