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shadowkatThe heat thankfully came one, and we have a blizzard. I'm not joking - there's an actual blizzard going on outside my window. Damn, isn't it still October? That was a short fall.
Is it just me or are spring and fall getting shorter every year? And winter and summer longer?? Maybe I need to change my habitat? On the plus side, short-lived allergy season.
Oh and we got thunder and lightening!! Interesting storm.
Currently watching Grimm. Obviously it's not holding my attention, because I jumped on my blog to write about it while I'm still watching it. Also, you can actually follow what's going on while doing something else at the same time - this should be a hit with multi-taskers. Worse? I'm writing this during the climatic scenes - where I'm supposed to be at the edge of my seat, unable to wait to see what happens next. Except I already know, because I've seen this show before, except better written and with a lot more interesting characters.
Review of the new TV Series Grimm
The set-up? Young twenty-something guy, Detective Burkhardt, who is a cop, discovers he has the ability to see things others don't. This unique ability makes him able to see monsters hiding in plain sight. He can tell what does not fit and fight them. It's an inherited trait, and makes him a "Grimm". He's the last of his line of "Grimm's".
The Brother's Grimm were in reality monster hunters, and their collected stories are profiles of the monsters they killed and the crimes they solved. His parents were killed by "Reapers" who hunt down the Grimm's. And his Aunt Marie, who raised him, told him that he can't have a normal life because he is a Grimm and is always in danger. To help him on his quest to capture monsters is his partner, Detective Griffin, and a reformed Big Bad Wolf, actually, Bloubad (I have no idea how to spell it). Oh and Aunt Marie? Just after she tells Burkhardt who he is, gets attacked, and is now in a coma. She does get the chance to give Burkhardt some rare piece of jewelry that he must protect at all costs, and is the key to who he is.
The bad guy is obviously Burkhardt's boss, the chief.
Nurse: What's with your Aunt Marie? She has knife wounds all over her body. Whatever did she do for a living?
Burkhardt: She was a librarian.
You know, that would be funny, if it weren't an old joke.
The monster case of the week? A horror tale off of fairy tales. Sort of like Supernatural, except fairy tales instead of urban legends and ghost stories. Not all of the monsters are evil. Sort of like Angel and Supernatural. And I'm beginning to wonder if all of these guys watched Bill Paxton's Fraility one too many times.
The twist? Burkhardt gets assistance and aid from a reformed monster, similar to the one's he's hunting. Indicating the Grimm's weren't great either.
I found the style of the series, narrative structure, dialogue, and characterization as well as the content to be rather paint-by-numbers honestly. And it's been done better elsewhere.
The most innovative bit is the fairy tales. Except even that has been done before - more than one writer has delved into the idea that fairy tales are basically warnings about horrible people out there who we need to be wary of.
The first tale? Little Red Riding Hood. Guess what happens? A serial killer, or wolf, stalks and kills a series of girls with red riding hoods who jog or walk through a forest. He has a little cabin in the forest where he takes them. The first victim is a pretty girl in red and pink, listening to an out-of-date nano ipod which you can't get anymore. (That was the first thing I thought when I saw it - damn, I liked those and you can't get them anymore!) The second, is a little girl, going...guess where? That's right - Grandmother's house. And she doesn't take the right route. She takes the short-cut through the woods. And a postman sees her red hood and goes after her. He's the big bad wolf serial killer. He grabs her, takes her to his cabin, where he puts her in a secret room, and we discover he has a closet filled with red riding hoods - so clearly he does this a lot.
Burkhardt, our wannabee hero, after initially going after the wrong guy - who later becomes his informant and helper - eventually finds the serial killer. He calls his partner. They bust in, find nothing. (Of course, they bust in without a warrant or any legal reason or even just cause, I'm amazed the post office worker doesn't call the cops -- luckily he doesn't because the chief and Burkhardt's boss turns out to be a monster too. Seriously how television portrays cops is sad. It's clear these people don't know a thing about what cops or homicide detectives do. It's not hard, go down and talk to them. Better yet? Rent the WIRE or Homicide Life on the Streets. This is sad people and why most criminal procedurals make me crazy.) But then, wait, his partner hears the post office worker humming "Sweet Dreams" which came from the first victim's ipod - which is enough to bust in and search the place after the guy turns the lights out. (Honestly, it's not like Sweet Dreams by the Eurthymics is not a popular song, granted unlikely he'd be singing it - but that's not enough information to bust into his dwelling and search the place. I know applying logic to these things is silly, but procedurals ask you to do it.)
