10 TV Shows That Actually Benefited From Bad Acting

ABC's hit fantasy series Once Upon a Time was a frothy good time both despite of and because it was full of questionable acting.

Beyond the genuinely brilliant, show-stealing performances from Robert Carlyle as Mr. Gold/Rumpelstiltskin and Lana Parrilla as the Evil Queen/Regina Mills, the majority of the cast were firmly in phoning-it-in territory, admittedly working with writing that could be politely called "not great."

One takes no pleasure in singling out a child actor, but Jared S. Gilmore's performance as the interminably annoying Henry Mills caught a lot of flak in earlier seasons, even if he's simply the worst of an ensemble that's totally all over the place.

And yet, the lack of consistency between the performances, with actors swinging for so many disparate tones, only enhanced the show's already pronounced guilty pleasure quality.

It's basically a community theatre production with a budget, a chintzy fairytale underlined by the utter flailing skittishness of the ensemble cast.

It's not good acting, but it's way more fun to watch than a more "serious," self-regarding version of the show would've been.