Tag Archives: Television

Guest Debra Mullins Discusses Fairy Tale TV

Hi Everyone! As you can see I’m painfully behind. It’s… well I don’t want to talk about it. But today we have the lovely and kind Debra Mullins visiting with us!

Grimm vs. Once Upon A Time: Which Is Your Favorite?

When Limecello and I discussed what my post should be about today, one of the subjects she threw out there was TV. Now, I am a storyteller. I am obsessed with stories. Every pastime I have involves stories: writing, reading, TV, movies. Even my new hobby of tracing my family tree keeps me interested because of the stories of the people I am discovering. And with the neat new shows that have cropped up this season, I thought I would bring an ongoing discussion to the internet that I have with my husband every week: Grimm or Once Upon A Time, which one do you like better?

For those who might be unfamiliar with either of these shows (get thee to NBC or ABC pronto!), they have some things in common:

– Both are based on fairy tales
– Both have folks from the Whedonverse involved (meaning Joss Whedon).

When I first heard about both these shows, it was Grimm that caught my interest. First of all, David Greenwalt was one of the producers. You might have seen some of his work—specifically on a couple of shows called Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.

The premise sounded cool: a homicide detective who finds out he’s descended from people called Grimms who can see the supernatural beings around us for what they are and hunt them down if needed. These supernatural beings, it turns out, are the basis for a lot of fairy tales told by the Grimm brothers (whose name apparently wasn’t Grimm—a Grimm was what they were, not who.) The show looked a little dark, and that was fine with me. You can catch it on NBC, currently on Fridays.

As far as Once Upon A Time, I had seen ads for it here and there, and I had pretty much dismissed it. A TV show about fairy tales? Another one? Was there something in the water in Hollywood? Weren’t there any original ideas anymore? I wasn’t even going to watch it. Then two words caught my interest and had me setting my DVR: JANE ESPENSON.

Jane Espenson was one of the writers of Buffy. And Angel. And Firefly. (She wrote for lots of other shows, too, but these are my favorites, Whedon groupie that I am). If she was involved, the show couldn’t be the piece of fluff I’d thought it was going to be. So I sat down to watch and was completely hooked from the word go.

The premise of Once Upon A Time is interesting: the wicked queen from Snow White has decided she wants her happily ever after by making everyone else miserable. She does this by making terrible sacrifices and, using a curse given to her by the very shady Rumpelstiltskin, somehow transports all the fairy tale characters to a small down in Maine called Storybrooke, where they all live with no memory of who they used to be, and where time is stopped.

Now you know that can’t be all, right? Of course not. Before the curse was cast, Snow White had just given birth to a daughter who was prophesied to save them all from the curse after her twenty-eighth birthday. The daughter’s name is Emma, and in a heroic move, Emma’s father Prince Charming, while fighting off the evil queen’s guards, managed to shove his infant daughter through the magic door into our world before the curse hit. So Emma grew up here in our world, a foundling, bouncing through foster homes until she grew up to be a bounty hunter.

Yes, folks, Emma literally kicks butt for a living.

But it doesn’t stop there. Seems Emma had a baby when she was eighteen, a son she gave up for adoption. And that son, Henry, turns up on her doorstep on the eve of her twenty-eighth birthday, a ten year old toting a book of fairy tales that he insists tells the truth about all the citizens of Storybrooke. Of course Emma is concerned that the child she gave up is mentally disturbed and takes him home to Storybrooke and his adoptive mother—the evil queen, now named Regina and the mayor of Storybrooke. Uncomfortable with the dysfunctional relationship Henry has with his adoptive mother, Emma decides to stick around Storybrooke until she’s sure Henry is okay. And that’s when the curse starts to unravel. Once Upon A Time is on ABC, currently on Sundays.

Now for my question to you. I really thought Grimm was going to grab me, but so far all our hero seems to be able to do is see the monsters. He has no other super powers that I can see (he’s no Slayer or vampire with a soul). The show has been picked up for a full season, and I continue to watch, hoping Nick will show us something new about being a Grimm. I’m willing to give it a chance, and David Giuntoli, who plays Detective Nick Burkhardt, is pretty nice to look at. Plus, his sidekick on the show is a reformed Big Bad Wolf. Can’t beat that.

But then you have Once Upon A Time, where secrets abound, and questions are answered and new ones asked in every episode. The show is addicting, and I have fun trying to guess who various characters are as they are introduced (Dr. Archie Hopper, the psychologist (aka Jiminy Cricket) or Ruby, the waitress at Granny’s Diner who really loves red and wolves (aka Red Riding Hood). Once Upon A Time has also been picked up for a full season with new episodes starting January 8, 2012.

My husband and I are more drawn to Once Upon A Time, but my college age son and his girlfriend never miss an episode of Grimm. Which one do you like better and why?

Ms. Mullins is also giving away a copy of her newest digital release – a retro release from Samhain Once a Mistress! So tell us – what do you think of Once Upon A Time or Grimm? Or if you haven’t seen either, what do you think about fairy tale stories or shows?

Her love will capture the ultimate treasure—his heart.
Diana Covington is a dutiful daughter with a boring future all mapped out for her. A shipping fortune and lush Jamaican estate that will someday be hers, a husband of her father’s choice. Romance and Caribbean adventure exist only in her dreams, in which the Black Spaniard, El Moreno, plays a starring role.

Until she is kidnapped by the evil pirate Marcus, and her girlish fantasies quickly turn to nightmares.

Alex Rawnsley’s dark Spanish looks makes him the perfect choice to take on the identity of El Moreno. His mission is to bring Marcus to justice, but his heart thirsts for blood. Vengeance for his brother’s murder is within his grasp when Diana’s kidnapping throws a hitch in his strategy.

Snatching her from Marcus’s clutches is easy enough, but what to do with her now? He cannot return her home lest she be taken again. He has no choice but to keep the distracting, innocent beauty aboard his ship. In his cabin. In his bed. The temptation to
make her his own grows stronger by the hour…but opening his heart to love may forever close the door on his quest for revenge.