This thread needs to be revisited, now.
Before these shows started, one might have assumed they were somehow similar -- after all, how different can two shows about fairytale creatures be?
These two shows, despite both having the occasional reference to Grimm's fairytales, have absolutely nothing in common.
Once Upon a Time is a continuous story arc. It's a drama -- no, it's several dramas. This show is, methodically, integrating every single Disney Fairytale into a single plot wherein the wicked Queen from Snow White has **** over the entire world of magic and faerie with a curse that brought them to our world and denied them their happy ending. It really is Disney-specific. While occasionally modified, these really are the Disney versions of characters from Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Pinocchio, Beauty & the Beast, and i'm sure I missed some - with more being added every show. While the subject matter itself sounds child-oriented, it's not really a kids show. It has adult themes throughout. If it has a flaw, it's that I get the distinct impression that, like the reimagining of BSG, they're making it all up as they go along. This doesn't matter during the discovery phase, as they bring in all the plots and subplots. Where it will matter, if I'm right, is the resolution. Unless the writers have a definite plan already in place, whatever ending they come up with will feel contrived.
Grimm is anything but Disney. Grimm comes as close to "horror" as broadcast television really allows. Underneath its fairytale links is a decent detective show, and a sinister story-arc involving as-yet-undiscovered fairy-creature hierarchies and politics and plays for control over possibly the entire world. Grimm needs to delve deeper and faster into into these story-arc subplots, but each show is good on its own. Grimm has a far smaller (if expanding) cast of regulars, but they're characters I find myself caring about more because of how they're written, rather than Once Upon a Time, which relies on the recognition of the origins of a character to draw you in.
Of the two, I still prefer Grimm, but that's like saying I prefer a good scotch to a good milkshake. You don't drink them (or watch them) for the same reason.
_________________ Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails... ...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be? Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me █ ♣ █
|