GRIMM Review "Clear and Wesen Danger"

Article originally written for Seat42F.

On NBC’s GRIMM this week, “Clear and Wesen Danger,” Hank (Russell Hornsby) and Wu (Reggie Lee) struggle to effectively do their jobs when Nick (David Giuntoli) takes a leave of absence. Meanwhile, Nick considers what kind of home he can have with Adalind (Claire Coffee), and she does her part to make the situation easier for Nick.

It seems a little soon for Nick to accept Adalind into his home so easily. Juliette died just days ago, and Nick has not had time to get over her. I get that Nick wants to be there for his infant son, and that’s noble. But he has just a bit less hostility than he should towards the former Hexenbiest that has caused him so much trouble. Instead, they’re practically a happy family already.

That being said, I like the idea of Nick and Adalind as a couple. I know they’re not romantically involved yet, but the tension and possibility of a future pairing is certainly there. Adalind has evolved as a character over the years, even if it happens in fits and starts caused by uneven storytelling, and Nick has a dark side, too, so they can meet in the middle. Adalind telling Rosalee (Bree Turner) that she doesn’t want to be a Hexenbiest again is a good show of Adalind’s commitment to joining the right side. I think they could work out long-term, eventually. I just hope GRIMM doesn’t force it on them too quickly.

Monroe’s (Silas Weir Mitchell) suggestion that Nick sell the house seems silly. Yes, bad things have happened in that dwelling, including Juliette trying to kill Nick and Juliette’s recent death. Yet, that kind of goes with the life of a Grimm. Were Nick a normal person who went through a trauma, looking for new surroundings makes sense. Given that any new place he lives is sure to soon be the place of bad memories, too, well, that just makes it gratuitous, like GRIMM is just itching for a new set piece, regardless of what is best for the characters.

Though, admittedly, a new house might go well with a new start for Nick and Adalind. But they aren’t at the point yet where that is needed.

Sadly, “Clear and Wesen Danger” makes the mistake GRIMM so often does of thinking it needs a Wesen of the week to fight. Thankfully, this installment makes better use of the stand-alone story by making it quite a bit about the new chemistry in the police squad trying to solve the case.

See, Renard (Sasha Roiz) decides Hank needs a new partner while Nick is out, which makes sense from a departmental management perspective. But rather than promote, even temporarily, Wu, Renard gives Hank Detective Pogue (Joseph Bertot, Snowpierce), who is completely in the dark about Wesens and Grimms and such, making him more of liability than a hindrance. An overabundance of caution in keeping that world a secret leads to dead law enforcement, and it’s clear this arrangement won’t work.

I like this sequence purely because of the fun interactions between Wu, Hank, and Pogue. It isn’t well thought out, as Renard should be smarter than to tie Hank’s hands behind his back in dealing with a Wesen. It also invokes the inconsistency that somehow this department was solving cases before Nick learns he is a Grimm, and not every murder should involve a Wesen. But because the scenes are entertaining, I can partially overlook this.

“Clear and Wesen Danger” is better than most of the GRIMM episodes of the past year or two. It isn’t a very solid hour of television, and falls far short of what it should be, but given the depths GRIMM has shown itself to sink to, I’ll take what I can get.

GRIMM airs Fridays at 9 p.m. on NBC.

GRIMM "Jack"ed Up

Article originally written for Seat42F.

This week’s installment of NBC’s GRIMM finds Nick (David Giuntoli), Hank (Russell Hornsby), and Wu (Reggie Lee) tracking a serial killer who slays prostitutes. The style of these killings seem to match the notorious Jack the Ripper, who is not thought to be a Wesen, but has been around for hundreds of years. I guess “You Don’t Know Jack” as well as you thought you did.

“You Don’t Know Jack” is a little bit better than previous weeks, continuing a slight upward trend for GRIMM. After far too many cases-of-the-week, reducing what was once a clever serial story to a boring procedural, GRIMM is finding its legs again shortly before the finale. Lots of crime shows go for bigger arcs near the end of the year, so I wouldn’t count on this one sticking, though I certainly hope it does.

The meat of this hour is really about changing Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch) back into a normal person, not Jack the Ripper murdering women. Adalind (Claire Coffee), Rosalee (Bree Turner), and Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) dig up Adalind’s mother to make a potion. They then test it on Adalind, removing her Wesen side once again, before unsuccessfully trying to get Juliette to drink it.