They find little Robbin Howell (Little Red Riding Hood - get it?) And take down the monster, who of course flees, so they shoot him repeatedly in the back, and he turns human again.
The next day, Burkhardt visits his Aunt, and runs into a woman that he saw earlier in the episode, in the first act, whose beautiful face turned into something nasty. She was in an Armani suite and very sophisticated with, he's guessing, a bank job. We know this because Burkhardt has profiled her for his partner. Then she turns nasty looking to Burkhardt and he wonders if he's losing it. Now, he sees her posing as a doctor, she's beside his Aunt's bed and trying to insert a syringe filled with green liquid into his Aunt, instead she inserts it into him. She's apparently a "Hexebeast". He loses consciousness. (Sigh. Show don't tease me. I know you aren't going to kill him. We should be so lucky. Actually that would be a cool twist! But you won't do it.) She hops into a car with, surprise/surprise his boss. Who unfortunately is being played by a guy who has played a lot of these sorts of characters, so I sort of knew the moment he showed up that I shouldn't trust him and he would be a bad guy.
It was such an obvious set-up.
The previews for the season? Basically more of the same. The big moral mystery? Are the Grimm's necessarily good guys? And which fairy tale will theyexploit use next week as the "monster of the week".
Advice? Save your time and go rent Supernatural. OR better yet? Buffy. I think you can even catch it on netflix streaming or hulu. Or, there's a British series out there somewhere that did the same thing about a young boy who is a demon hunter...can't remember the name of it, it wasn't that good either. Lost interest in it fast.
Let's face it, this genre has been done to death now. The narrative structure is basically on about twenty different tv series as we speak - introduce characters, case of the week, main character put in jeopardy, main character save damsel, main character put in jeopardy again and we discover - whoops someone they trusted is a bad guy, key Twilight Zone music. Secret History even copies it - young orphan, discovers she has this great ability, and must fight evil. Buffy at least shook it up a bit, had a Mom, an incredibly incompetent teacher/librarian, a vampire lover, and a bunch of quippy nerdy friends. Also female heroine! Fringe also shakes it up a bit with parallel universes, a mad scientist on the team, and the hero being female, also the mad scientist is both the good guy and the bad guy in the series. Supernatural - same deal, the main story or theme is the brothers relationship with each other and with their father in a motherless universe. But Grimm? Is just grim. There's nothing new, outside of the fairy tales and I've seen CSI and other shows play with that idea before. Also it's badly written. The dialogue clunky. And the acting...sigh. The guy playing Burkhardt has no charisma. I don't care if he lives or dies, and that is a problem.
What's good about it? Production value is pretty good. The twist on the fairy stories is a nice change of pace from serial killer of the week. And I like Kate Burton - who keeps taking on weird roles. She's played everything from a tough surgeon suffering from Altheziemer's to a monster fighting librarian suffering from Cancer. She's the best thing in the show, outside of possibly the Big Bad Wolf who is reluctantly helping the descendant of the hunters that killed his family. (I've decided Greenwalt definitely was responsible for the introduction of Angel and Spike to Buffy - because Big Bad Wolf sort of reminds me of them.)
Overall rating? eh...C-. I rolled my eyes during most of it, and got bored halfway through.
I might have liked it ten years ago, but I've been watching Fringe...and Supernatural and watched Buffy and Angel a million times. Not to mention the X-Files, Closer, Profiler, Bones, CSI, Criminal Minds, and a whole host of others. I'm bored of the genre.
What worked for me with Once - was everything about it was new. The narrative style. The substance. The characters. Who was the hero. All different. And there's nothing else like it on tv. It's new. And it's not paint-by-numbers. I don't really know what they will do next.
I've no clue who will live or who will die. I don't know how it will end. It's not predictable. And the fairy tales are shown in a less...black and white manner. There's potential here. It can become something really interesting or something really silly, you don't know. Which is why in my opinion, Once is worth my time. Grimm not so much.
I don't think Grimm will survive - it's in a bad time slot - competing with two series who do the same thing a whole lot better and have that fan base. Also like I stated above this specific genre is hitting its saturation point - too many people doing the same thing.
Once Upon a Time has a better chance - it's one of a kind and competing with shows that aren't like it at all. Also in a much better time slot. ABC has been doing a better job figuring out where to place things than NBC has lately.
