The Grimm Variations

I found this series to be very refreshing. Many fairy tale shows and movies today either adhere closely to Disney's versions or the Grimm dark tales, word for word. So, I enjoyed not only the stunning visuals but also the fact that I wasn't watching the same old fairy tale I've seen and heard a million times. Even if the stories are a bit confusing at times, I feel like I understand them by the end, and I gain something from each one. This series also doesn't just rely on horror or being as messed up as possible. It is more mature, for sure, but I know not every ending is going to be super dark. There are happy, sad, and even horrific endings, and each one is written beautifully. So, I don't feel like it needs to be gory to hold my interest. If you want a new, mature, or interesting take on old fairy tales, you should watch this, because I'm sure at least one of these endings will move you and leave you pondering the world each story takes place in, and how the story continues.

I was waiting for this to come out for a few weeks. It definitely has potential to be good. I liked episode 1, but the next couple ones so far I have seen have fallen short in keeping me interested. Which is disappointing, since I want to love it. I haven't seen the whole series yet, and am at the elves and the shoemaker. I am hoping the next ones are better. What I thought they would be were more like the original Grimm fairytales, but they kind of become odd versions of the tales that sometimes don't seem to make much sense. The Hansel and Gretel, for instance just was not what I was expecting and didn't really make me feel it was even close to being that fairytale. Red riding hood was strange trying to be in the future, but again wasn't really what I was expecting the tales would be. The blood and all that doesn't bother me and was nice they included the "horror" aspects which I was expecting from the Gimm stories. I appreciate they were trying to go with something new, but they did a pretty good job in my opinion with Cinderella. Watching that first episode got me excited for the rest. I just feel like that so far the other ones have been very odd, boring or don't make much sense so far. Hopefully tho, it gets better in the other stories. I think the idea is good for the series, but the way the stories are lack for me.

I've got shelves of Reminaginings for fairy tales so going into this series I was open to just about anything.

It's not an exact match but the title is the best way I can describe how this show felt to me. It's like each fairy tale story was prompted to be mixed with a Sci-fi anthology series and the sound track was sourced from classical composers, though not always in a classical style.

And yeah the tones here all over the place while also being similar. It's really best to view each episode as it's own because really the only thing tying them together is the short openings with the Grimm siblings discussing the original fairy tales, and eventually having some small cameo in the story of the episode. So very " Rod Serling" or Alfred Hitchcock.

As others have said with no spoilers Cinderella is closest to the source material with a 'dark twist' so I'd say it best matches Night Gallery

I found a special fondness for Red Riding Hood which had shades of Hannibal and Black Mirror

Hansel and Gretel feels more Twilight Zone still a little twisty but nowhere near as dark as either of the previous tales.

Elves and the Shoemaker totally lost me I'll be honest, I won't even pretend to understand what happened there but then even the Main Character didn't even get it so maybe that was the point XD.

The Town Musicians of Bremen would be right at home as an entry for Love Death & Robots.

The Pied Piper Of Hamlin is rather Tales of the Darkside or maybe one of the more mild Master of Horror episodes.

I love new and creative interpretations of fairy tails, but this just field so weird. I think it's hard to even call them new interpretations as so less of the source material is used within this. The first episode was fine, but the others were just weird and missing a moral/a message of the story. I think it's one of the shows were a lot is metaphoric and up to interpretation, but it's not presented in a fun, clever and interesting way like eg love, death and robots or Star Wars Visions. It's just weird. I'm quite disappointed as I expected more. They should have better adapted something like Kaori Yuki's Ludwig Revolution.

The first episode is perfect bait to keep you watching. A new perspective on the original story and characters. It's a representation of what this series should be. All the remaining chapters use almost only the names of the stories and characters. In them, it seems like they did it not to produce a variation, but to push the concept as much as they could from the original. And the places they bring the stories just feel forced.

'Cinderella' is so good. 'Little Red Riding Hood' and 'The Elves and the Shoemaker' had good ideas for the subtext in which they wanted to shift the focus of the story, but they could not implement it very well. In the remaining three, they simply threw story ideas at the audience that they thought would look cool, without giving them any serious thought.

I think they handled a child abuse element very wrongly in the last story, and that bothered me most.