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It seems that the age of Vampires and Zombies has finally come to an end. The world is shifting towards fairy tales based tv series. Or is it?

Once Upon A Time and Grimm are two series that will air shortly before Halloween and have a similar source of inspiration. Fairy tales. I think the comparison stops there since one of them seems more child friendly whereas the other seems to be more adult oriented. Also, one of them is good and the other one…not so much. There is even a poll as to which series gets cancelled first. My money is on Once Upon A Time, but since Grimm is on  NBC, famed for cancelling shows that never got a chance to properly find their niche, there are no guarantees.
Let’s see what the hype is all about, shall we?

I have just finished watching Grimm, a show about a young man who discovers he is part of a family of hunters of the supernatural (yes, it does sound a bit like that show about two brothers) and that now he has to protect the world from the bad guys. I have also just gave up watching Once Upon A Time because I got bored to death in under 20 minutes. Not even Robert Carlyle who plays Rumplestiltskin, and who was the only bright side of the otherwise bad pilot episode could save said pilot from being well…bad.

Without giving away to much of the plot of both shows, let’s have a brief comparative analysis of the pilot episodes.

Once Upon A Time takes place in both the fictional world where Snow White and Prince Charming live, and the real world where apparently their daughter (played by Jennifer Morrison – of House, M.D. fame) resides. The transition from one world to the other is so sudden and unexplained that it makes it hard to figure out whether you’re suppose to believe it to be real or just a figment of some imaginative child. The acting is mostly over the top, which puts Jennifer Morrison – who tries to stay grounded – at odds with her fellow cast members. Everything moves at an unnatural speed with supposed time-loops? and well, it’s just not that interesting or compelling in any way, shape or form. Unless you’re a Jennifer Morrison fan or a fan of any other actor on the show.

Grimm is a show about a young detective who starts seeing that some people around him aren’t exactly what they seem. His aunt informs him that he is actually one of the last Grimms, a special group of people who banded together with the purpose of  protecting the humans from supernatural foes. The things he’s seeing are actually monsters that were depicted in fairy tales, except this is “real” and they are more vicious than in our depictions.

Unlike Once Upon A Time, Grimm actually managed to keep my interest piqued and even made me jump a few times in my seat during some of the scenes. Perhaps I am weak hearted like that, but I’ll just blame better writing for my reactions.

The star of Grimm is David Giuntoli, who is quite good as the new clueless hunter of things that go bump in the night. He does tend to act a little too much with his eyes, but overall he is entertaining and the other characters are also well acted and better written. Silas Weir Mitchell shone as the “reformed bad wolf”, I would watch the show for him alone.

So, children’s show with forced situations and lack of humour or intelligence on the characters part or adult oriented show with humour, better situations and better characters? Connundrum.

ABC’s Once Upon A Time will air tonight while Grimm comes out next week. We’ll leave a poll here for you and you can let us know which one you think you might like better. Feel free to comment and let us know whether you liked either show or not.

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Here are the trailers for the two shows, in the order of best to worst. Beware of the big bad…I mean spoilers.

Tags: ABC, David Giuntoli, Fairy Tales show, Grimm, Jennifer Morrison, NBC, Once Upon A Time, review, Robert Carlyle, Silas Weir Mitchell