I don’t know why Nick and his friends ever think Juliette will agree to down the liquid. She has made it quite clear over the past few weeks that she likes who she is now. She may not be in her right head; the old Juliette that viewers are familiar with would never act like this. But by now, even the densest or most blinded-by-love character on GRIMM should have realized this, too, and Nick doesn’t even seem all that upset by the change in her. This approach to Juliette does not work, and it makes no sense that the characters go about things this way.

Adalind isn’t handled all that well, either, instantly earning sympathy from the group, whom she goes along with. While once Adalind may have been able to work with these people, by this point in season four, they should be very far apart, and were just an episode or two ago. I understand circumstances have forced them to rely on each other, but that does not justify Adalind spilling out her heart to her mother in front of others or Nick’s tender way of helping Adalind lie down. This is weak storytelling.

It also doesn’t feel right that everyone just allows Adalind to drink the potion. She is super concerned with protecting the unborn fetus within her in other scenes, but swallows without hesitation when the time comes. Nick doesn’t seem to want the child nor intend to be involved, but he watches out for pregnant Adalind, except at this moment. Given the lack of confidence in everyone that the plan is going to work, why doesn’t anyone try to talk Adalind out of being the lab rat? They now value her baby over Juliette?

The case is actually the more interesting story, though I’m not complaining about the scant screen time it gets in “You Don’t Know Jack.” When the first two women die, I didn’t find myself caring, but then Jack takes out Henryetta (Garcelle Beauvais). Granted, she isn’t truly important to the story, but she is a familiar face, and one that doesn’t fit Jack’s victim profile. Why does he kill her?

This is important because it’s hard to know what this means for Renard (Sasha Roiz), who is still suffering from hallucinations and random bleeding. He runs away when Henryetta tries to talk to him about his condition, but he’ll come to his sense eventually and return for her help. Unfortunately, it’s too late for that now, her body already growing cold.

I can’t say I feel a lot of suspense with the cliffhanger of the gun going off. Monroe seems the most obvious person that could be shot, but he’s fine in the preview NBC ran for next week’s GRIMM at the close of the hour, yet another reason why I don’t usually watch those. Still, despite GRIMM promising a significant death coming, and I hope to hell they aren’t trying to pass Henryetta off as “significant,” the concluding scene just doesn’t feel big enough to off a main character in.

I’d also like to lodge a complaint about how much of the trailer’s contents survive the fire. Metal weapons, sure, I guess, but books? Come on! They would be nothing but ashes. Unless there’s some magical protection on them, which doesn’t seem likely, given the portions of pages missing.

“You Don’t Know Jack” is an improvement because it concentrates more on the mythology of the series and deeper story, but its plot holes and skimming over what could be emotional growth moments cheapen it, not at all rehabilitating the negative view I’ve come to have of this series.

GRIMM airs Fridays at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.

GRIMM Finally Takes An "Iron" Out of the Fire

Article originally written for Seat42F.

As this season of GRIMM draws towards a close, the episodes are getting better, even as they fall far short of what the series once was. This week’s “Iron Hans” finds the detectives investigating a camp for teen Wesen and their fathers when bodies turn up nearby. At the same time, Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch) continues to be self-destructive, and Adalind’s (Claire Coffee) secret gets out.

I don’t know how Kenneth (Nico Evers-Swindell) knows that Adalind’s unborn child was fathered by Nick (David Giuntoli), not Viktor as she claims, but I’m glad he does. It’s a plot hole that doesn’t make a lot of sense, but it finally moves along an arc that has been dragging quite severely. Adalind remains a member of the main cast, but her story is told in very small pieces. This revelation should help kick it into gear and make her relevant again in a way she hasn’t been for awhile.

It’s interesting that the first thing Adalind does once this comes out is go tell Nick that the baby is his. Why does she do so and why does Kenneth allow it? What is their plan? For a better series, I would be engaged with trying to figure out motivation and twists. With GRIMM, I just worry these actions won’t be explained well enough. Still, the fact that she tells Nick keeps the pace moving and opens the door to all kinds of drama for our core cast.

