'Grimm' on NBC HD - Page 8

The couple of drops of rain that they had on last night's show made me think that for a show set in Portland they sure don't get much rain.

Maybe they could switch to using rain to set the mood instead of the flashlight fetish they indulge in in every other scene.

This show really needs some direction.

It seems like the police chief being a bad guy subplot has been completely dropped.

And IMHO, last night's episode was very weakly plotted.

Personally, I think they'd be better off if they switched from trying to spin fairy tales to taking famous murderers/serial killers such as The Hillside Strangler, Dahlmer and The Mansion Family and putting a supernatural spin on them. Was last night's episode even based on a fairy tale? Because I can't think of one that fits last night's show.

Funny you should mention that, I just read an interview with Timothy Hutton, of Leverage (The longest running of the trio of shows being shot in Portland) and he said they seldom have delays due to rain. He also implied that they're doing some digital trickery to lessen any appearance of downpours.

In some respects its easier to film and have better lighting control under the cloudy skies of PDX than the harsh sunlight of SoCal.

OK, that's just mean.
Just because YOU are in the desert and I am watching the local flooding from my living room window is no reason to....



I noticed that too.



Not one I can think of.
It appears the current idea is to create a pantheon of "demons" and build stories around them (similar to Supernatural, but minus the humor).

I didn't mind this episode. I have to admit, it's really growing on me.

I think with Monroe's "get together" with the Reapers, we'll see the police Captain's subplot come into play again. I recall the last time a Reaper was in town to deal with Nick, the Captain dealt with him (the Reaper) rather harshly.

That's what I was thinking. I am not sure he is a "Big Bad", not sure what the trope is, but after seeing his character's spoiler-ish description in Wikipedia, I think there is some realistic ambiguity there. He certainly does not appear to have the authoritative control over everything usually associated with the "Big Bad". I think he was meant to be the "Big Bad", but feedback has transmogrified him into something different (and probably more interesting).

v/r,
C-F

Good point. Hope you're right.

I like this show for it's potential and some of the quirky ways they are integrating the fairy tales, but I do think they're taking way to long in developing the Grimm backstory and long story arcs. Essentially, the detective is running in place experiencing the Motw, getting his ass kicked, but so what? We know Cap is nobility and has authority over most (some/all?) creatures. We know Grimms have the ability to see creatures and have had the roll of hunting them down, but why? Most creatures don't seem to be inherently evil, they're just blending in. There's no clear picture of what the detective's role is and I hope they get to it soon because he's pretty much a deer in the headlights so far.

Agreed.

I'll third that.

That's the intent. re: the quote from Greenwalt on the first page of this thread:

" "Grimm" has the power of the genre shows, but it's also got the power of the procedural shows and the idea of one complete episode every week so that you don't need a score card to watch the show..."

I knew the lack of ambition would drag the show down before the show started. If you are expecting a broader canvas you probably won't get one. It's intentionally keeping the plots simple for the stupid. I doubt it will have the guts to go arc-insane that Fringe did when they realized the MotW is a boring formula when you keep spinning the same wheels, but according to Greenwalt that's what the audience want.

Except he's forgetting that just because CBS viewers dine on repetitive crime procedurals doesn't mean the fantasy genre audience want that - as evidenced by Once Upon a Time getting more viewers and fan response.

Frankly, I'm happy to have a genre show that doesn't make me sit through an entire season to get burned by a cliffhanger that won't get resolved.

Given the wealth of literary mythology available, they should be able to go for quite a few seasons without getting too stale; and when they do, they can end it gracefully without leaving us hanging.

The only way I watch long arcs now is to record the season and watch it in fast sequence... and if its not resolved then I pitch it without wasting my time.

Ok, from the site, this is what I know so far...

There's a bunch of mythical creatures that have been living with us for quite some time. The have funny Germanic names and their aspects resemble some, if not all, archetypes suggested by Grimm Bros.

The website suggests that they are ruled by some sort of nobility, but not specifically described.

The website suggests that Grimms are humans that have fought and hunted mythical creatures for the last couple of hundred years (for no apparent reasons other than they can see them and it scares them). From the show so far, we see that Grimms inherit their powers when someone (the holder?) dies or is ready to pass on the power. The detective (can't remember his name) is empowered when his aunt is fading, then dies, leaving him with a trailer full of arcane books and some tools.

Ok cool, he doesn't have a mission. He knows he's in a dangerous position. He can see adversaries are mythical creatures. He's got a mythical sideckick that can explain, somewhat, which way the story blows. His boss is evidently, somewhat of a mythical power, possibly protecting him, possibly setting him up for future drama. All thats pretty cool from my perspective.

However, what's going on? For a bunch of eps, all we've seen is the protagonist, seeing beaties, getting mauled, solving some crimes, but no advancement of story. There are a bunch of paranoid beasties aware of him ( I guess they're worried that he'll kill them), a Reaper squad whose sole purpose to to exterimate his kind) and a homicide Captain that acts like a caring boss, who may be protecting him or not.

There's quite alot of fodder for a pretty good story there...so develop it. It's never going to be Fringe worthy in serialization, but get busy for Budda's sake.

^Your take is about the same as mine.
And, yeah, the series DOES need to get on with it.

