Grimm (imagine I inserted some witty pun regarding the title)

[on:]

This series does not have a thread, but I think it deserves one.

First: "Grimm" was accused of being a Supernatural Rip-Off. I will not deny there are certain similarities, and maybe Grimm would not even have been made without Supernatural. Yet, the show still got it's own character, and even manages to avoid mistakes Supernatural has been subjected to.

Short plot synopsis:

Police Detective Nick Burhardt finds out he is a Grimm. A human being capable of seeing a "Wesen"'s true form. Wesen could be decribed as some kind of Were-Creatures. Appearing human, until they want their true self to be seen. While the Grimms are capable of seeing their true form, and have been hunting them down (as many Wesens are not too kind towards human beings when given the opportunity). Many of those Wesens were the source for fairy tales (many written by the Brothers Grimm, therefor obviously the name )

- Supernatural was accused of focusing too much on the Sam/Dean bromance, while other characters often die a quick death. So, it took Supernatural a while to establish at least some decent recurring cast.
- Grimm did better that way. Nick Burhardt got a Police Partner, his superior in the PD, a Blutbad (Some kind of Big Bad Wolf) friend, and a girlfriend. Which enables some nice constellations:

1) His Police Partner Hank Griffin serves when doing ordinary police investigations
2) Hank Monroe (the Blutbad) does basically the same, but comes into play when the Wesen world is involved
3) Having seen Supernatural, I somehow expected his GF would also die quickly, to give the character a personal loss and bitterness. Fortunately, she survived. Her character added some nice (often tongue in cheek) "Superheroes secret identity he has to KEEP secret" theme.

All in all, the regulars allow more variety in interaction than in Supernatural.  Yet, it comes at a price. Nick suffers a bit from (what I like to call) "Luke Skywalker Syndrome". Means: The hero has little allowances to go over the top, and remains somewhat generic. While the interesting stuff has to be performed by the supporting cast.

Supernatural's Sam and Dean are certainly the more interesting and characteristic protagonists. While Nick is not a too compelling lead, that weakness is compensation by a larger group of supporting chars.
Grimm's overall setting mostly keeps close to the classical detective/crime story. The adversaries also usually meet on more equal terms. Even when a Wesen is far more powerful than a human, a gunshot is usually enough to take everyone down. Which allows the Grimm stories a more direct, spot on approach. Though sometimes -with Nick being a cop, and having a complete PD as backup- he might come off a tad too strong, with too many ressources.

All in all:
The series certainly drew quite some inspiration from Supernatural.  Yet, it also manages to uphold a unique character. So, if you like Supernatural, and you do not mind that another goes a similar direction, you should give it a try.

[Reply #1 on:]

Hm. There's two and a half seasons of this, with more still to air? I'm adding this to my "once I get time, I will enjoy..." queue. Which is rather long, and I don't think I'll be getting much time to work through it very soon, but it's piqued my interest enough that I'll add the pilot and first three episodes to the notepad document that's currently my go-to when bored out of my skull.

Expect nothing for eighteen months, and then either a long list of reasons not to watch it, or effusive praise. That's the way this process normally concludes.

[Reply #2 on:]

Hm...I already made you reconsider picking up "The Big Bang Theory" with my review of the Professor Proton Episode. And now Grimm is considered...I think I should get royalties from the TV studios

[Reply #3 on:]

@Totalnerd Undercanada:
As some time has passed, I am curious: Did you give that series a try, and - if you did- what is your opinion about it?

[Reply #4 on:]

Nope. Still no opinion. Rather busy at the moment, check back in another three years.

[Reply #5 on:]

Time Remaining till tnuc's opinion on "Grimm"

[Reply #6 on:]

I couldn't really get into Grimm; I'm not a fan of when shows become focused on a specific kind of enemy (think cromags on sliders) and Grimm feels like that from the start.  I also didn't like the whole invisible animal-people aspect, so nothing seemed especially interesting.  Lastly, from what I have seen, I agree with Hein that the protaganist isn't particularly interesting.

On that last point, X-Files is all about Mulder & Scully, we want to be like them.  In that way, Supernatural is preferavle, Sam & Dean are interesting and they have a cool car, and even the secondary characters, when they live long enough, are interesting. Supernatural should only be 5 seasons long (after that it becomes whose turn is it to go to hell), but Supernatural had charm.  The first season it's like a cheap X-Files, but it was a fun watch, even some episodes after the show ended (in season 5, everything after season 5 is fanfiction, even the show admits this fact).

I'd recommend Supernatural, but I can't recommend Grimm.... maybe Grimm is fun for some people, I just haven't found an angle to be interested; though, to be fair, I had to find an angle to enjoy Supernatural.

[Reply #7 on:]

I couldn't really get into Grimm; I'm not a fan of when shows become focused on a specific kind of enemy (think cromags on sliders) and Grimm feels like that from the start.  I also didn't like the whole invisible animal-people aspect, so nothing seemed especially interesting.  Lastly, from what I have seen, I agree with Hein that the protaganist isn't particularly interesting.

As Grimm met its final season, I will post a complete review during the next days.
Anyway, just some minor comments on the generic enemy criticism:

I must admit: This is exactly the reason why I considered Grimm better than Supernatural. Supernatural had some nearly Dragonball-esque increase: At first, ONE demon was the ultimate boss-monster, a being no hunter ever managed to slay. Yet, as the time passed, demons started to fall like Redshirts beaming down on an unknown planet. Angels were the next Leve-Boss...at least for a while, until they were also given their red shirts
Grimm remained consitent: With EXTREMELY few exceptions, a "Wesen" was killed by the same force/mortal wound eligible to take a human being down. Even the strongest offensive abilities could not save one from a stab in the back or a gunshot. The playing field was even...

Also, while all those beings were acutally "Wesen", they did vary. In species, appearance, abilities...the difference between two Wesen species was basically as grave as the one between e.g. a Vampire and a ghost. Which is also another benefigt: Grimm constantly did provide the viewers with new Wesen species to keep things interesting. While in Supernatural, there have been longer times when Sam/Dean did just encounter demons and/or Angels.