A Fairy Tale Takeover

Recently I was watching TV and I saw a commercial for the CW’s newest show “Beauty and the Beast.” Over the past year I have noticed the increasing number of television shows that are a present day-take on children’s bedtime stories.

On ABC, the show “Once Upon A Time” takes practically every mythological story and somehow intertwines them into the plot. The show covers its bases well, from Red Riding Hood, to Rumpelstiltskin, to Cinderella, to Hansel and Gretel, to Snow White and so many more.

NBC also jumped on the bandwagon with “Grimm,” which uses the same menagerie of fairytales as “Once Upon A Time.” Their interpretations revolve around a crime-fighting detective who solves supernatural cases involving bedtime story plots. There is plenty of other TV shows dealing with the supernatural, but these three use the tales told to children as their main storylines.

It seems to me that every major TV channel wants the best fairy tale show, although the CW is getting in a bit late since “Grimm” and “Once Upon A Time” have been running for over a year. This makes me wonder why the writers for these shows are reverting back to childhood for inspiration. It is interesting to see how popular this fantastical genre has become on television. Not to point fingers, but the “Twilight” series may have had a longer impact in what we watch than most would like to admit. Although these stories don’t have any sparkling vampires, they envelop the same supernatural aspects that define the fairy tale genre.

I have watched both “Grimm” and “Once Upon A Time,” which target adults rather than children. So why are these shows based on children’s stories so appealing to adults? I personally like when old stories are twisted into something new and refreshing, which both shows do (and I am sure CW’s newest show will do as well). Maybe people are drawn to these shows because they take memories of childhood and tweak them just enough to make people remember the tales they loved without growing bored of an overwrought storyline.

Within our generation of ‘90s kids, a recent nostalgia for childhood has been sweeping through our barely 20-year-old selves. A strong longing for our past experiences has swamped us, leading us to inexplicably miss AIM, Lisa Frank folders, and the Sims. This could be one of the aspects that the writers of these shows might be trying to exploit from the viewers. Television shows like these capture that nostalgia. Networks have definitely struck a chord in a large population of potential viewers ready to allow television to transport them back to their childhoods.