Grimm

[darkemeralds]

I almost blush to admit that I'm enjoying "Grimm", but I'll cop to it (ha ha): a strong parochialism makes me feel I should give second, third, and fourth chances to a show that's not only filmed here in my little town, but set here--which is to say that, unlike Leverage, Grimm goes out of its way to find specifically Portlandy locations, rather than generic city-and-river shots that might, if you squint, pass for Boston.

(Though I hear that Leverage is moving its storyline to Portland next season, so aren't we just the flavor of the month!)

The concept--a special class of humans known as Grimms who can perceive (and presumably do battle with) other special classes of folk who can pass as human but who are the stuff of fairy tales--is pretty fresh, and the actors are solid. The show is shot in some lovely gloomy-light conditions, and the production design is heavy on wood-paneled interiors and rich colors, a nice Portland-meets-Bavaria kind of look that I find appealing. The special effects--human-to-creature-face, swarms of untrainable critters like rats and bees, really gruesome dead bodies--are very good.

What's weird is the writing. The stories are...well, okay. Not bad. There are some great action moments. The overarching storyline is intriguing, with secrets, lies, and backstories aplenty--will Nick's wife find out that he's a Grimm? How long will it take for Angel Monroe to give in to his true nature and start drinking human blood wilding in the woods tearing off people's limbs? Stuff like that. Every episode is leavened with comedy, some of it (like the pig-man coming up out of his mud bath) very funny.

But the dialog. Dear god. It's as if they have two writer's rooms, where the old hands write the stories, then turn them over to the high school interns to put actual words into the characters' mouths. I honestly don't know how the actors manage, but bless 'em, they do their best.

I'll probably keep watching because, besides the hometown connection, Grimm strikes me as having a lot of potential if NBC gives it a chance. Besides, David Giuntoli, the lead, is the next best thing to Sean Maher runnin' around Portland, and that makes me smile.

Comments

[ravurian]

So I should give it another chance? I watched the first couple of episodes and then let it slide, though I don't rightly remember why. I think I was already irked by the 'there can be only one (in every eligible family)' idea; and by the fact that heritability goes with seniority in that family (so what if they have a really large and long-lived family? You get an succession of alzheimers-ridden seniors freaking out in nursing homes?) and not in a direct line of descent from parent to child; and then I was irked that the fairy tale creatures - of whom there doesn't seem to be a shortage - didn't just gang together and wipe them out (by which I mean, massacre them, overwhelm them with sheer numbers, rip them apart, and not, for example, enter into long-winded and Machiavellian conspiracies involving becoming their boss). And then I realised that I was trying to work out the logic of the story and was irked at myself. But! I will give the show another shot, because I can occasionally turn off my internal monologue, and I am not always grumpy at everything all of the time, and I trust your instincts :).

I did quite like 'Once Upon A Time', and that's utter tosh, too. Although, I'm many, many episodes behind on that one...

[darkemeralds]

I was marveling at this comment this morning. It occurred to me quite suddenly that my failure to perceive the kind of logical flaws you point out here is related to my lack of sense of direction. I don't know quite how to describe it, but there's a kind of whole-thing awareness--a sense of being confronted with the entire surface of the thing-sphere at once--in both cases.

Penetrating to the parts and connections takes me a very, very long time. I don't easily pick out different instruments in a musical arrangement (it's a whole song), or individual spices in a sauce (it's Sauce, not a set of ingredients) or logical flaws in a narrative.

I suspect the ability to do those things is a key to your prolific story-finding ability, that vast idea factory in your head.

Anyway, everything you say about Grimm is valid, and I'm sure it's all part of my perception that I'm not in the presence of greatness when I watch the show, but it would have taken me studying the damn thing with intent to fic before I'd have seen any of those flaws specifically.

[ravurian]

The thing is, they're all solvable issues, and they don't necessarily need to be resolved so soon in a series, but I do look for indications that the writers are aware of them and may take steps to address them. In, for example, The Fades, I spent much of the second episode with a steadily deepening frown only to find that in the third episode the writers had not only considered most of the things that had made me squint at the TV, but were ready to address them. Not only that, they had extrapolated further and gone deeper, so that answering those questions didn't conclude things entirely, but instead led to more story. I like it when that happens: it feels like a conversation rather than a monologue, like I am being invited to engage with it.

I don't think that this is a failure of perception on your part; not in the slightest. Rather, it's an indication of optimism, which I sort of envy. I'm a critical bugger, lol.

[darkemeralds]

I believe it actually kind of a cognitive limitation, but perhaps that's what optimism is, too.

[darkemeralds]

PS: I wouldn't presume to tell you whether to give it another chance. I'm going to--but again, mostly for the hometown connection rather than from any strong sense that it's actually going to improve much.

[ravurian]

LOL! I was just about to comment to say you didn't give me a yes or no! ruric tells me that it gets better, too, so, on the basis that two out of three of us think it's worth watching more, I shall! Problem solved! :D