A series that was on watch called "Grimm" - it was set in Oregon a and based (very) loosely on some of the borther Grimm tails. I believe the publicity line was "sometimes fairy tales were a warning"
Portland in Oregon was chosen because Oregon was (is!) full of the stranger side of America. And very little referred to outside.
Until recently, it was illegal to pump gas yourself there and had to be done by an attndend.
Many thanks -- this re "Grimm", is stuff hitherto totally unknown to me. I figured that our Isle of Portland was
not being referred to -- what with its railway line having been closed to freight in 1965, and passenger a dozen-odd years earlier. Was musing but without any clue, on the US's two cities of Portland -- one, cited by you, on the west coast; one on the east ditto.
Portland, Oregon, makes me think first and foremost about a recent-ish fantasy / alternative history series of novels by S.M. Stirling, the
Dies the Fire cycle: premise, the fairly rapid death of 95% of the human race -- not through a pandemic, but thanks to assorted laws of nature suddenly ceasing to function -- basically, no more modern technology: civilisation collapses worldwide. The novel series (which for me personally, rather quickly "went bad" and became unreadable) tells of how things go for the survivors of the catastrophe, largely centred on those survivors located in Oregon. One character is a criminal lunatic and psychopath-to-the-extreme, whose given name is Norman, and who realises his lifelong dream by becoming a Norman-type (as in William the Conqueror) feudal tyrant -- his chosen capital for his hell-on-earth regime is Portland, Oregon: it's a scene which is indeed highly grim.
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