Everyone can agree that as of right now the entertainment biz is getting hooked on the Fairytale craze. We are in the midst of possibly seeing a transition between a focus on heroes such as Batman and Spider-Man, to those of folk tales like Sleeping Beauty and Snow white. Honestly I believe this craze started thanks to Disney who handn’t released a princess movie since 1998 with Mulan (Sequels don't count people). But with the sudden releases of The Princess and the Frog and Tangled, Disney added two new Princesses to an already long list of girls who defeat the odds and still get their princes. Both of those movies introduced Princess Tiana in 2009 and Rapunzel in 2010 and then had gorgeous soundtracks to go along with it. To little girls this just seems like another Princess movie that lights their eyes up like stars and a full moon in the woods, but to the trained entertainment eye, this is the beginning of a craze!
Suddenly out of the wood work companies are finding writers to create stories playing in the Fairytale genre such as Disney/Pixar's upcoming film Brave or having writers recreate stories like Roth Studios Snow white and the Huntsman starring christen Stewart (The Twilight Saga) and Chris Hemsworth (Thor and The Avengers).
But what I want to focus on are the TV shows that are making a huge splash with their own personal twist on not just one Fairytale but ALL the fairytales known and unknown. NBC's "Grimm" created by the fantastic David Greenwalt—Buffy the Vanpire Slayer and Angel—Stephen carpenter—Ocean’s Eleven—and Jim Kouf—Angel, National Treasure, Ghost Whisperer; and also ABC’s Once Upon A Time. If you don’t know what either of those shows are about, look them up yourselves or wait until later this weekend when I recap their new episodes.
But for those of you who do know, both of these shows are fantastic and creatively written. Grimm keeps you wondering what’s going to happen next while Once Upon A Time shocks you every episode and has you impatiently waiting for next week’s installment. But what shocked me was when these shows first started I remember my mother saying that they wouldn’t go anywhere, which is also one of the reasons she hasn’t been watching with serious vigor as I have. And honestly, I started to believe her as I kept wondering how and when Emma is going to realize what her son Henry says is true and if Nick is ever going to figure out whom his police chief really is and if he’s going to get serious about his duty as a Grimm. It began to seem that these stories are just dragging out and I’m left wanting a little more but each and every episode still delivers enough to come back. But as NBC began speculating whether or not they wanted to pull the plug on Grimm something amazing happened. A coincidence happened; Grimm was finally renewed for a second season with twenty-two episodes being the first NBC show to receive a returning spot (Screenrant.com). “Grimm has turned out to be quite the bright spot for NBC, blossoming to a solid 5.4 million viewers overall, plus a boost when DVR recorded viewing is factored in. With the swift cancellations of The Playboy Club, The Firm and other freshman series, Grimm has done well for the network in its Friday timeslot” (Screenrant.com). That made me very happy. I honestly think that if it wasn’t for Fringe going on a month long hiatus Grimm may have fallen through the cracks. As it was in the first week Fringe was gone Grimm ratings jumped up thirteen percent (EW.com). So Fringe may have screwed us over by making us wait but they sure helped Grimm along.
But that’s not all, what made it a coincidence was what happened to me a few days later. I’m at my in-laws and my mother-in-law has the first volume of the Grimm’s Fairytales…it was just volume one and it continued 212 stories in it. That’s just volume one, there is at least seven original volumes, and in the seventh original volume the book held 211 stories (Wikipedia.com). When I saw that I laughed at my mom even though she wasn’t there and showed my wife and said, “‘Can’t go anywhere?’ Yeah, right, if they did their research they could go on forever!” Then it went even further as my sister read through all the titles and out of all 212, there were only nine she had heard of.
This honestly made my day because both shows are great and use the tales of the Grimm’s to help them move their stories along. I don’t know where they are going to go from here, but it’s clear to see that although they have a limit, it’s so far away I’m expecting a few season out of these shows. Until next time, According to Michael III, research is the key to unlocking their creative minds.
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