Review: NBC’s ‘Grimm’ Pilot

Last week, I reviewed the new ABC fairytale show Once Upon A Time. NBC’s direct competitor, Grimm, aired it’s pilot over the weekend to decent ratings. I waited to write this review until I had given the show as second watch to form a better opinion and after that second viewing, I must say that I really enjoy the concept of Grimm.

Photo Credit: Scott Green/NBC

Where Once Upon A Time zigged, Grimm zagged. The former took a very whimsical, non-linear storytelling path, whereas the latter took a more serial route. The story begins with Nick Burkhardt, a homicide detective in Portland, OR finding out from his terminally ill Aunt that he is the last in a long line of fairytale monster killers known as “grimms”. He starts to encounter these monsters in everyday life and discovers that the murder he is investigating has ties to a “blutbad” which is like the Big Bad Wolf. The tie-in with the Little Red Riding Hood story was a really interesting touch for the episode, I thought it started things off on a good note.

Overall, while I enjoyed the premise, but I felt that the character dynamics and the acting, especially from David Giuntoli, were fairly weak. The cop serial drama has been done ad nauseum, but the fantasy aspect that this show presents has a nice twist to it that harks back to the days of Buffy – the show even has some Buffy writers behind it. What that show had that Grimm appears to lack, is the inter-character dynamics and humor. There’s a nice glimpse of what could make for a great show when Nick first meets Eddie Monroe, a blubad. They have a great, energetic exchange that I could see making for some great fun down the line.

Of the two shows, I think that Grimm has the most potential for longevity and consistent viewership than Once Upon A Time. Once has the potential to suffer some of the problems Lost had with its pacing and constant back and forth between worlds. But Grimm has a lot of fairytale lore to work with, some of which is very exciting and dark. I wish Grimm didn’t have the misfortune of being placed not only on NBC, which has had terrible luck with dramas in recent times, but also in a Friday night time slot. Hopefully the second episode improves upon the first and get the show moved to a better slot, because I really think there could be something good here.

Now that both fairytale pilots have aired, which one do you think will last?

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