'Grimm' (2011-2017)
Opening thoughts: 'Grimm' appealed to me straightaway, despite taking a while to get round to it. Absolutely loved the premise which was the show's biggest selling point, darker, more supernatural and more mysterious twists on famous fairytales (some already quite dark) sounded absolutely great. Different twists on famous stories and characters is not a new thing, with shows like 'The 10th Kingdom' and 'Once Upon a Time' still existing, but they didn't have the tone and themes that 'Grimm' did.
As an overall whole, 'Grimm' was really impressive. Actually found the earlier seasons absolutely wonderful, while finding that the show started to run out of ideas a little in the last few ones. There is actually very little wrong, but the very little that is wrong turned out to be quite big issues when they became more prominent. They are outweighed though by what 'Grimm' does right, which is a lot and most of the components were executed outstandingly.
Bad things: Am going to begin with the not so good things. It is brought down by two characters that really annoyed me, with both being flatly acted. One was Adalind, who didn't have an awful lot of personality, or at least to begin with, and her soap operatic antics did too often irritate (some unnecessary). Did appreciate though that she was made more sympathetic later. Even worse was Juliette, who is incredibly annoying, especially when she was more dominant (i.e. Season 4). Due to her stubborn-ness, selfishness and know it all nature being exaggerated in the writing.
There were times where the storytelling relied a little too much on contrivances and coincidences.
Good things: So much is fantastic. Most of the acting is fine, with David Guintoli and Silas Weir Mitchell being throughout absolutely captivating. Nick is a fascinating and charismatic character and loved how truly Monroe often is. Their chemistry is great fun. The characters on the most part are well written and had well fleshed out personalities and development, Nick particularly. A vast majority of the writing is full of wit and intrigue, apart from some soap opera creeping in in the latter seasons.
Furthermore, a vast majority of the storytelling is very imaginative, deliciously dark and full of entertainment value, with any conflicts having a good deal of suspense. Wholly living up to the great premise. The mystery elements always intrigued, the spin on the stories and characters used inspired and inventive as well as uncompromising and the supernatural ones were just about easy to follow. The villains are suitably menacing. It is a very well made show and looks a lot more expensive than it actually was, very atmospheric scenery and sets, wonderfully moody photography and lighting and the effects didn't look cheap. The music had energy but also an ominous vibe.
Concluding thoughts: Concluding, very good and often fantastic.
8/10.