Your Mileage May Vary, Ken Tucker of EW - certainly did, he preferred Grimm.
Is it just me or are spring and fall getting shorter every year? And winter and summer longer?? Maybe I need to change my habitat? On the plus side, short-lived allergy season.
Oh and we got thunder and lightening!! Interesting storm.
Currently watching Grimm. Obviously it's not holding my attention, because I jumped on my blog to write about it while I'm still watching it. Also, you can actually follow what's going on while doing something else at the same time - this should be a hit with multi-taskers. Worse? I'm writing this during the climatic scenes - where I'm supposed to be at the edge of my seat, unable to wait to see what happens next. Except I already know, because I've seen this show before, except better written and with a lot more interesting characters.
Review of the new TV Series Grimm
The set-up? Young twenty-something guy, Detective Burkhardt, who is a cop, discovers he has the ability to see things others don't. This unique ability makes him able to see monsters hiding in plain sight. He can tell what does not fit and fight them. It's an inherited trait, and makes him a "Grimm". He's the last of his line of "Grimm's".
The Brother's Grimm were in reality monster hunters, and their collected stories are profiles of the monsters they killed and the crimes they solved. His parents were killed by "Reapers" who hunt down the Grimm's. And his Aunt Marie, who raised him, told him that he can't have a normal life because he is a Grimm and is always in danger. To help him on his quest to capture monsters is his partner, Detective Griffin, and a reformed Big Bad Wolf, actually, Bloubad (I have no idea how to spell it). Oh and Aunt Marie? Just after she tells Burkhardt who he is, gets attacked, and is now in a coma. She does get the chance to give Burkhardt some rare piece of jewelry that he must protect at all costs, and is the key to who he is.
The bad guy is obviously Burkhardt's boss, the chief.
Nurse: What's with your Aunt Marie? She has knife wounds all over her body. Whatever did she do for a living?
Burkhardt: She was a librarian.
You know, that would be funny, if it weren't an old joke.
The monster case of the week? A horror tale off of fairy tales. Sort of like Supernatural, except fairy tales instead of urban legends and ghost stories. Not all of the monsters are evil. Sort of like Angel and Supernatural. And I'm beginning to wonder if all of these guys watched Bill Paxton's Fraility one too many times.
The twist? Burkhardt gets assistance and aid from a reformed monster, similar to the one's he's hunting. Indicating the Grimm's weren't great either.
I found the style of the series, narrative structure, dialogue, and characterization as well as the content to be rather paint-by-numbers honestly. And it's been done better elsewhere.
The most innovative bit is the fairy tales. Except even that has been done before - more than one writer has delved into the idea that fairy tales are basically warnings about horrible people out there who we need to be wary of.
The first tale? Little Red Riding Hood. Guess what happens? A serial killer, or wolf, stalks and kills a series of girls with red riding hoods who jog or walk through a forest. He has a little cabin in the forest where he takes them. The first victim is a pretty girl in red and pink, listening to an out-of-date nano ipod which you can't get anymore. (That was the first thing I thought when I saw it - damn, I liked those and you can't get them anymore!) The second, is a little girl, going...guess where? That's right - Grandmother's house. And she doesn't take the right route. She takes the short-cut through the woods. And a postman sees her red hood and goes after her. He's the big bad wolf serial killer. He grabs her, takes her to his cabin, where he puts her in a secret room, and we discover he has a closet filled with red riding hoods - so clearly he does this a lot.
Burkhardt, our wannabee hero, after initially going after the wrong guy - who later becomes his informant and helper - eventually finds the serial killer. He calls his partner. They bust in, find nothing. (Of course, they bust in without a warrant or any legal reason or even just cause, I'm amazed the post office worker doesn't call the cops -- luckily he doesn't because the chief and Burkhardt's boss turns out to be a monster too. Seriously how television portrays cops is sad. It's clear these people don't know a thing about what cops or homicide detectives do. It's not hard, go down and talk to them. Better yet? Rent the WIRE or Homicide Life on the Streets. This is sad people and why most criminal procedurals make me crazy.) But then, wait, his partner hears the post office worker humming "Sweet Dreams" which came from the first victim's ipod - which is enough to bust in and search the place after the guy turns the lights out. (Honestly, it's not like Sweet Dreams by the Eurthymics is not a popular song, granted unlikely he'd be singing it - but that's not enough information to bust into his dwelling and search the place. I know applying logic to these things is silly, but procedurals ask you to do it.)
