This TV show is just so-so. I have been watching it while I've been ill and found it moderately interesting, but then again, everything is pretty interesting when you're stuck to your bed - lol.
The opening episode treated me to a new premise: loads of monsters live amongst us, hidden in plain sight. Episode after episode, these monsters commit crimes which enable Nick Grimm to investigate and learn more about their different races. Unfortunately, it's not nearly enough to give us a real background or create that all-important feeling of entering a parallel universe with new and different laws. Some of the most glaring oversights (to me, anyway) are:
1) The monsters' faces always change when they're having a freaky moment, but we never find out why they only sporadically reveal themselves, nor why it's only their faces that change, even though many of them are actually dogs, birds, etc - creatures that should look different all over, not just in the face.
2) Despite having radically different faces, each 'race' of monsters seems to obey the same physiological rules that all the other monsters follow. They turn into monsters under the same circumstances (e.g. moments of high stress) and they all inhabit human forms. How in god's name is this possible? Unless they somehow all descend from the same, original monster, it's just silly to suggest that all these different just so happen to be confined to a human form. This sort of demands a real explanation, but we never get one.
2) Every single crime committed in this show is committed by monsters. Like, EVERY SINGLE ONE. It's tedious and repetitive. Also, if the monsters in this show were an ethnic minority of some sort it would be tantamount to scapegoating. The crap thing about scapegoating is not just the fact that it's unethical, but also that it's lazy and unimaginative... especially in a fantasy show where the creators could theoretically do anything they want. Why can't the Grimm creators try jazzing things up a bit by sometimes creating a scenario that only involves humans, or one that does not involve a monster crime investigated by Nick? I mean, there's only so far you can stretch a premise like "monster-crime-gets-investigation-by-Nick" and, by halfway through Season 1, I feel they've already overused it to death. I'm losing interest fast.
I also agree the acting is wooden, but feel that the bigger problem may be the script and the glaring lack of imagination that has gone into it. The whole thing comes across as hasty, contrived and shallow. I'd rather watch Buffy or X-Files for the 15th time in a row than wait and see where this is going TBH. Oh and one other thing that really nags you after a while is Nick's voice: he sounds like he's monged out on Valium all the time - no tone, no inflection, nothing. How did he get hired?
As soon as I feel well again, I'll be going back to the library to exchange this for something (anything)else.
The opening episode treated me to a new premise: loads of monsters live amongst us, hidden in plain sight. Episode after episode, these monsters commit crimes which enable Nick Grimm to investigate and learn more about their different races. Unfortunately, it's not nearly enough to give us a real background or create that all-important feeling of entering a parallel universe with new and different laws. Some of the most glaring oversights (to me, anyway) are:
1) The monsters' faces always change when they're having a freaky moment, but we never find out why they only sporadically reveal themselves, nor why it's only their faces that change, even though many of them are actually dogs, birds, etc - creatures that should look different all over, not just in the face.
2) Despite having radically different faces, each 'race' of monsters seems to obey the same physiological rules that all the other monsters follow. They turn into monsters under the same circumstances (e.g. moments of high stress) and they all inhabit human forms. How in god's name is this possible? Unless they somehow all descend from the same, original monster, it's just silly to suggest that all these different just so happen to be confined to a human form. This sort of demands a real explanation, but we never get one.
2) Every single crime committed in this show is committed by monsters. Like, EVERY SINGLE ONE. It's tedious and repetitive. Also, if the monsters in this show were an ethnic minority of some sort it would be tantamount to scapegoating. The crap thing about scapegoating is not just the fact that it's unethical, but also that it's lazy and unimaginative... especially in a fantasy show where the creators could theoretically do anything they want. Why can't the Grimm creators try jazzing things up a bit by sometimes creating a scenario that only involves humans, or one that does not involve a monster crime investigated by Nick? I mean, there's only so far you can stretch a premise like "monster-crime-gets-investigation-by-Nick" and, by halfway through Season 1, I feel they've already overused it to death. I'm losing interest fast.
I also agree the acting is wooden, but feel that the bigger problem may be the script and the glaring lack of imagination that has gone into it. The whole thing comes across as hasty, contrived and shallow. I'd rather watch Buffy or X-Files for the 15th time in a row than wait and see where this is going TBH. Oh and one other thing that really nags you after a while is Nick's voice: he sounds like he's monged out on Valium all the time - no tone, no inflection, nothing. How did he get hired?
As soon as I feel well again, I'll be going back to the library to exchange this for something (anything)else.