The story of police-detective-turned-Occult Detective Nick and his circle of human and inhuman friends and allies, Grimm had a lot going for it to start with: a fun premise that's just similar enough to common folklore and fairy tales to be easily digestible but different enough to be fun and creative, a likable set of main characters who mostly deal with their supernatural problems without tons of drama, contrived angst, or Van Helsing Hate Crimes, and some generally pretty good acting from the cast who do a good job of drawing the viewer into their world and their plight.
Plus, on an episode-by-episode basis, the monster-of-the-week stories often do a good job of capturing some humanity (for lack of a better word) for several of the titular characters, selling that at the end of the day, whatever their weird cultural attitudes or biological needs, most of them are just people, like us. Just like us, some of them respectfully keep to the better parts of their old traditions while abandoning harmful ones, and some of them are horrible reactionaries who use tradition to condone abusive or criminal behavior, but the basic fact that deep down we're all the same still ensures that all their struggles remain relatable. They also often have fascinating, if sometimes gross or horrifying, parallels to real-world animals, sometimes resulting in an unconventional educational experience and interesting adventures for our protagonists to go on as they try to keep the peace in a mysterious and dangerous world. All of that chased down with some surprisingly funny and self-aware humor and some surprisingly exciting action on a TV budget!
Now most of those things never did completely go away; on an episode-by-episode basis Grimm could be a good time right to the end. But unfortunately, a major weakness from the very beginning was the struggle to tell compelling season-long rather than episode-long stories. Even good concepts like two side characters' wedding being derailed by abusive racists furious that they're marrying outside their lineage, or some of Nick's mundane friends having to wrestle with issues of seeing past The Masquerade, are not handled well, either stretched too long or not given enough room to breathe. And unfortunately, many of these concepts were not particularly good. The first Adelide's baby subplot is the most infamous, but it takes a special sort of mind to think that breaking up the hero's long-term, happy and stable relationship to instead pursue a romantic attachment with his rapist was a good idea that could've been salvaged with better handling! Worse, as the show went on, these poorly-conceived or -executed plots took up more and more of any given episode, abandoning strengths and leaning into weaknesses.
I liked Grimm for a long time, but I bowed out by the end, and while if you're out for a good show in its vein it's a lot better than many of its more-successful competitors, I can't deny that it nosedives by the end, and it's hard to recommend when I know heartbreak is in the wings.
Series A pretty good Monster of the Week show that never could do a good story arc.
The story of police-detective-turned-Occult Detective Nick and his circle of human and inhuman friends and allies, Grimm had a lot going for it to start with: a fun premise that's just similar enough to common folklore and fairy tales to be easily digestible but different enough to be fun and creative, a likable set of main characters who mostly deal with their supernatural problems without tons of drama, contrived angst, or Van Helsing Hate Crimes, and some generally pretty good acting from the cast who do a good job of drawing the viewer into their world and their plight.
Plus, on an episode-by-episode basis, the monster-of-the-week stories often do a good job of capturing some humanity (for lack of a better word) for several of the titular characters, selling that at the end of the day, whatever their weird cultural attitudes or biological needs, most of them are just people, like us. Just like us, some of them respectfully keep to the better parts of their old traditions while abandoning harmful ones, and some of them are horrible reactionaries who use tradition to condone abusive or criminal behavior, but the basic fact that deep down we're all the same still ensures that all their struggles remain relatable. They also often have fascinating, if sometimes gross or horrifying, parallels to real-world animals, sometimes resulting in an unconventional educational experience and interesting adventures for our protagonists to go on as they try to keep the peace in a mysterious and dangerous world. All of that chased down with some surprisingly funny and self-aware humor and some surprisingly exciting action on a TV budget!
Now most of those things never did completely go away; on an episode-by-episode basis Grimm could be a good time right to the end. But unfortunately, a major weakness from the very beginning was the struggle to tell compelling season-long rather than episode-long stories. Even good concepts like two side characters' wedding being derailed by abusive racists furious that they're marrying outside their lineage, or some of Nick's mundane friends having to wrestle with issues of seeing past The Masquerade, are not handled well, either stretched too long or not given enough room to breathe. And unfortunately, many of these concepts were not particularly good. The first Adelide's baby subplot is the most infamous, but it takes a special sort of mind to think that breaking up the hero's long-term, happy and stable relationship to instead pursue a romantic attachment with his rapist was a good idea that could've been salvaged with better handling! Worse, as the show went on, these poorly-conceived or -executed plots took up more and more of any given episode, abandoning strengths and leaning into weaknesses.
I liked Grimm for a long time, but I bowed out by the end, and while if you're out for a good show in its vein it's a lot better than many of its more-successful competitors, I can't deny that it nosedives by the end, and it's hard to recommend when I know heartbreak is in the wings.