I don’t think GRIMM would ever put Nick and Adalind together. There’s just too much hate there. But what would co-parenting look like? It certainly couldn’t be anything resembling normal, as the child of a Grimm and a Hexenbieste will have to be in constant danger. I don’t know what the baby will be like, but it’s unique enough in this strange world that people will want it. If some sort of co-parenting arrangement is worked out, this not only keeps Adalind around more, a good thing, but also provides story outside of the case-of-the-week junk the program has been stuck in.

I’m not worried that GRIMM will become all about the babies. Even though there are now two that matter to the story, this just doesn’t seem like the type of series that would pivot to put children at the center of it. They are plot devices, not characters. But something more should be done with them. Otherwise, the story is wasting a lot of time.

As this happens, Juliette also gets back out into the world, courtesy of Kenneth. She isn’t acting like herself at all any more, though, being unnecessarily rude to Rosalee (Bree Turner) and burning town Nick’s trailer. At this point, it’s clear that the Juliette viewers are familiar with is long gone. Can she be restored, or has her transformation made her a total villain, which could be an intriguing way for GRIMM to go, especially if it redeems Adalind even a little so she can stay near Nick?

I’ve been complaining a lot about GRIMM dissing the serial in favor of stand-alone crimes, and I think that’s with good reason. The show is far more interesting when it concentrates on what makes it different from other programs, not falling into the same repetitive structure others do. At times in the past, it has done the former, but lately, the latter rules. Anything that provides a sign it might swing back the other way is more than welcome.

That being said, the case in “Iron Hans” is quite interesting. Nick, Hank (Russell Hornsby), and Wu (Reggie Lee) recruit Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) to look into a camp for Wesen teens just coming of age. Monroe went to a similar camp as a child, and so has insight.

The villain ends up not being the head of the camp, Elder Bowden (Jeff Fahey, Lost, Machete), but his daughter, Maggie (Hillary Tuck, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show), who feels left out of the boys-only club.

There are lots of juicy options to further explore this part of the Wesen mythology, giving us insight into how the secret society functions in the regular world, as well as gender roles, but sadly “Iron Hans” doesn’t explore these. GRIMM keeps touching on really good stuff that should be delved deeper into, not mentioned and tossed aside.

GRIMM is kind of a chaotic mess right now. Parts of “Iron Hans” make it enjoyable enough to forget that from time to time, and that’s better than the boring stuff it was delivering mid-year. Still, I wonder if someone can’t come in and fix a show that used to be good. Is there still a chance for it to recover?

GRIMM airs Fridays at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.

"Hibernaculum" Puts GRIMM Viewers to Sleep

Article originally written for Seat42F.

This week on NBC’s GRIMM, Nick (David Giuntoli), Hank (Russell Hornsby), and Wu (Reggie Lee) investigate a frozen body. Of course, a Wesen is involved, so the trio research what kind of Wesen it is, ask Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) for help, then try to track down the killer before zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Oh, sorry. Did I fall asleep while writing the episode description for “Hibernaculum?” That’s because this show pretty much lacks all originality at this point, now following a pretty strict formula and presenting what is basically the same episode over and over again.

The fact that GRIMM has become almost strictly a crime procedural is bad enough, but it’s a bad crime procedural, which is much worse. From Nick and Hank wondering if a dead guy is a suspect before a simple check for bite marks, which they then do and immediately rule him out, to the facts, such as their murder suspect having an obvious, distinguishing tattoo, being far too convenient, it makes one wonder if our main characters have any detective skills at all.

A question occurs to me while watching “Hibernaculum”: what did the police think of all these Wesen cases prior to Nick being a Grimm? When Nick finds out about the secret world, he doesn’t go “Oh, all the strange things I’ve seen now make sense!” Instead, he is completely surprised by this other world. Yet, now, he finds strange things all the time, and the Wesen, as they are presented in GRIMM, didn’t just show up when Nick realizes what he is. So the current plots don’t make sense with how the show begins.

The Wesen on the show have become so much less complex, just villains to arrest or kill. Until they aren’t. Those in “Hibernaculum” that don’t commit murder are innocents that should be protected and left alone (though how they all explain their months-long annual absence to employers and loved ones remains a mystery), while those that killed to survive should be killed in turn. There is no debate about letting the third murderer go back to the hive with the others because, by Nick’s definition, he isn’t innocent. That, despite the fact that if he didn’t attack the cab driver, he’d be dead, and any one of his fellows in the “Hibernaculum” would have done the exact same thing in the same circumstances.

