Blog: Who Succeeds When Similar Concepts Are Launched Simultaneously: #Grimm vs #OnceUponATime and #Haven vs #TheGates

It happens all the time. Two creative pieces arrive with similar plots. Rarely do both succeed.

I noticed this in 2010 when Haven and The Gates aired on television at the same time. Both shows were about a small community that was a haven for people with unusual powers. The Gates was a rich gated community where families of supernatural creatures moved to be safe from the outside world. The predominant races were the traditional vampires vs werewolves. Haven took the approach that supernatural powers were not good. Citizens of Haven started developing supernatural powers called "troubles". While The Gates had a consecutive plotline, Haven was more episodic. Each episode of Haven was like a cop show with a supernatural twist, but each episode also had a few links to a larger plotline interwoven in the entire series.

The Gates died a quick death. Haven survived.

Fast forward to 2011/2012 and we have Grimm and Once Upon A Time – which both retell traditional fairy tales.

Grimm is the episodic cop show with the supernatural twist. The main character in Grimm is a detective for the police department, but he is also the heir to the Grimm family powers. He came into his powers suddenly and is still struggling to balance fulfilling his duty as a Grimm with fulfilling his duty as a detective. This tv show tells the darker side of fairy tales.

Once Upon A Time has a consecutive plot with flashbacks to the previous lives of the characters. It is the story of fairy tale characters who were brought to out world through a curse by the evil witch in the Snow White story. Everyone except the witch and the also evil Rumpelstiltskin have forgotten they are fairy tale characters. Only the baby of Snow White escapes the curse. She grows up, has her own child who she gives up for adoption. Then one day the boy shows up to bring her home, saying she's the key to defeating the evil witch and giving everyone their happily ever afters back. Of course everyone thinks the boy is crazy. There are a lot of undertones to the story on what is reality and several times in the early episodes, you wonder if the whole fairy tale story is all in the boy's head. But there is also hope that their can be happiness in the world.

While both Grimm and Once Upon A Time are good for their genre types, I personally tend to gravitate to stories with a consecutive plotline like Once Upon A Time. I'm not overly fond of episodic cop shows, but the idea of a cop show that involves supernatural and fairy tale creatures appeals to my sense of fantasy. I think I would love Grimm a lot more if it hadn't aired during the same season as Once Upon A Time.

However the consecutive plotline that I love in Once Upon A Time is also something can can and has been the death of many a series because if the audience misses an episode, they could become lost in the plot. Then the story is less appealing. The Gates had a consecutive plotline, but it also lacked the depth that Haven and Once Upon A Time have.

So who will succeed this time? I wholeheartedly love Once Upon A Time, so that's where my vote has to go. But I also like Grimm. I wish Grimm would focus on more of the long-term interwoven plotlines instead of focusing on the supernatural criminal of the episode. That would make it a lot more interesting in my opinion.

What do you think? Grimm or Once Upon A Time? And if you like Grimm best, are you also a big fan of cop shows?

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