You know what’s no fun?
Criticizing people who fail.
Everybody knows why the reboot of Ironside was cancelled 10 minutes into
the first episode, or why the cast of We Are Men were going out on casting
calls before the ink was dry on their contracts. What is find is pointing out the failings of
people who have succeeded.
One of (I think) the most surprising success stories on
television is the continued survival of a little TV show called Grimm. It debuted with relatively little fanfare,
was relegated to Friday nights (when every TV executive knows everyone is out
on a date and not watching TV), and was in a genre that TV has gotten wrong
more than right, horror. Yet here it is,
wrapping up season 3 and already renewed for season 4.
I’ve stayed with Grimm throughout its run, but it’s been
tough, especially at the beginning. It’s
not a great sign when the break-out actor from the show is the secondary
sidekick (Monroe, played by Silas Weir Mitchell) and the main character is dull
as dishwater. Frankly, after three
seasons, I can barely remember Nick’s last name. In fact, almost all of the characters were
underwritten, and the show got by on the creativity of its writing, weaving
ancient fairy tales into horror stories for the new millennium.
The main characters of Detective Nick Burkhardt and his
girlfriend (fiancée?) Juliette Silverton (her name I DID have to look up) are
particularly uninspiring. The recent
plot line where Juliette developed amnesia about Nick bore this out—when asked
what she could remember about him, she could only recall meeting a police
officer who was cute. This couple falls
into the old Hollywood trope that if he’s a handsome man and she’s a good
looking woman, then they must be in love.
Seriously, what do these two have in common? He’s a cop, she’s a vet. Do they share any hobbies? Go to the same church? Go to the Northwestern version of Comic-Con
dressed as a Storm Trooper and Princess Leila?
They never have any conversations other than about Grimm related
activity, and neither seems that interested in the other’s work. But I think these crazy kids are going to
make it!
Grimm’s obvious progenitor is Buffy The Vampire Slayer,
which co-creator David Greenawalt worked on.
What made Buffy memorable and compelling were not the monsters, most of
which were awesome, or the acting, which was great. The reason Buffy achieved iconic status among
its fans (and that includes me) is that we cared about Buffy Summers. We didn't just want her not to be killed by
the monster; we wanted her to be happy. To
have a nice boyfriend. To see her
friends be happy with her. If Buffy
Summers had just been a one-dimensional demon fightin’ machine, the show would
not be remembered today and Joss Whedon would be writing jokes for Two Broke
Girls (no, that’s not right; he’s a genius who would have found another vehicle
for taking over the universe).
Bottom line: I don’t care about Nick Burkhardt.
To its credit, the show has gotten better. The mythology involving “The Royals” has been
enjoyably fleshed out, and there is a couple on the show with chemistry now
that Monroe is engaged to Rosealee (is it wrong of me to find her more attractive
when she’s in her Wesen form?). The
highlight of season 3 has been obvious yet still relevant metaphor of the
racial overtones of their relationship.
You see, they’re both Wesen, but they are different kinds of Wesen and
his family objects to a mixed marriage.
The other significant development in season 3 has been the debate over
whether to let affable Sgt. Wu (whose first name was recently revealed to be
Drew; really?) into the secret world of Wesen fighting. That’s another thing Buffy did well, handle
the fact that the main character is constantly doing something secret and
incredible, but no one finds out. Wu is
the only cast regular not in on the Wesen secret identity thing, so I suppose
someone has to be the outsider.
I wish Grimm well, but I wish it would make Nick someone I
cared about. He must have a personality
other than “cop by day/Grimm by night.”
At this point I’d favor spinning Monroe and Rosalee off to their own
sitcom, sort of a modern day Bridget Loves Bernie. For you youngsters out there, that was a
shocking TV series about a Catholic girl who married someone who was Jewish!
As the ads say, we've come along way, baby. Oh wait, that's from before your time as well.
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