Rosalee (Bree Turner) screaming to no one about Juliette also shows how poorly thought out the writing is at this point. Why does she do it? It just doesn’t make sense.

“Hibernaculum” does give us our few minutes of interesting, serial story. Monroe has PTSD well after his kidnapping. Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch) comments on not feeling like herself, which somewhat explains her erratic behavior, though not completely. Oh, and everyone else finds out Juliette’s secret. Renard (Sasha Roiz) continues to be plagued by bleeding and flashbacks of his death, and he sleeps with Juliette because, um, I don’t know; there is no explanation for that. And Adalind (Claire Coffee) is afraid Juliette will kill her, which actually does make sense, though I think if Juliette commits murder, there will be no coming back from that for her.

The threads in the above paragraph are what this week’s episode should be about. Not so long ago, GRIMM presented such tales for most of their hours, making for a more unique (though not wholly unique by any stretch) story. For whatever reason, though, GRIMM has abandoned this in favor of what so many other shows are doing, which really has made it a chore to watch much more than a pleasure, confining the good stuff to a scant few minutes. It can’t end soon enough at this point.

GRIMM airs Fridays at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.

GRIMM is a "Heartbreaker" For Sure

Article originally written for Seat42F.

On this week’s GRIMM, “Heartbreaker,” Nick (David Giuntoli), Hank (Russell Hornsby), and Wu (Reggie Lee) track a Wesen that accidentally fatally poisons people who are attracted to her. Two victims threaten to turn into more, and the cops must insert themselves in the middle of a family situation in order to not only save the lives of local men, but to save the killer herself. Of course, they do, with a slight twist ending that she ends up happy.

Not only has GRIMM become a crime procedural, mainly devoted to solving a case-of-the-week, but it’s become one of the crappiest entries in the genre on today. In “Heartbreaker,” no detective work is needed to track the murderer, Bella (Leah Renee, Franklin, The Playboy Club). Instead, every witness that Nick and company interview tells them exactly what they need to know without hesitation. When they look for a pattern with Bella’s mother, her police records, complete with photos, are already digitized on the computer, even though the incident happened before such paperwork was online. The trio simply follow the obvious breadcrumbs straight to their target, whom they give a magic potion to and let go, with no official wrap up.

During this, there is absolutely no character development. Hank and especially Wu are simply set dressing, contributing nothing at all to the proceedings. All they do is follow Nick around. Nick is cold and rude to those he interviews, not showing the least bit of sympathy for Bella or her victims. When they do catch her and Nick lets her go, after she agrees to drink Rosalee’s (Bree Turner) concoction, it seems strange Nick would even grant her this, considering how emotionless he is as he works the case.

What this means is that GRIMM has become nearly unwatchable. There are very few shows I’d consider giving up four seasons in, having already invested so much time and usually wanting to know how it will end, but GRIMM is the exception. Were I not committed to a weekly column and if I was just watching the show for pleasure, my season pass would definitely be canceled after tonight’s episode, if not before.

The far-too-small bits of the serial story we get are not much better. A major plot point has been Juliette’s (Bitsie Tulloch) break up with Nick. As she rejects him, she goes completely out of character. When they talk in “Heartbreak,” she laughs in his face when he expresses his love for her. This is not the Juliette viewers have come to know and care about. I don’t know who this woman is, but she’s lost direction entirely.

I’ll admit, this could be explained away as a side effect of turning into a Hexenbiest. Not only do I think GRIMM won’t do that, though, but even that revelation this late in the game would ring hollow, not providing a reason for Nick to not notice the huge personality shift. He’s her fiancé and a detective. He should be trying harder to do something for her, or at least confide in someone that Juliette seems to have lost her mind.

The second subplot finds Renard (Sasha Roiz) encountering the new royal in town, Kenneth (Nico Evers-Swindell, Manhattan Love Story). Kenneth tells Renard he doesn’t want to kill him, then proceeds to fight him for no apparent reason. This is after Kenneth kills Renard’s friend, whom Kenneth lets call Renard without working out the details of the trap ahead of time, such as what time they should ask Renard to come to the abandoned warehouse. So stupid.

