Grimm – Dork Preview

Starting tonight on the Watch channel , it’s US import Grimm! Fairy tales seem to be heavily in fashion at the moment, with recent movies about both Red Riding Hood and Snow White, not to mention both this and Once Upon A Time drawing heavily upon their folklore on US TV.

Grimm has beaten Once Upon A Time to our shores by a few months, and we’ve taken a look at the pilot episode in advance. How will it fare with the headstart?

Nick The Fairytale Slayer

Grimm is the tale of Nick Burkhardt, a cop who inherits the role of “Grimm”, a Chosen One who must keep Portland safe from attacking supernatural beasties, curiously resembling various fairy tale characters.

If this sounds like grown-up Buffy The Vampire Slayer with a policeman to you, then… yes, that seems fair so far. It could do with a bit more of that show’s snappy banter, perhaps, to break up the dead-seriousness a little. The special effects are very well done and all the acting decent enough, hopefully future episodes will find imaginative ways of using the mythological beasties.

Don’t Blame The Pilot

It’s hard to get too down on a show based only on a pilot, though. Let’s face it, some great shows had ropey pilots, including that Buffy show I mentioned. So, yes, this is a slightly hard-work pilot, and it does make the police elements seem a bit generic, but that could pick up in later episodes.

So far, I’d recommend Grimm to anyone who loves YA supernatural stuff, especially if they’ve been crying themselves to sleep since Buffy finished. I’m going to give it another couple of episodes myself to see if it either grows a sense of humour or gets properly dark and twisted. Either of those would seal the deal for me. Plus the hero is called “Nick”, which obviously earns it a bit more grace.

But don’t just take my word for it. Grimm starts on Watch at 9PM tonight. Check it out and let us know what you thought.

Nick Bryan

Nick learned to read and write at an early age. This has developed into an unhealthy need to either write stories or consume them for later dissection. He reviews film and TV on Dork Adore and The Digital Fix, lives in London and enjoys a nice white beer.