Im holding in for now but i can see a rather predictable pattern,
Crime happens, creature shows themselves, Grimm makes his way to trailer to read in the book that apparantly has all info, calls Munroe, hes explains then hes off to track them down. Finish and repeat.
Some of these arcs need to come to fruition because it needs jazzing up.
What happened to the group at the coffee table that included the fridge repair guy?
As said before the bad captain thing has kinda fallen out!
I just cant see where this is going to pick up..

Finally got around to seeing this week's Grimm last night and enjoyed it. I thought Fred Koehler, who played the mousey serial killer was miscast, though. Koehler is a competent character actor but I like my serial murderers to be a little more menacing. I'll say this for him, though, he only killed people who needed killing.

Thought the actor who played the nerdy apartment building manager, J.W. Crawford, was a hoot. It's nice to see shows cast people in secondary roles who can bring as much to the proceedings as Crawford did. Anyway, I am continuing to enjoy Grimm.

I am actually rather surprised to find that I am still watching this show after 11 episodes. I have never in fact favored a Horror/Fantasy themed show before, they all seemed like foolishness. But I am definately enjoying this one.

Hopefully, saying that was not the kiss of death.

Even this week's episode, based around some sort of "were rodent", was well written.

I like the fact that the casting in many cases picks an actor that seems to fit the role even without the morph .. MouseMan looked like a mouse / and SnakeMan certainly had that reptillian lawyer look, as themselves .. and the morph is so cool ..

We saw more of that this week with the truck parked out front that Grimm's girlfriend saw and then went to the address. They were scared of her because they think she is a Grimm as well. So that subplot has come up again with the "non violent" creatures like the mole man fridge guy just plain scared of a Grimm. My guess is that many Grimm's in the past just killed all creatures no matter what and what's a bit different now is that he's not just killing any creature he finds, only the ones that do wrong.

Once Upon a Time also has a much better time slot which helps a lot.

Quite true and I think it's to a large degree a difference in the target audience the shows cater to. To me OUAT is in many ways the TV equivalent of a chick flick. It invests a lot of time in relationships/feelings much like many other ABC shows that appeal to women. Combine that with the fairytale draw to the younger audience and it's got a pretty large pool to draw from. Grimm seems like it's appeal would be to a much smaller target right out of the gate. I like them both for their different focus and direction.

As far as the speed at which Grimm is uncovering and moving it's underlying mythology, I have no issues with it. Obviously those who care mostly about the bottom line and getting answers as quickly as possible are going to be impatient as always. Personally I'm enjoying the nuance of the various characters and setting, and the focus of the individual episodes being semi stand-alone. It still reminds me in many ways of Buffy with it's long running undercurrent of mythology beneath the focus of the week goings on. Unlike many I also always liked the bizarre/strangeness of the stand alone X-Files episodes more than the ongoing conspiracy centric ep's as well.


ron

But Once demonstrates exactly the opposite of Greenwalt's notion that people just want simple stories that require no thinking each week. Grimm was intended to appeal to a mass procedural-loving audience. If anything Once should have had a tougher time finding a crowd just as Eastwick, Invasion and Journeyman did before it. Once is heavily serialized and despite it's lighter tone has no qualms about putting it's cards on the table. It doesn't try and bury it's genre under a cop show disguise.

And the audience is fine with that even to the point where it can hold it's own against a major NFL game. So I wouldn't say it had an easy timeslot either.


I preferred the standalone episodes as well but TXF had the luxury of not being limited by one theme and tone. It could shift from ghost story to aliens to serial killers on a weekly basis and it didn't matter. That (and the main character interaction) kept the show fresh for a long time.

A lot of shows have passed under the bridge since then and a lot of channels have appeared to keep pumping out procedurals. The formula is pretty stale by now. Just having some creepy dude to chase each week isn't particularly innovative and only having one character who is really memorable doesn't help either.

There's a way to balance this stuff and you only have to flip over and watch Supernatural. Mostly excellent MotW stories because they have the guts to go in different directions (evidenced by last episode set in 1940), have good banter between characters and are not afraid to callback to events or people from three seasons ago just to keep you paying attention. And like TXF the arc this season also sucks, but at least they are making the effort. They learned quickly in the first season that stories should be written around the main characters and not the disposable monsters.

Exactly right.
A TV drama series should ALWAYS revolve around the main characters.
When people care or are invested, it brings repeat customers.

Couldn't agree more. As I was watching the current Grimm and Once Upon A Time Episodes earlier this evening, I thought, as you suggest, that Once Upon A Time is mostly a serialized chick flick, whereas Grimm is mostly a guy buddy show. I like both shows but each is indeed very different from the other. At this stage of each show's development, I think I prefer Grimm but only marginally.

Good observation, sir.
The wife watches OUAT....and I watch Grimm.

I enjoy both Grimm and OUAT.

No gender differences at our house. Everyone watches Grimm for the humor, and nobody likes OUaT, where the emphasis seems to be on costuming and petty put-downs.

I like the wife. Maybe she is a Grimm too!

For horror/humor, check out Supernatural.
Way, way funnier.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460681/

Last year I watched two episodes, didn't like it.

It's hard to "get it" without watching more of the show.
Lots of inside jokes, but one has to be familar with the characters/show to appreciate it all.

I have watched it from its beginning.
It didn't start out with much humor.
However, as time went along it becames more so, to where it is now almost on equal footing with the horror stuff.

Fine acting, writing, and excellent characters IMO.
Perhaps the best way to get into it is to check it out on disks first.