For most of the posts I make they are usually about a movie. This time I wanted to talk about a TV show. Grimm was a science fiction, fantasy-horror police procedural show that was broadcast for a little over five years. There's so many ways I could approach telling you what it was about and whichever way I decide to do it will probably be wrong but I'll give it a try. In the early 1800's Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm published a book titled Grimm's Fairy Tales (also titled Children's Household Tales) which collected some of the brother's stories they had written. Mostly they were for children. These include stories that we are all familiar with like Rapunzel, Hansel & Gretel, Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Rumpelstiltskin. Also some we haven't heard of and some of them were not really for children.
The Grimm that this show pertains to (mostly) is Nick Burkhardt, a detective with the Portland Oregon police. He comes from a long line of Grimm who are descendants of the Brothers Grimm. Seems there are more to these stories than we knew about. The seven dwarfs? They were real. The Big Bad Wolf? Real!. Witches both good and bad? Real. All of those odd creatures are real and they are hidden under the guise of being human. Now some of them are good and some of them are bad. A Grimm is someone who can actually see these creatures for what they are. All of these people are blanketed by the term Wesen; that's pronounced with a "V" sounding w. Nick's job as a Grimm and a cop sometimes cross over one another and sometimes they don't do so agreeably.
Nick's power of seeing these creatures for what they are along with other Grimm powers (enhanced strength, hearing, and endurance) are supported by his outstanding detective skills. The Grimm abilities come on slowly but suddenly and luckily for Nick, his aunt Marie comes to town to help him understand just what he is. He begins to see peoples faces change and become monstrous. One such person he sees is Adalind Schade who is a Hexenbiest which is a fancy German word for witch. While working a case about a young girl wearing a red sweatshirt who is murdered in the woods by a wolf like creature Nick meets Monroe. Monroe is a Blutbad which is sort of like the Big Bad Wolf or werewolf related. Nick immediately suspects Monroe killed the girl and arrests him. Monroe is actually a recovering Blutbad who has renounced violence and is a vegetarian.
Monroe does agree with Nick that a Blutbad is to blame and agrees to help Nick find the killer. Nick's detective partner Hank, who is just a normal human, has a lot of questions about Nick's recent odd behavior. At home, Nick lives with Juliette who he plans to propose marriage to. Juliette is a veterinarian and is also just a normal human. Most of the wesen, when they see Nick they know he is a Grimm and what his kind does to their kind. Even the peaceful law abiding wesen think Nick is going to kill them because that's what Grimm used to do in the 1800's was kill wesen. Sometimes for no reason they would kill them but usually the Grimm would only kill the dangerous ones. Nick's aunt, who is dying from breast cancer, gives him keys to a trailer. She tells Nick everything he needs to know is in the trailer right before she slips into a coma.
The trailer contains weapons and books. The books are a journal of all different types of wesen and first hand accounts of confrontations with creatures that look similar to some of the people Nick has been seeing. Back at the hospital Adalind Shade shows up with a syringe and tries to inject Nick's aunt with something poisonous in and attempt to kill her. Nick arrives at the hospital and the two fight until Nick is stabbed with the syringe. Adalind runs away and meets up with Captain Sean Renard who is Nick's boss. Renard asks her if Marie is dead and she tells him she wasn't able to do it because Nick showed up and saved her. Renard says they will have to try again when Nick isn't around to stop her. Back in the hospital Marie opens her eyes after having fully awakened from the coma. And that's the first episode.
Other main cast members include Sergeant Wu who works closely with Hank and Nick. Rosalie, an apothecary and owner of the spice shop that also doubles as a magic potion shop. Wu is also just human while Rosalie is a Fuchsbau which is a fox like wesen. The spice shop eventually becomes the groups meeting place as they all work on cases that involve more and more wesen. Wesen that seem to be getting more and more violent that only a Grimm can help staunch. The show went through many twists and turns in its six (five and a half really) seasons but it was always entertaining. There were Halloween episodes, Christmas episodes, Valentine's Day episodes all with holiday appropriate wesen. Like did you know Krampus was a wesen? Or that Lycanthropy was actually a birth defect suffered by some Blutbaden?
As with all TV shows this one too ended. After five seasons the writers/creators of the show realized they were running out of ideas and they had pretty much told the story they wanted to tell. With a shortened season 6 they wrapped up the story and ended the show. While there is some talk of a reboot of some sort coming soon with the writers and actors strike I won't hold my breath. Although it is ironic that this show was originally created right after the last writer's strike in 2008. Another ironic little twist is this blog has roots in my previous blog that was mostly created due to another little TV show called LOST. Maybe you've heard of it. There will be much more about Grimm all month long.
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