They find little Robbin Howell (Little Red Riding Hood - get it?) And take down the monster, who of course flees, so they shoot him repeatedly in the back, and he turns human again.
The next day, Burkhardt visits his Aunt, and runs into a woman that he saw earlier in the episode, in the first act, whose beautiful face turned into something nasty. She was in an Armani suite and very sophisticated with, he's guessing, a bank job. We know this because Burkhardt has profiled her for his partner. Then she turns nasty looking to Burkhardt and he wonders if he's losing it. Now, he sees her posing as a doctor, she's beside his Aunt's bed and trying to insert a syringe filled with green liquid into his Aunt, instead she inserts it into him. She's apparently a "Hexebeast". He loses consciousness. (Sigh. Show don't tease me. I know you aren't going to kill him. We should be so lucky. Actually that would be a cool twist! But you won't do it.) She hops into a car with, surprise/surprise his boss. Who unfortunately is being played by a guy who has played a lot of these sorts of characters, so I sort of knew the moment he showed up that I shouldn't trust him and he would be a bad guy.
It was such an obvious set-up.
The previews for the season? Basically more of the same. The big moral mystery? Are the Grimm's necessarily good guys? And which fairy tale will they
Advice? Save your time and go rent Supernatural. OR better yet? Buffy. I think you can even catch it on netflix streaming or hulu. Or, there's a British series out there somewhere that did the same thing about a young boy who is a demon hunter...can't remember the name of it, it wasn't that good either. Lost interest in it fast.
Let's face it, this genre has been done to death now. The narrative structure is basically on about twenty different tv series as we speak - introduce characters, case of the week, main character put in jeopardy, main character save damsel, main character put in jeopardy again and we discover - whoops someone they trusted is a bad guy, key Twilight Zone music. Secret History even copies it - young orphan, discovers she has this great ability, and must fight evil. Buffy at least shook it up a bit, had a Mom, an incredibly incompetent teacher/librarian, a vampire lover, and a bunch of quippy nerdy friends. Also female heroine! Fringe also shakes it up a bit with parallel universes, a mad scientist on the team, and the hero being female, also the mad scientist is both the good guy and the bad guy in the series. Supernatural - same deal, the main story or theme is the brothers relationship with each other and with their father in a motherless universe. But Grimm? Is just grim. There's nothing new, outside of the fairy tales and I've seen CSI and other shows play with that idea before. Also it's badly written. The dialogue clunky. And the acting...sigh. The guy playing Burkhardt has no charisma. I don't care if he lives or dies, and that is a problem.
What's good about it? Production value is pretty good. The twist on the fairy stories is a nice change of pace from serial killer of the week. And I like Kate Burton - who keeps taking on weird roles. She's played everything from a tough surgeon suffering from Altheziemer's to a monster fighting librarian suffering from Cancer. She's the best thing in the show, outside of possibly the Big Bad Wolf who is reluctantly helping the descendant of the hunters that killed his family. (I've decided Greenwalt definitely was responsible for the introduction of Angel and Spike to Buffy - because Big Bad Wolf sort of reminds me of them.)
Overall rating? eh...C-. I rolled my eyes during most of it, and got bored halfway through.
I might have liked it ten years ago, but I've been watching Fringe...and Supernatural and watched Buffy and Angel a million times. Not to mention the X-Files, Closer, Profiler, Bones, CSI, Criminal Minds, and a whole host of others. I'm bored of the genre.
What worked for me with Once - was everything about it was new. The narrative style. The substance. The characters. Who was the hero. All different. And there's nothing else like it on tv. It's new. And it's not paint-by-numbers. I don't really know what they will do next.
I've no clue who will live or who will die. I don't know how it will end. It's not predictable. And the fairy tales are shown in a less...black and white manner. There's potential here. It can become something really interesting or something really silly, you don't know. Which is why in my opinion, Once is worth my time. Grimm not so much.
I don't think Grimm will survive - it's in a bad time slot - competing with two series who do the same thing a whole lot better and have that fan base. Also like I stated above this specific genre is hitting its saturation point - too many people doing the same thing.
Once Upon a Time has a better chance - it's one of a kind and competing with shows that aren't like it at all. Also in a much better time slot. ABC has been doing a better job figuring out where to place things than NBC has lately.
Your Mileage May Vary, Ken Tucker of EW - certainly did, he preferred Grimm.