I've been done with Grimm

I posted about Mass Effect a lot but it hasn't been the only nerd thing I've participated in the last couple of weeks, even if the internet can't stop talking about it. I could talk about it for days, but if you want to, just send me an email and I'd love to. Writing wise, I should move on to complain about something else that disappointed me for now.

I remember when I first told you all about Grimm, which in the beginning of the season I definitely liked. I've always been a fan of crime dramas, growing up with parents who were heavily into the Law and Order franchise as well as The Wire. I think that's part of the reason I liked Grimm, because of that take that I hadn't experience in some other series before (even though I will admit it isnt' a fresh new take on a fantasy setting). As the series went on I wasn't as thrilled by it, but I kept watching it, more for the side character Monroe and the side plot for Captain Sean Renard than any of the stuff presented for Nick's storyline. Nick is a good character but his story isn't the most interesting. Sometimes that's the writers, sometimes producers, sometimes directors... with a tv series that is expected to appeal to a broad audience you don't know who's messing up the final product.

I think with this latest grievance though, I am going to blame the writers, because this is an old idea that went out of hand. In the episode Three Coins in a Fuchsbau, Nick is chasing down these coins of power that inflate the ego and bravado of who owns them. The feeling of power is so great that people have fought and died for these coins, even though they ultimately lead to the demise of whoever possesses them.

My complaint comes in when they tie these thousand year old coins to the Third Reich. I'm not against tying anything in to an alternate history in your alternate world. I'm just bored with the whole "Nazis did it" that happens so much in sci-fi and fantasy. Back when this first got started it was refreshing to think that our enemies could only succeed with supernatural help. But now the trope has been used so many times before that it shows the writers wanted to associate with evil and Nazis were the easiest thing to take down from the "evil" shelf of ideas. There's no work into making Nazis bad, which is why a lot of writers use them in instances like the coins. Really guys? There are definitely other things you could've associated them with that would've been more compelling and interesting. But you chose Nazis.

I decided I was done with watching the series when Nick plays an old movie reel he found that is of a speech Hitler gave at the end of the episode. You see the coins on the lapel of his jacket so I was like "okay, nice tie in there." I wasn't totally disenfranchised until they decided to show this:

Blubadt?  Are you serious?

Yes, everyone, Hitler was a Werewolf.

How needless was that? How unnecessary was it to have him be a werewolf? How does that even add to the universe in any useful way? Hitler is dead and no longer a threat, knowing that he had the coins was enough of a tie-in. A werewolf?

From now on, whenever something is needlessly added into a story, I'm going to label it the "Hitler was a Werewolf" moment, because dammit that is how frustrated I am with this concept. Feel free to use that phrase in your daily vernacular.

Grimm

I'm sorry I haven't been writing much, but luckily after the disappointment of Terra Nova, I've found a better show. Grimm!

Now is Grimm super duper fantastic?  Well the first episode was giving me some doubts.  They gave a lot of background in a short amount of time, letting the audience know as much as our hero Nick did before seeing his aunt take on a monster with her bare hands.  Turns out Nick and his family are Grimms--they can spot the supernatural threats to human society, including werebeasts and such.  First episode was based on Little Red Riding Hood, and that at first turned me off.  I fon't want to be reliving all the old fairytales ill fit for modern Oregan.

But the second and third episodes took care of that.  Werebears and bee-people are not something I expected.  And Nick, being a detective, has the know-how necessary to truly investigate.  He gets a little help from his aunt before she passes and he's off on his own with only her notes.  He also enlists the help of a werewolf named Monroe who has reformed his ways.  We haven't, 3 episodes in, have something that would endanger his girlfriend Juliette yet, but hopefully the writers will be creative with the trope.  Come on, we all know it's coming.

The cast is pretty good.  Phenomenal?  No, but they definitely get you hooked enough to the stories.  The setting in Oregon is perfect, the forest and urban areas intertwining is believable and not forced.  The writing is shaky in the first episode, but it gets better as the show goes on.  I will say on all fronts the show isn't shit-your-pants amazing, but I feel like that there is finally a good amount of nerdy shows and this is one is well done and not just milking the from the current nerd popularity teat or ratings.