Grimm is back! And what an episode to come back on. From Monroe's parents attacking Nick to the world's most awkward dinner party, high emotions, great fight sequences, castle intrigue, and a whole lot of Monroe permeated throughout. This is easily one of the best episodes of the season. While there is much to love here, there is also much to discuss. Instead of doing a typical review for Grimm, I decided to narrow things down to 5 topics, which will vary in scope, importance, and length. They are in no particular order and there's really no rhyme or reason to what I'm picking. It's just 5 things that struck me during the episode. As always, I love discussion so if there are other topics you'd like to address or if you have a different opinion, please leave your thoughts in the comments below. Ideally this weekly article will appear on Sundays, but it will depend on how many shows I am covering that week for Last Week in TV. So let's jump right in:
In this episode, Monroe had a lot of great interactions with a variety of characters, but for me it's all about Nick and Monroe. They are the foundation of Grimm, the first partnership I rooted for on the show. While I am not a fan of the recapitation trend, I do love how they reminded us that this Wesen - Grimm relationship started out rocky and has had its share of problems. That really hit home when it came to Monroe's parents' reactions. I had gotten so used to Nick and Monroe being a team that the shock value of it had worn off. To see his parents freak out over a Grimm reminded me that this really is a unique friendship. I also liked the opening scene because I do often think Nick takes advantage of Monroe's friendship. Sometimes my favorite moments are the two of them hanging out without the threat of a case hanging over them. It was one reason why them being roommates for awhile appealed to me. Sometimes the small moments say as much about a friendship as the big, life threatening ones. We've had enough of the catastrophes. Next season I hope they remember to throw the fun in a little more too.
I admit it. I haven't liked Adalind since her first hexenbiest flash. Her Vienna side trip with Stefania has mostly been fast forward worthy for me. However Bart made the whole Adalind issue more interesting. Bart: "He told us kids if wildesheers ever came back, it meant something really bad was going to come next." Monroe: "How really bad?" Bart: "I don't know. Just something somewhere is going to happen that will change the world." This isn't exactly surprising given that the baby took out a Verrat with a pen to the eye from the womb, but it still intrigues me with all the possibilities. Will it really be the baby that is the danger or will Adalind's new powers bought with Frau Pech's life somehow warp her into something even more toxic? What are Renard's plans for his own child and is Viktor's interest solely about the line of succession or is there more at play here? So many questions and so many ways they can go. For the first time, I'm glad Adalind is on the screen, if only to see where this takes us.
The one thing that really isn't working for me right now though is Juliette. Granted this season is a vast improvement over her stints as Coma and Amnesia Girl, don't get me wrong. It's just that they still don't know what to do with Juliette and so it feels like they shoehorn in unnecessary places. The biggest one of course is her sole devotion to research for most of this season. At first I was delighted because they finally told Juliette the truth and she was on board. Now she feels like a plot device. Can no one else on the show click Google? I do like her burgeoning relationship with Rosalee and I have great hopes for Nick's mom returning and meeting Juliette for real this time. I think it will be an interesting dynamic. Another problem I have with Juliette is that they have suddenly decided she's socially inept this season. She never came off that way before, but now she's bumbling and has foot-in-mouth disease. A great example of this is the dinner party scene. Season 1 Juliette would have been able to read the tension in the room, especially since she knows the issues, and not caused a flare up. This Juliette comes off as less competent and more awkward than the season 1 version. That's the opposite of character development.
I like the idea of getting a more worldwide view of the Grimm and Wesen world, so Meisner is intriguing to me. He is still mostly a shadow figure as far as his background and interests go and I look forward to them fleshing him out more. Mostly though I like that we are getting a clearer view of the interplay between the Royals, Verrat, and Resistance. I wish we knew more about each of their endgames but I can be patient for that since the main players are compelling. What really made me like Meisner this week though is that he didn't coddle Adalind at all. He was perfunctory and more concerned about the plan, which made me laugh. It gave the Adalind-Meisner interaction more bite, since Adalind's reactions were fabulous. So far he's the character I like her with the most. I also like that they clearly do not trust each other but they are forced to work together.
