"There once was a man who lived a life so strange, it had to be true. Only he could see what no one else can—the darkness inside, the real monster within, and he's the one who must stop them. This is his calling. This is his duty. This is the life of a Grimm."
When it comes to making TV shows whether it's a half hour sitcom or an hour long medical show it takes some planning. You need to have an idea where you want to go with your story. Comedy might be easier as the story lines don't need to be too deep. If you're making a medical drama or a courtroom drama type show you probably need even more planning. Now take into consideration a police procedural drama, now add elements of the supernatural, fantasy, horror, and throw in a dash of fairy tale and you are boxing yourself in. Grimm is a specialized series that was a one of a kind offering. It wasn't a spin off of another more well known series, it didn't have a big name attracted to it, and it didn't come with a built in fan base. Everything about Grimm however had a feel about it that made you instantly fall into their world which was basically the same as our world but with a little added zest. To do something like this it takes more that a great ability to tell a story. Most writers have at least one good story in them. Then they have to do that over 120 times over the course of six years. One hour at a time. Well, that is like catching lightening in a bottle.
When I first watched the very first episode of Grimm (yes I was a fan from day one) I was emerged into this world where people could morph into fairy tale creatures. And they were not all the cute and cuddly things we think of from our childhoods. The makeup and creative ways they made these Wesen go from every day humans like you and I to horribly ugly, sometimes gorgeous, but always remarkable creations is masterful. All of these actors I had never heard of before except I knew David Guintoli was from the Real World/Road Rules/MTV family but they were reality shows. Could this guy pull off acting? In a show like this? Yes, he can. Everyone in the cast was just about perfectly cast. Since I knew nothing about these actors, they WERE the characters they were playing. The skill that these actors showed over the course of six seasons is so impressive that to this day I still have a hard time seeing Sasha Roiz in anything and not being suspicious of him. Renard was hard to trust and then when you did he would do something underhanded that made you look twice at him.
Grimm gives us a mythology, a folklore in which everything feels a little familiar and at the same time unlike anything you have experienced before. I'm not a shill for Grimm, they don't pay me to say this but in the world of good TV there's LOST, Heroes (at least the first couple of seasons), The Leftovers, From, that all fall into this category of television. Different is good. Doing different well is another story. Making it interesting for six seasons and watching all these characters develop more and more even when you thought there was nowhere else to go with them takes a talent. Of course the creators did admittedly run out of ideas and that's bound to happen. I'm just glad they were up front about it and didn't drag it out. Towards the end things did at times feel like it was being drug out or we were getting filler episodes that didn't progress the main story. That's OK though, that gave us episodes like Blind Love that I wrote about a few days ago. The episode did nothing in the long run, as I called it, it was a pallet cleanser. It was that last deep breath before diving into the part of the pool where your feel don't quite touch the bottom.
As is the case with many TV shows Grimm was able to take issues in our society and adapt them to their world. Intolerance, bigotry, biases, acceptance, and diversity were constantly shows to be alive and well in the world of Wesen and Grimm. We saw the Wesen version of racism when Munroe and Rosalee were married. Stephen Carpenter, David Greenwalt and Jim Kouf were the main writers and producers of the show. Stephen Carpenter was mostly a writer of screenplays before working on Grimm. Some of the films he wrote for are The Kindred, Blue Streak, and Servants of Twilight. Greenwalt also worked on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and it's spinoff Angel. Kouf comes from a feature film background as he served as a writer, director, or producer or a combination of the three to such films as Class, Stakeout, Rush Hour, and Disorganized Crime. I also want to talk about the man behind the music of Grimm, composer Richard Marvin. Marvin has worked in both film and television with films like U-5700 and Surrogates under his belt and in television before he worked on Grimm he wrote the music for Six Feet Under. The theme the show used in the first season was replaced in the second season and was used for the rest of the series run was so kick ass that most times when given the opportunity to skip over it or fast forward past it, I usually rock out to it. Usually this rocking out consists of me banging my imaginary hammer against a just as imaginary pipe. But oh, what music it makes.
In 2017 there was an attempt at a spin off show which would feature a new Grimm and a new set off characters but the pandemic and now the strike has put a possible permanent hold on anything new but I will keep my fingers crossed. The show has also had one novel published as well as a comic series. Currently it is running on Comet in syndication but I have to warn you it is censored and edited so they are not the original episodes you would be seeing but sometimes something is better than nothing. It is also available through streaming services like Peacock and the WB. As with all shows they end but something about this cast was special. Giuntoli and Tulloch (Nick and Juliette) are still married today. There is also a podcast that is still updated fairly regularly (most recent was in May of this year) titled The Grimmcast which features Claire Coffee (Adalind) Tulloch, and Bree Turner (Rosalee) where the three discuss episodes of the show.
The setting of the show, Portland, Oregon is nearly a character in the show as well. From the stark city streets to the lush forests that make up the area where it is based as well as filmed is at times bleak (the city) and rainy to mysterious (the forests) and just plain rainy. Well, it's Portland, whaddaya want. Filmed entirely on location some of the scenery is breathtakingly gorgeous and at times you could imagine little forest folk flitting around just out of view. So many shades of green in one area gave it an otherworldly feel and look that was not lost on me. So I've reached the end of the show as well as the month (almost) and now I've reached the end of this post. Here's hoping to see a revival of this one in the near future in some form or another. And as always thank you for reading my ramblings. It was fun to go back and dissect a show again like I did for LOST so many years ago. It was a different experience this time as I did it long after the show ended so I had more of an inside scoop of where plot points were going so it made it a little easier to write. If I spoiled the show, which if you haven't seen it I certainly must have, however I don't think I've made it impossible for anyone to get into it fresh and discover Grimm for themselves anew.
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