this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2023
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Old TV - Not new TV
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These two are going to be harder to find (Amazon should have them for purchase), but in the 90s there were two made for tv miniseries, Arabian nights, and the tenth kingdom.
Arabian nights is a meta-ish story of shaharazad (who had a thousand tales), weaving tales every night to keep her ultra paranoid husband from killing her, her strategy is to weave tales with all different characters that somehow tie together and end on a cliff hanger every morning, so her husband can't kill her because he needs to hear how the story ends. In the meantime she's trying to figure out how to save the king from whoever is driving him insane (they're childhood friends so she doesn't want to just kill him, she cares about him). It covers all of the middle eastern tales you know, and adds pretty fun twists to them, along with a very engaging overarching story.
The tenth kingdom is a modern fairytale setting, with a much less twisty more continuous plot and characters. The modern world is separated/connected to the fairy tale (brothers Grimm) by a magic mirror..... I really can't give too much away, a couple new yorkers find themselves in fairy tale land (the nine kingdoms) being brought there by a prince who was cursed by the evil queen to be trapped in a dog's body, and a mercenary werewolf who's conflicted between his feelings for the girl and his allegiance to the evil queen. They're also being followed by a trio of shoe obsessed trolls. They have a number of encounters with identifiable fairy tale characters, each with modern takes/habits. It'll have you booked in the first twenty minutes, and next thing you know you'll be finishing the last episode.
I started the tenth kingdom today. On amazon it is spelled The 10th Kingdom and then it shows up as Freeview with ads.
I only watched 30mins so far (not in mood for paying attention I guess) but it seems fun and very silly in embrace it kind of way! And I remember that other one at least the mythology of a bride having to te her husband a story every night, that's such a perfect premise for a show and sounds super fun hope I can find a way to watch it!
It's definitely one that demands a bit of attention the first time through, there'sa surprising amount of subtlety to it for being a very silly fairy tale premise.
I'm glad it's available for free/advertising!