Originally I was going to use this space to write about the fantastic fight scene in this episode, but I already wrote about that in Last Week in TV. Therefore I switched to Castle Spy, aka Sebastien. I have long been a fan of his because of how badly everyone treats him. Would it kill you to thank him, Renard? He's been the backbone of the Resistance movement, keeping everyone in the loop about Renard and the castle affairs. Now I am really worried that it will come back to haunt him. Prince Viktor is no fool and now that he knows there's a mole in his midst, I fear he will die by the season finale. While it would be a shame to kill off such an intriguing character, it is even worse to kill off the biggest single source of answers. He and Wu are the two characters I want to have more time on. It's not time to put a red shirt on yet.
Screencaps by Living in a Fairy Tale,ScienceFiction.com, and Grimm Wikia.
I really like Monroe!!!!!!!!!!!!! Great review!
ReplyDeleteGrimm was a whole lot of fun last week. Monroe is my favorite character so of course the Monroe-centric episode was one of the best this season for me.
ReplyDeleteAVClub agrees with us. I also like Prince Viktor.
ReplyDeleteI don't see Juliette's role as a devotion to research. She's so giddy and eager about all of this stuff that, to me, the show has turned her into a fangirl. She loves all this stuff. Whether it's wesen history, the cloak and dagger stuff with Nick's mom, biology and medial treatment of various wesen, the political intrigue of it all, she's into it. She's really into it.
ReplyDeleteYou have marked a lot of the problems I have with this season. Some things we have a different view, that's okay with me as I'm open minded and interested in other peoples thoughts - as long as they don't want to brainwash me ;).
ReplyDeleteYou are so right about the lack of humour in the right places. Instead we got this big and bold and gross factor to an extention that's not even grotesque anymore. It's only ... it hurts to see with what the makeup guys are coming up, because on one hand they are doing an awesome job, on the other hand it's completely over the top this season. While the writers seem to think that this is all funny to slap you the lame and inadequate jokes directly in the middle of your face. Unfortunately this reduces the characters to comic reliefs to a point they are barely recognizeable anymore.
You had the example Juliette. I don't this she's a mess on feet this season, she's partly a complete desaster, then she turns out as every-mans-perfect-dream-of-a-housewife (come on, really? Everytime she sees Nick she's following him three steps behind him?), and suddenly her brain starts working again, only to see her morph into a 7 years old pouty girl. This is such a waste of talent! Bitsie can act, she can beautifully transport emotions, she IS intelligent. Why the heck it isn't possible to transport this into Juliette?
BTW, much of the same goes to Nick. He's way too self confident and I hoped those doggy-guys would beat him up a little. But (yes, I haven't watched 3.13) I guess Nick slipped again into Zombie-state and beat them into the ground *rolls eyes*. Seriously, I'm tired of this undead-joke. They should finally explain how this happened and find a cure or make it permanent or whatever.
Monroe and Rosalee - as much as I love the couple, I'm still angry about all this wedding-stuff. It's way too early for them! Like in YEARS! I got the moving in together, and there were so much unused material the writers could have used, with or without bringing in the relatives. But this is ... it's too fast for their characters, and again the writers fail in writing both the same way they were during the last seasons. Again only pale shadows of both.
Nick and Monroe, of course! They are the core of the show, they are still the reason why fans are watching. And where are they?
Adalind and her storyline was the only highlight for me so far. But only her without all this Royal-stuff. Killing of Eric was the biggest mistake they could have done, replacing his character with this excuse of a baddie is beyond me. Viktor isn't a threat, I don't get any goosebump when he's on screen. He's a joke, acting like a little boy. I don't get why everyone seems to fear him. Because he installed cameras in Adalind's room? Uh, what a big deadly threat - little pervert! *rolls eyes*
Meisner - that guy is another lame excuse and I don't get why anybody should trust him, especially after what happened during 3.07 in that basement. That guy is supposed to be a warrior and not able to find a safe place or has any idea what to do to prepare said basement just in case? Yeah, what a warrior! Unbelieveable! Please, let any baby-Hundjaeger go after him and have him for dinner!
Which led me ... actually the dinner-scene from last friday IS the reason why I haven't watched the episode. I turned in at the end of Grimm to watch Hannibal back then and saw THIS. Whatever it was, it killed the show for me. I was so angry at this point, so disappointed and had enough.
Anyway, long entry only for telling you, well written!
