Grimm: More Than Just a Fairy Tale.

While I was waiting to start my new job (yes, I've got myself a job! Three months after finishing university. Ahh, I couldn't be more happy!) I had a little bit of free time to catch up on some telly. Gotham, Once Upon a Time, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Grimm.

This generation and the one before grew up on Brothers Grimm stories whether they knew it or not. Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty - they are all Brothers Grimm tales. The original versions were a lot less cutesy and a lot more gory than the Disney versions.

Grimm, the show, is much the same. It's an American cop drama with a twist. The episodes are loosely based around the Grimm fairy tales. The main character, Nick Burkhardt, is a police detective and a direct descendant of the Brothers Grimm and can see the monsters that disguise themselves as humans - the monsters from the fairy tales known as Wesen.

If you feel a sense of cheese, which a lot of people do when they hear the premise, don't be fooled. In the first ten minutes of the first episode, the audience has the pleasure of seeing a decapitated body and the kidnapping of an innocent child. No, Grimm doesn't shy away from the gore as a lot of made-for-TV programmes do. In the same sense, it doesn't overdo it either. The occasional torched body, the occasional decapitated head.

Grimm cleverly weaves together realistic police investigations with unnatural culprits or victims. Admittedly, I had high expectations for the monsters but visually, they're low-budget CGI. Unfortunately, when someone suddenly turned into an almost cartoony wolf-man it pulled me out of the story a little, but after a few episodes I became so engrossed by the plot that I couldn't care less about the graphics.

So far Grimm has 5 seasons and each episode focuses on a different case. As the seasons progress, the A-plot follows Nick's attempt to keep his closest friends and family from discovering that he can see Wesen. At the same time, the monster council known as the Wesen Council begins to take action, afraid that Nick, a Grimm, will murder monsters left, right and centre as his ancestors did and unbalance the equilibrium.

As is the case with most of the shows I advocate, my favourite part of Grimm is its cast of characters. Obviously there are bad guys and there are good guys, but they are written well enough that the line often blurs. Even the downright evil ones still have their reasons. And the seemingly evil ones aren't as evil as they first seem. Currently, I'm watching season 4 and I've just bawled my eyes out with joy because my two favourite characters are getting married, when by all rights both should have been killed at least twice each already.

Some of the writing is a little cheesy, some of it is a tiny bit predictable (especially if you know your not-so-well-known Grimm tales), but then there's a whole lot of unpredictability and a lot of suspense. Grimm has a lot of dark moments. The main cast have dark times but the writers are nice enough to balance it out with better times. Twists and turns pave the way in Nick's life and sometimes it's almost heartbreaking to watch. But even in dark times there is always a glimmer of hope. It makes Grimm manageable.

I'm scared to watch the next season. Everything seems to be going well. SOMETHING BAD IS GOING TO HAPPEN, I KNOW IT. But I'm looking forward to it. There are so many plots running alongside each other and when one calms down, the other jumps up. Bring on the rest of season 4 and season 5! Just please, for all that is decent, keep everyone alive.

Peace until next time guys!
Sarah