A Look Back at GRIMM

[Photos: Scott Green/NBC]

When I originally said yes to covering Grimm, it was described to me as a police procedural combined with Grimms’ fairly tales. The first episode definitely was that. It was a twisted version of Little Red Riding Hood and a big bad wolf. My favorite part of the pilot was Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell), another big wolf, but not necessarily bad. My favorite scene was Monroe hanging his head out of his VW following the scent of another Blutbad.

Over time it’s become more of an evening soap opera with creatures and crimes to be alternately solved or shoved under the proverbial rug. If you’re a stickler for actual police procedure and justice, this show will drive you bananas. Anyone have a count of how many times a crime, usually murder, was not processed in any way? I don’t have the answer. I expect it’s been many times.

Nick Burkhardt (David Giuntoli) is our entry point into the story. We learned with him what a Grimm is and what they can do.  We’ve  watched him learn about each of the Wesen creatures. We’ve made many a trip with him to visit Monroe for information or off to Aunt Marie’s trailer to research the Wesen of the week.

Through the past five seasons Nick has had quite an arc. He went from discovering that he is a Grimm, and women in his family have been Grimms, to learning what this means, where his place is in his new world to coping with that. Now in the last couple of seasons he’s taken ownership of who and what he is. Being a Grimm is now a part of him and clearly not something he wants to give up. In point of fact, that’s how Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch) became a Hexenbiest as a side effect of helping Nick regain his Grimmness.

Many of the supporting characters have been more interesting than Nick. My writer friends tell me that it’s not uncommon for the protagonist to be less interesting. I think it could be solved, at least to a degree. Characters like Monroe are interesting because they have more layers and we know more about them. Although many of the things that made Monroe interesting in the first place have been dropped. Remember his complex routine to deal with his Blutbad tendencies? Perhaps he gave up on that because Nick was constantly interrupting it. Or perhaps with Rosalee (Bree Turner) in his life he no longer needs his former distractions.

If you look back over all of the past episodes you can see that the audience still does not know much about Nick. It’s my contention that it’s a character’s quirks and oddities that make them interesting and relatable to the audience. If a person is blank there isn’t anything for the audience to connect to. The only times that works is if the character has a goal that is human or in some way relevant. The example that comes to mind is Data from Star Trek The Next Generation. His quest to discover what it meant to be human and be moreso himself was relatable.

It seems that our only way of making Nick more interesting is what we see him go through or his relationships with others. In all fairness, his reactions early in the fifth season were different than what we’d seen before. I just didn’t buy it. His frantic pursuit of answers didn’t read as a reaction grounded in reality. In this case I’m talking more about the performance and less about the character.

Our core group of characters has grown. In the beginning it was Nick and Hank (Russell Hornsby) with Monroe as strong supporting character. But the circle has grown to include Captain Sean Renard (Sasha Roiz), Juliette/Eve (Bitsie Tulloch), Sgt. Wu (Reggie Lee), Rosalee Calvert (Bree Turner) and Adalind Schade (Claire Coffee). Not only are each of these characters important but there are several other recurring characters that many fans, myself included, look forward to seeing.

It seems like Trubel (Jacqueline Toboni) has blossomed before our eyes. It doesn’t appear that she had a lot professional acting experience prior to joining Grimm. In fact she accepted the role of Trubel before she’d even graduated the University of Michigan. Not bad. In case you’re wondering, acting careers don’t often unfold like that.

Grimm has excelled at creating cliffhangers for the midseason and season finales. A look back gives us…

Season 1

Remember those Zakynthos coins? I’ve been wondering since the first season why we’ve never heard of them again. It occurred to me that those may make a return this season and have something to do with the “splinter of destiny”. Perhaps the true power of the splinter is in conjunction with the coins. I even wonder if bringing those to artifacts together and somehow joining their power might bring an end to Black Claw’s war. What if these two things while seemingly very different have some sort of power to bring about peace? It’s an idea.

Season 2

This was a time for me to groan. Zombies became big in everything and I guess it was inevitable that they’d have to show up in Grimm. I can say it made for one of the most suspenseful cliffhangers. Nick was in a zombie state in a coffin on a plane when the season finale ended. Yup. That was pretty good. My one complaint is his PTZ (post traumatic zombie) side effects did not become part of his Grimm arsenal.

 

Season 3

Aw, love was in the air. This season ended with the much anticipated wedding of Monroe and Rosalee. Preceded by Nick bedding Adalind, disguised as Juliette via polyjuice potion. Renard being shot. Trubel disrupting the wedding with an antidote to what Adalind had just done. But the vial was broken in the ruckus caused by a Grimm running into a Wesen wedding. And…Nick lost his Grimmness.

Season 4

Ended with a big mess. About as big a mess as ended this past season. Remember those Jack the Ripper killings? Ya, I was not a fan of that storyline. I’m glad Sasha Roiz got to do some fine acting in those episodes, but the whole thing didn’t make sense. Even for Grimm, it didn’t make sense. The season finale had all sorts of cliffhangers in it. There was the beheading of Nick’s mother. The apparent death of Juliette. The death of the King. The unknown future for Diana. It was a whole lot to cram into the finale.

I’m glad I was right about Juliette/Eve not being dead. I’m not thrilled with what may be ahead for the character in this final half season. Since I’m pretty sure she lost all her Hexenbiest powers.

 

Yes, final half season. You read that right. As of now, Grimm is only getting a half season. They don’t start till January 6th and this will be the final season.

Of course there is a movement by GRIMMSTERS online to petition for its continuation. One idea is for Netflix to pick up the show. I don’t know if Netflix is actually interested in picking up Grimm. If anyone has information I’d love to hear from you.

This last season covered a lot of ground. The progression of the season was the mounting war that Black Claw has been setting up. I suspect that will be how the final 13 episodes are used. My fear is it will be a blood bath in all our favorite characters. If that happens, don’t look for the show to be picked up by Netflix.

 

How will you prepare for the final season? Will you put your energies into the social media campaign to keep Grimm alive? Will you go back and savor all the past episodes? Or will you be looking for a new show to follow this fall?

 

[Show site at NBC]