Tv Review: Grimm or Once Upon a Time

This coming week two different shows based on fairy tales will come out on tv.  While I will probably check both out I feel like I should hang my hat with one. But first lets talk about the differences and general plot of both.

What is with the lace one the queen's head?

Once Upon a Time features the fairy tales in their more Disney-esch world. They lived there until the evil queen cast a spell that sent all of them to our world. Cameron from House plays Emma Swan who I am putting my money down for the swan princess. Jennifer Goodwin is Snow White. The fairy tale world has magical lighting and some very standard writing. The evil queen seems to float when she marches into the main hall. Most of the promotions keep saying "from the writers of Lost" but I don't know if its the whole writing team or what. I mean are they trying to tease me with the possibilities of twists?

So far it seems pretty straight forward, they have to remember who they are and figure out how to get back to the fairy tale world. I don't know if I will be able to be interested in a story that has given me practically the first season's outline in the trailers. That isn't to say that this should couldn't pull something out of the hat. But as of now it is some where between Gilmore Girls  complexity and the Disney movies it is based on. We know from the second episode who people are going to end up with, but they are going to make us wait seven seasons to see it.

The show stands in a kind of limbo as to what kind of show it is going to be right now. It does not seem to be mystery or a suspense. But at the same time to say that it is a light hearted show would be false as well because many of the characters seem to be depressed. It has elements meant for children but all of the characters are very much adults. I am concerned about the atmosphere of the show in general. There seems to be this whimsical sense one minutes and a depressed rainy town the next. The clips I have seen online show a disjointed lighting and tone from scene to scene.

Grimm alternately is going full on adult audience. In Grimm a police officer learns that he is the last surviving descendant of the Brothers Grimm. With his blood line comes the ability to see the monsters from the fairy tales hiding in plain sight. He uses his new ability to catch these monsters and stop them from hurting people. The preview and the ads also hint that he will have a wolf as a helpful side kick.

This show does not have any actors that you are really going to recognize from anything important. This show is going for a more predictable standard of a procedural. Yet I am captivated by the show so much more. Tone alone is so universal that it has a haunting kind of theme. Even when the main character is not in the middle of hunting a monster you get this feeling a a doom hanging over him and those he knows and loves.

Yes they do give away the entire first episode in the trailer but really I am so captivated by this concept that I don't care at all. The idea of fairy tales as warning is great because it is much closer to what they were when they first came into being.

I feel like by now you can tell which direction I am swinging. I would also like to take this moment to say that Grimm knowing it has an air date after Once Upon a Time has released code for their twitter followers to watch the first episode, and put a preview on Hulu. So if you are still debating you can get a sneak peak.

Comic Review: Fables

I realized something a few days ago. Many of my friends and relatives always get upset when something they like gets redone and the story changes slightly. I heard a never ending stream of annoyed people when it came to the Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland. People felt betrayed and hurt by something they loved being changed that way. I on the other hand had a ball of a time at that movie because it was a lot like a series of books called The Looking Glass Wars that I love that twist the Alice in Wonderland tale into something different.

Here is the thing, I love fairy tales. I know a crazy amount of small facts about the older versions. The fact is that fairy tales get twisted by every generation. The stories my mom read are completely different than what the oral tradition for the stories were before Grim. In fact the Grim brothers made major changes to many of the tales so that they would be better to read to children. And we thought Disney was bad. The point is that I don't have that inner rage when something I love gets messed with because I like fairy tales and that means a great deal of changes along the way.

This incarnation is no exception. Here we experience the fables and fairy tales of old living in modern day New York City. King Cole is the mayor of Fable Town as they call themselves. Snow White is the deputy mayor. The big bad wolf has changed and now looks human and goes by Bigdy Wolf and works as the sheriff of Fable Town. Prince Charming it turns out is a sleazy womanizer who has been divorced three times and continues to use women as a way to get things done. Cinderella works as a secret agent for Fable Town trying to make treaties with other Fable kingdoms. Rose Red even is in the series, who only hard core fairy tale readers will recognized as Snow White's sister.

The fables have been pushed out of their home land by some one they call The Adversary. There is even mention that Oz and Narnia have fallen as well to this Adversary. The over arching theme of the first ten or so comics has to do with the Fables trying to find ways to live in New York as well as their desire to return to their homelands.

The second story arch has to do with some stuff that makes very little sense if you don't read it. I am not going to touch that. I don't want any exploding heads.

The main point is this series is not only well written is takes characters we all know and gives them lives beyond what we know. This series is my own personal version of Christmas.

I highly recommend for anyone that even once enjoyed The Three Little Pigs or the Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe. Or for anyone that thought Disney's sterile world was not what really happened.