Not Your Normal Sugary Fairy Tale Story
Grimm, by NBC, is definitely not your princess, prince and fairy godmother tale. Grimm is more like a “what’s hiding underneath the bed and in the closet” type tale. Supposedly the original Grimm’s Fairy Tales weren’t all puppies and kittens either, so this show really gets to the dark side of the stories.
Nick Burkhardt (David Giuntoli) is a police detective who finds out that he is a descendent of a long line of Grimms: basically, a police force for fairy tale type Grimm creatures. His aunt was the latest, but since she is on the brink of dying, the responsibility of keeping the bad Grimm characters in line is now flowing to him. Apparently, Grimm creatures live among humans disguised as human, but if they lose emotional control a Grimm can spot them. If the creatures are good (which most are….just like humans) then they are left alone, but if they are bad (also just like humans, where would a tv show cop drama be without them) then the Grimm hunts them down and kills them.
What I like about this story is that there are names and traits of each Grimm creature. For instance the first episode was the Little Red Riding Hood story. The beast character is called a Blutbad (German word for Bloodbath). They lose control at the sight of red. In this case, a few people had been killed or kidnapped because they were wearing red hoodies. Blutbad are also loners and have a great sense of smell. Nick meets a good Blutbad, Monroe (played by Silas Weir Mitchell) who unwillingly becomes Nick’s go-to-guy for the history of all things Grimm and is really my favorite character on the show. One of my favorite scenes was Monroe telling Nick that when Monroe was a small pup his parents used to scare him by saying that a Grimm would take him away (this Grimm being Nick’s aunt). Interesting concept that the fairy tale characters would have their own fairy tale stories to tell.
Other episodes are versions of Grimm’s ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears‘, (the bears are called Jagerbars); ‘The Queen Bee‘, (the bees are called Mellifers); ‘Bluebeard‘, (the enticing gentleman/goat is called a Ziegvolk).
Very fun to watch, and different than the sugary stories that are given to us by Disney. I really hope this show will stick around unlike other shows that I’ve liked that have been cancelled: Lie to Me, The Defenders, Ghost Whisperer, Medium, Moonlight, Carnivale, Knight Rider, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I am looking forward to the expansion of each character, storyline, and creature description in this dark and edgy reboot of the fairy tale genre.
E-rating (1-meh, 5-Eenae endorsed, e-half): EEEE
Update 01/26/13 – Season 2 begins March 2013!!