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Thursday, March 15, 2012

TV: The Battle of the Fairy Tale Shows


 

Tor.com, a fantastic nerd website, has a running collection of reviews for  Once Upon a Time and Grimm. Not only that, they pit the weekly episodes head to head to see who came out on top this week! (The Battle of the Fairy Tale Shows).  They are a lot more forgiving than I am, so Grimm and Once Upon a Time fans should be delighted!

For those who like more satirical and hilarious commentary, see Io9's wonderfully biting reviews of Once Upon a Time (Review of "Red-Handed"). They don't seem to be covering Grimm.

Granted, I gave up on Grimm after three episodes, and have now waited too long to catch up on Hulu. Yes I should be watching all things fairy tale, but The Tufts Daily has outlined very nicely many of the reasons why I left when I did. Most particularly the lack of character development: 
"Though the show just aired its 14th episode, many of the characters have yet to go through a sufficient exploration. Nick’s partner, Hank Griffin (Russell Hornsby), is still an enigma, even though he is one of the main characters. Nick’s fiancée, Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch), although attractive and a seemingly strong woman, has too little screen time for the audience to have any sense of her character. While Nick and Juliette seem to be loving partners, the show never delves into the intricacies of their relationship. As an example, the show barely addresses Nick’s inner struggle between telling Juliette about his newfound gifts or leaving her before she becomes endangered." (Full Article)
I also twitched every time they did something police-procedural-wise that did not make any sense. I started to play the game "What Would Castle do?" I feel Castle does police procedural better, and Dresden Files, Warehouse 13 and Eureka do supernatural mystery better.

My dream Grimm: A series where fairy tales are real, and kind of eternal (the whole idea of "species" of Big Bad Wolves and Three Bearses bothers me). I love the fact that they use the more obscure fairy tales and delve into the darker aspects of them. I wish that they used details from the stories to solve mysteries, rather than arbitrary, shoddy police work. I wish that Nick used his Grimmness for something other than just seeing that they are fairy tale creatures. I wish there were interesting characters who developed over a shorter period of time.

Granted, I have not seen recent episodes. Maybe it has improved since I left?

As you can see from previous posts, neither Grimm and Once Upon a Time are my ideal fairy tale show. Some wierd hybrid baby of them might have been closer to what I was looking for, with a little sprinkle of better writing, and a dollop of character development.

But, back to the point, Tor.com will now allow you to see these two wobbly shows go head-to-head each week to see if either of them will limp slightly faster than the other.

Anyone wanna convince me these shows are better than I say they are? Comment, and lets debate!

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