Adalind (Claire Coffee) figures into this part of the story, too, lying about being pregnant with Viktor’s baby. This, after she plans to trick Viktor into sleeping with her after she’s already obviously pregnant, and without asking Viktor to back up her lie. It’s probably the worst thought out plot in the episode, and that’s saying something.

My respect for GRIMM has been rapidly fading all season, but “Heartbreakers” seems to hit a new low. Nothing about the hour makes too much sense, people are acting out of character, and the story is about as simple and dumb as one can get. I really don’t know how GRIMM could take such a turn for the worst so quickly, but it’s certainly happening.

GRIMM airs Fridays at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.

GRIMM Not Quite on "Fire"

Article originally written for Seat42F.

This week’s installment on NBC’s GRIMM is called “Trial by Fire.” A Wesen that can turn himself into a living flame burns down a family business, inadvertently killing two employees in the process. Nick (David Giuntoli) and Hank (Russell Hornsby) investigate, turned to an old foe to help them, which causes trouble for one of their closest friends.

What I was expecting from this week’s GRIMM was the showdown between Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch) and Adalind (Claire Coffee). It was highly publicized and long anticipated. And technically, “Trial by Fire” does deliver that – briefly, at the very end. This exemplifies the problem with GRIMM right now, which is that it minimizes the big stories that effect our characters in the favor of case-of-the-weeks.

It’s hard to complain too much about the case in “Trial by Fire.” It not only brings back Orson (Daniel Roebuck), one of the first villains Nick puts away back in the sixth episode of the series, but also deals with some real depth here. Nick realizes that Orson isn’t the only one to blame in the conflict in which two of his brothers were killed by Monroe’s then-girlfriend, now deceased. It’s a re-examination of something the show glossed over awhile ago, which is always a good thing for a program to do down the line.

Even better is how this affects Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell), whose people have an ancient feud with Orson’s. When Monroe sees Nick and Hank working with Orson, he is furious and storms out, which makes sense, given his history. Monroe doesn’t buy into stereotypes in general, but because this one is backed up by his own experiences, he embraces it. It takes Rosalee (Bree Turner) to make Monroe realize he’s really no better than the hate group that kidnapped him if he can’t get over his prejudice, and with great strength of will, Monroe decides to help out.

How the case ends is really of no importance to GRIMM. Sure, they catch the bad guy who hired the evil Wesen and kill the Wesen himself. But in terms of the mythology of the show, it’s far more important that Monroe sees something about himself that he can use to help grow, Rosalee puts her husband in his place, and Nick helps the viewer look a little further into complexity of the world.

Were a case-of-the-week-centered episode rare, this is the type I’d like to see, the depth making up for how repetitive the story structure is. Because GRIMM has been delivering a lot of these cases, the fact that this is by far the best one in recent memory doesn’t take away the sting of a series squandering its potential. This needs to be the exception, not the rule, for GRIMM.

Back to Juliette and Adalind, “Trial by Fire” finds Viktor (Alexis Denisof) and Adalind still trying to track Adalind’s baby. They get a little info from Renard (Sasha Roiz), whom I guess decides to cooperate the minimum amount to avoid trouble, and then Adalind goes after Juliette to find out more. Not knowing Juliette is now Hexenbiest, Adalind doesn’t know what she’s in for.

I love that Adalind ends up being scared of Juliette. Apparently, Juliette isn’t just a Hexenbiest, but the Hexenbiest, the top dog of her breed. This has many implications that I can’t wait to see explored (though GRIMM will probably only give us small bits of this at a time), and how Adalind will deal with this should be among the most interesting.

The hour ends with Nick finding out Juliette’s secret. I still say it’s completely dumb he doesn’t figure things out himself; he’s supposed to be a great detective, and all the signs are there. But the episode ends before we get his reaction. NBC’s promo is awful, making it seem like Juliette is scared of Nick for some reason, which makes no sense, but still, the promise of the couple coming to terms with this development together is nice.

“Trial by Fire” is a great GRIMM episode that, unfortunately, is part of a larger, disappointing trend. On its own, I have very few complaints. Taken with the rest of the surrounding installments, it doesn’t do anything to fix the mistakes GRIMM is making.

GRIMM airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET on NBC.