[mreposter]

ABC debuts Once Upon a Time tonight (Sunday 10/23) and this Friday NBC rolls out a similar series, GRIMM. You can even catch the first 20 minutes of Grimm on NBC's website.

This sorta reminds me of the launch of Pan Am and Playboy Club, two retro series that were likely inspired by the success of AMC's Mad Men. And unfortunately, I think the result will be similar with ABC having much better success than NBC.

So, what's your guess as to the likelihood of success for these two fairytale inspired shows?

 

[phrelin]

Well, since tonight's "Once Upon a Time" debuts against both Game 4 of the World Series on Fox and the Indianapolis Colts at New Orleans Saints on NBC, as well as "The Amazing Race," I don't expect the premier to do all that well in live+same day ratings.

And since "Grimm" is on Friday, a night when there are traditionally far fewer total viewers, and at 9:00 against "Fringe" on Fox, "CSI:NY" on CBS, and the second hour of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" on ABC I don't.... Well, it is following the "Chuck" season premier so it might do nearly as well as "Once Upon a Time", though it is on NBC.

Creatively, both might be very good. But I am a bit ...grim :sure: ... about the fact that Disney-owned ABC is pushing a show featuring a live take on Disney characters.

 

[SayWhat?]

I wonder if they'll take it along the line of Rocky & Bullwinkle's "Fractured Fairy Tales"

 

[Lucavex]

It disturbs me to see the amazing amount of "re-launches" and reality series on TV these days. Once upon a Time? Really? I saw a preview for it and it looked like a parody to me. Will not be going on my DVR.

You'd think TV execs would eventually learn that we don't want to watch our favorite shows of the past, re-done by inferior actors and mangled scripts. Where have our original series gone? I swear if I see another primetime network show about who can cook, dance, sing, remodel, decorate, or tan the best I'm going to throw my satellite receiver out the window. If I see another re-launch of a series that was good, and is now anticipated to be absolute crap (anyone remember the "new" Knight Rider?) I'm going Los Angeles, taking off my shoe, and beating the holy heck out of the executive producer.

Them's my two pennies, don't spend it all in one place.

 

[Drucifer]

Well I'm enjoying Once Upon a Time.

 

[Church AV Guy]

I thought Once was very good. Grimm seems to be a very different show, and I see no reason that only one of them should do well. Why not both?

The ratings for Once were quite good. We'll see what they are next week.

 

[phrelin]

The premier of "Grimm" (we haven't watched it yet) did very well pulling a surprising rating of 2.1/ 6 among adults 18-49, surprising for a Friday night and surprising because it was against the World Series game 7.

However because CBS decided not to waste new episodes, on the West Coast where the game was over it was not up against a new episode of "CSI: NY" nor, of course, "Fringe" on Fox. But it is direct competition for both.

As one review notes:

The show is like CSI with a case of the heebie-jeebies… SVU if Stabler could see spooks!

(Don't read the review if you don't like spoilers.)

If you missed it, it will be on Syfy Tuesday night.

 

[SayWhat?]

I read something about the character being some sort of profiler. That was all I needed to write it off completely.

 

[phrelin]

I read something about the character being some sort of profiler. That was all I needed to write it off completely.

Well, if you accept as profiler

Spoiler

"Homicide detective Nick Burkhardt (David Giuntoli) learned he was descended from the brothers Grimm, could see demons, and was fated to spend the rest of his days hunting the pests."

then I guess you have it right.

(It's not really a spoiler in my view, but someone might think so.]

 

[phrelin]

Also, ABC is repeating the "Once Upon a Time" pilot at 7:00 followed by the second episode a 8:00.

 

[Drew2k]

I went into "Grimm" expecting it to be more of a police procedural with a slight-supernatural twist, and expected to not like it. Well, I was right about the first part except that it's not "slight", and I was completely wrong about the second part ... I liked the show quite a bit. I was actually surprised that I liked it...

 

[phrelin]

I went into "Grimm" expecting it to be more of a police procedural with a slight-supernatural twist, and expected to not like it. Well, I was right about the first part except that it's not "slight", and I was completely wrong about the second part ... I liked the show quite a bit. I was actually surprised that I liked it...

+1

We watched it tonight and thought it was original, clever, witty, darned scary in the startling way, and well produced.

 

[olguy]

I enjoyed the first episode of both and look forward to more. It does appear, to me anyway that Grimm will have more humor.

 

[lparsons21]

I've watched both shows premiere's and I like Once Upon a Time very much more than Grimm. For some reason Grimm just didn't catch my attention, which is a shame as I was really looking forward to it.

I'll keep both in timers for now, but unless the next couple of episodes of Grimm improve, I'll be cancelling it.

 

[Drucifer]

I've watched both shows premiere's and I like Once Upon a Time very much more than Grimm. For some reason Grimm just didn't catch my attention, which is a shame as I was really looking forward to it.

I'll keep both in timers for now, but unless the next couple of episodes of Grimm improve, I'll be cancelling it.

After just the premiers, I'm in agreement, but think Grimm has a better chance of developing its characters.

 

[RasputinAXP]

Mrs. R and I have to watch the second episode of Once Upon a Time, but after the first we turned to each other and said "we'll give it a few episodes." Mainly because ... well, spoilers. But there are plot 'points' that make absolutely NO sense to me. Hopefully last night's ep will explain a bit that will make it more clear, but man...I have a low tolerance for bad writing.

 

[mreposter]

I decided to wait and catch two episodes of each before deciding anything. Both deserve points for pushing into a rarely used genre, but my feels about each are a bit mixed.

Once Upon a Time feels more like it should be a miniseries rather than a ongoing show, but then again, shows like Hercules and Xena lasted for ages. The little boy is cute and the wicked witch is great, but the whole thing is a little bit over the top. Plus, I didn't like Snow White at all - she was a miserable whiner from the start.

GRIMM I like this one a bit more. Love the attention to detail and the mix of germanic fairytales mixed with the pacific northwest setting. The writing of the actual crime drama part of the show is kind of weak, like a hundred other cop shows, but the Grimm twist makes it fun.

 

[say-what]

I thought I was going to like Grimm and not like Once Upon A Time, but it's actually the opposite for me.

Grimm just seems like any other cop show, but with werewolves and such, and not well done. Once Upon A Time just seems to have a much broader concept IMO and better story.

 

[Drew2k]

I agree. I'm enjoying the "fantasy" aspect of OAAT much more than Grimm.

I also agree with an earlier comment that OAAT seems like it could have been a mini-series. Right now I can't see how they develop this into a multi-year series based on the initial premise.

Obviously, there's one goal: for Emma to save everyone by restoring everyone's memories and returning them to their original "homes", thereby defeating the Evil Queen's plot to doom them to a life worse than hell (so to speak). When Emma achieves this is the first question.

The flashbacks to their story book land tend to remind me of "Legend of the Seeker", a show I miss, so I'm really enjoying this and hope it sticks around for a while.

 

[mreposter]

The flashbacks to their story book land tend to remind me of "Legend of the Seeker", a show I miss, so I'm really enjoying this and hope it sticks around for a while.

I was a big Seeker fan and was really disappointed when they cancelled it after two seasons. Another favorite from 4-5 years ago was Dresden Files.