If done right, I think any story could be well adapted and loved by everyone. Now I don’t think OUAT is the place to really initiate this. But someone should.
I completely agree. OAUT’s problem is not so much the cultural homogeneity of the fairytales, but the fact that their starting point is the Disney version. Which is, frankly, not just sanitized but often downright saccharine in comparison to how most of these fairytales are in any of their folkloric versions. So OUAT’s not just working with Western stories, they’re working with uniquely 20th century US cultural products.
RG, I take your point about broadening the audience’s horizons, but considering OUAT’s relationship to ABC and Disney, I think the best they can hope to do is to say “look, there’s a lot more to these stories that the Disney version you might have seen.” Which is sort of where they started, but then introducing new characters just became a cynical cash grab, with no real depth or narrative force. I mean, I absolutely get what you’re saying, and it can be done in a wildly successful and original way (I might have mentioned American Gods once or twice on here ;)), but I don’t think OUAT’s team could ever hope to pull off something quite so radical, and not just because they don’t have the writing chops — but because it’s a family show and a Disney subsidiary.