Me too!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dinner scene is definitely my favorite. I like how Nick has teh serving knife in his hand when he tells everyone to calm down.
ReplyDeleteEveytime I see Prince Viktor I think Wesley from Buffy and Angel. It takes me a minute to reconcile the character.
ReplyDeleteI can go with fangirl. The point I was trying to make, and failing at, was that she seems to be now limited to research. My favorite Juliette moment of the season was her kicking zombies off the storage container. I'm not advocating for her to be a monster butt kicker at all, but at least she felt a vital part of the team then. Now it feels liek they are shoehorning her in the be the exposition because they can't figure out what to do with her. I agree she is really into it, but it comes off as more annoying and bubbleheaded than character development right now. I am hoping that Nick's mom will connect with her and give her real purpose for being on the screen. Juliet has always been the weakest link for me and I thought it would be better this season. It's not. It's just different.
ReplyDeleteI have really been missing the humor this season. Even Wu, my go-to snark guy, hasn't been as funny as he used to be. I think they need to work on adding the humor, especially since things haven't been as dark since Nick was de-zombied. I am not finding any of them comic relief right now, but I really wish I were.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I feel like Juliette doesn't exist unless she is 3 steps away from Nick, which is a hard thing for a character to overcome. That's why I like her with Rosalee so much. As for Nick, my bigger problem is that he has become judge and jury in morally questionable cases, which bugs me. I do agree about Rosalee and Monroe rushing things. They lose nothing by exploring their live-in situation and there isn't really enough time to do justice to wedding planning this season. Perhaps they will shlep that off on season 4. My bigger problem is that these two characters are becoming "Big Episode" characters and in doing so are losing their screentime in the everyday episodes. Monroe is by far my favorite character and it felt like until this episode he didn't have near as much to do as last year or the year before.
To be honest, I didn't think Eric was any more of a threat than Viktor. He just seemed like a bigger baby to me. Until I know more about why they want the baby, what the keys are for, and what the ultimate game plan is, the Royals are far less interesting than the Resistance and Verrat to me. However, I wouln't be surprised if some day we learn Eric isn't really dead and has been quietly planning vengeance. That seems the typical genre show motif. I do disagree about Meisner, although that may be because I seem to be liking the intrigue more than you are. To be honest, they could switch out Meisner for Castle Spy or anyone else and I would still like them for the same reasons, the promise answers to the questions I have had for so long. I would love to see other Grimms and have some kind of connection to what's happening outside of Portland and Vienna.
The dinner scene was my favorite because it added much needed levity for me. I am sorry it frustrated you. I did think this was one fo the best episodes of the season, so I would urge you to give it a chance. If you don't like it, I completely understand giving up on a show that is frustrating you. I jsut gave up on Arrow.
Thanks so much for writing and adding to the conversation.
I'm still enjoying this season, but I definitely agree with some of the caveats you mentioned. Juliette's character definitely improved once she found out the truth, but she's sort of become this one-dimensional character who's only purpose is to get fascinated by all things Wesen and do research for Nick. It contrasts a bit with Hank's character who became a bit more interesting once he learned about Nick's secret, although we haven't been seeing much of him these past few weeks. I can't complain too much about NIck's interaction with Monroe and Rosalee. I never get tired of it. And the whole subplot with Monroe's dad was very well done, although a bit sad. The tense dinner scene at the end was priceless.
ReplyDeleteWith regards to Adalind, I like the sidestory with her pregnancy, but I think it's been dragged on for too long, especially since it's been somewhat isolated from the from the central plot, until now. I guess I should be grateful that the baby is premature, otherwise it would have dragged on for longer! I like the actress who plays Adalind, but I always thought that the writers missed the boat on a great opportunity when she lost her powers after biting Nick. It would have been the perfect opportunity to give her a redemptive arc. It would have made her character more interesting and les one-dimensional, especially if she had decided to join team Nick instead of continuing to be evil. I've always liked the scenes with Adalind and Nick.I think it would have been very entertaining to see them trying to work together. Anyway, the evil-baby-gets-Adalind-back-her-powers story does have some potential, but I just hope it doesn't follow a predictable path.
Regarding Meisner and the Castle spy: I like their part in the plot and I think it would also be great if they developed their story even more. There is a lot of potential with their characters.