Grimm

Rarely does a series move me to review it. But this one is quite special. The premise is almost like Monsters Inc where the little girl scares the monsters under the bed - just made for adults. And what a lot of monsters there are here! The possibilities are almost endless...

Vaguely based on the Grimm tales, this series transports those tales into the 21st century far better than any other recent attempt at it. Each episode is a surprise, some have major frights in them, though the one criticism I have is that the main character isn't "grim" enough.

But to me the revelation - and half the fun of this show - is the character Monroe, played masterfully by Silas Weir Mitchell - truly funny, bringing a human touch to the monsters on display... he truly deserves an award for his role in this.

Do you like fables? Fantasy stories and creatures in general? You will have quite the feast here - if you accept certain flaws that is. While the characters are nicely written, this falls mostly under the monster of the week category. There is some building up and characters developing to a certain extent. But it also lets them do things and then lets them get away without or little consequences.

There is also quite the coincidences and stuff that does not make sense. Things get sweaped under the rug and we have the "Buffy" level of knowledge: check the book. Which is all fine and dandy, but also quite a stretch to be fair. I know that some might feel the world depicted here is a stretch itself, which is fair. But even in the world and the rules set, it breaks them from time to time to say the least.

You can't be too mindful of things like that, otherwise you won't enjoy the show at all. It is fun and watching the outtakes make you like the actors even more. Which might make it harder to rate this the way you wanted to rate it ... I was thinking about going an 8 just because of that, but even though the finale was also very good, it was also very predictable and gave us a character (re)turn, that should not have happened. The lines can blur between good and evil ... but sometimes it is too much ... not to mention the return of ... but let's leave the soap opera elements alone and just enjoy this for what it is ... light and fun entertainment

Grimm largely follows the line of most crime dramas, but with the fun twist that the bad guys are characters from fairy tales and folk-stories. The main character is reasonably interesting, his partners (one his human police partner & a new friend that is basically a big bad wolf) are mildly amusing, and the crimes are intriguing. Only time will tell if it can stay interesting, but for now I am extremely optimistic. It is a show that can appeal to fantasy fans (like me) and crime drama fans (like my husband).

Being one of two fantasy themed new shows on network television, Grimm is inevitably compared to ABC's Once Upon a Time, which is a bit more fantasy. I am enjoying Once Upon a Time a great deal (my husband hasn't watched since the first episode), but frankly it seems more like a mini-series. It has an end written into the story & if they try to drag it out too long it will start to seem ridiculous. Grimm on the other hand, can last as long as the writers keep finding more folktales & there are thousands of those.

After viewing the pilot of this show, I think it has a lot of potential. Yes it follows the tried and true formula of expose modern individual to some sort of secret war/history/duty/etc, but there is a lot they can do with it from there. It did its job as a pilot: introduce characters, introduce conflict, and give you the general idea how the episodes will go. I think it is about time we had a new show that runs the good old man vs. monster bit, especially one that isn't prone to becoming some touchy-feely WB-esque teen drama. While its too early to judge the show as a whole, it promises good things. I hope it delivers.

'Grimm' (2011-2017)

Opening thoughts: 'Grimm' appealed to me straightaway, despite taking a while to get round to it. Absolutely loved the premise which was the show's biggest selling point, darker, more supernatural and more mysterious twists on famous fairytales (some already quite dark) sounded absolutely great. Different twists on famous stories and characters is not a new thing, with shows like 'The 10th Kingdom' and 'Once Upon a Time' still existing, but they didn't have the tone and themes that 'Grimm' did.

As an overall whole, 'Grimm' was really impressive. Actually found the earlier seasons absolutely wonderful, while finding that the show started to run out of ideas a little in the last few ones. There is actually very little wrong, but the very little that is wrong turned out to be quite big issues when they became more prominent. They are outweighed though by what 'Grimm' does right, which is a lot and most of the components were executed outstandingly.

Bad things: Am going to begin with the not so good things. It is brought down by two characters that really annoyed me, with both being flatly acted. One was Adalind, who didn't have an awful lot of personality, or at least to begin with, and her soap operatic antics did too often irritate (some unnecessary). Did appreciate though that she was made more sympathetic later. Even worse was Juliette, who is incredibly annoying, especially when she was more dominant (i.e. Season 4). Due to her stubborn-ness, selfishness and know it all nature being exaggerated in the writing.

There were times where the storytelling relied a little too much on contrivances and coincidences.

Good things: So much is fantastic. Most of the acting is fine, with David Guintoli and Silas Weir Mitchell being throughout absolutely captivating. Nick is a fascinating and charismatic character and loved how truly Monroe often is. Their chemistry is great fun. The characters on the most part are well written and had well fleshed out personalities and development, Nick particularly. A vast majority of the writing is full of wit and intrigue, apart from some soap opera creeping in in the latter seasons.

Furthermore, a vast majority of the storytelling is very imaginative, deliciously dark and full of entertainment value, with any conflicts having a good deal of suspense. Wholly living up to the great premise. The mystery elements always intrigued, the spin on the stories and characters used inspired and inventive as well as uncompromising and the supernatural ones were just about easy to follow. The villains are suitably menacing. It is a very well made show and looks a lot more expensive than it actually was, very atmospheric scenery and sets, wonderfully moody photography and lighting and the effects didn't look cheap. The music had energy but also an ominous vibe.

Concluding thoughts: Concluding, very good and often fantastic.

8/10.