Sunday, November 6, 2011

Grimm, season 1, episode 2: Bears will be Bears

A blonde and her boyfriend go and break into the Bear's house. Sadly, she doesn't get chewed on. A couple looking for kicks bite off more than they can chew – or have more bitten off.

I actually really like this new twist on urban fantasy. We're not looking at werewolves and vampires, we're looking at the old stories – the Big Bad Wolf and the 3 bears. And there's always the keys to these stories in them – the red coat for the Big Bad Wolf, the blonde hair for the 3 bears. It makes me want to hunt for more parallels

The break in is reported – but the boyfriend is still missing and, of course, Nick's Grim Vision sees the fuzziness of the couple's son.

I like the research and the new expanded versions of the original tales, adding new potentials and new angles on the old legends and tales. It's an interesting way to look at them and some thought has gone into it. I am, however, less happy with the use of totem poles as an indication of a different slant on the 3 Bears story – but again without any actual Native characters

I also like how, so far, none of the creatures have been presented as automatically or irrideemably evil. With the Big Bad Wolf we had Eddie. With the jaegerbar (no way I've spelt that right) the father has nothing to do with violent old traditions and hunts. In some ways I can see now Grimms being presented as an evil force themselves, simply because some may kill first and ask questions later. They aren't fluffy bunny creatures but nor are they inherently evil either.


Nick naturally goes to see Eddie – his Grimmopedia (I do like Eddie, he has some quality snark and he appreciates good coffee). His expression of strained patience is classic. He ends up being roped into protecting Aunt Marie – poor Eddie. I do think Nick's trust of Eddie is, perhaps, a trifle excessive but when you have so few options and are in such a completely new situation what do you do? And, of course, we see very much how Eddie can kick arse.

Aunt Marie wakes up and tells Nick that the Reapers are hunting her – an organisation that is hunting down Grimms (of which there are many though she doesn't have contact with them all). She charges her nephew to both hunt the bad ones (and we're clear, again, that it's the bad ones not everyone) and protect the caravan full of information and research she has on all the supernatural beings. She's very much passing on the duty to him and watching as he learns and grows into the role. I really like Marie, even flat on her back she has an essence of menace about her.

Of course, one of the boss Reapers that we can see is Nick's boss who is still trying to have Aunt Marie killed – and having the guards removed from Marie's bedside.

I still like that we have 2 regularly occurring POC police characters - but I would like to see them with a bigger, non-utility role. It's not as bad as many I've seen, but I'd like to see Hank at least being around a little more. But I suspect in the not too distant future he's going to be let into the big secret. Unfortunately, as is pretty standard in the genre, there are no GBLT characters

All in all, I'm really liking this show. Certainly more than anything else I'm watching at the moment