Mediocre and unoriginal

ratatatuff

score 2/10

Another one of these shows about monsters and fairies. At least there are no vampires... But it's always the same, at the beginning of the show there is some "hunter" who discovers that he has some hidden destiny and then he tries to fulfill it. Here it is a police-officer who discovers that he is a "Grimm" and his destiny is to hunt down monsters. Oh yeah, like we haven't seen stuff like this in hundred other shows... So, what makes this show different?

First it's the language. They decided to let the characters talk in German and in French in certain situations. Actually that's not a bad idea and I give kudos to Sasha Roiz (Captain Sean Renard) for his French. It sounded really okay to me. But the German!!! Who translated or invented these names??? My native tongue is German and although I had no problems to understand the English I needed subtitles to understand the "German" words!!!

But, no wonder... They are not German. They are just stupid. For example, they introduced some goat-people and called them "Ziegevolk". And the actors pronounced it like no German would ever pronounce it. Okay, maybe they weren't eager to play their role properly. Some of the actors made really bad performances anyway... But who came up with the name "Ziegevolk"??? This is ridiculous. You can't just take goat = Ziege and people = Volk and combine it into "Ziegevolk". We have cases in German and it should be "Ziegenvolk". If you think I'm nit-picking, no, I'm not. Because this is not the only mistake they made. How could anyone pronounce "Wesen" the way the actors do in that show??? Names like "Hexenbiest" are just dumb and what the hell is a "Blutbaden"??? And really, why should the resistance call itself "Verrat" (deceit)... These names are just gibberish and sound like a four year old child invented them. Sorry, but I expect a certain amount of professionality from a TV show, even from a low-budget show like this. So, if you watch this show and think that they talk German: No, they do not! (there is one exception: one guy is actually German, so his pronounciation is good, but the others all suck)

And, btw, if these "Grimms" and these "Wesen" came from Germany long time ago, they would either know how to pronounce the words correctly or would have changed them into the language they use in everyday speech. In this case, as the show plays in Portland, English. So, these dumb names are just an attempt to gather some exotic flair. But it's so poorly done that it's just an epic fail.

Okay, the next thing is the storyline. Nothing extraordinary. Same storyline in every episode, just the name of the monster changes. And why does every case have to involve a supernatural being? It seems like there are no normal humans in Portland anymore. Don't get me wrong, it IS possible to constantly thematize the supernatural beings. After all, it's part of the premise of the show. But in that case they should not interfere with the normal world the way they do and the show would have to come up with a believable concept for a parallel society. "Monster kills human, Grimm kills monster" gets really boring after a few episodes. And they produced three seasons like this... And there are other things which I don't like. Like all the events around the Royal Families, the "Wesen" council and things like this. To me it is just too obviously plagiarized. Things like that already appeared in too many bad novels and series. Seen it all and seen it done much better.

Cast: uh, don't get me started... Nick, the Grimm, is mediocre at best. His acting is shallow and boring. His girlfriend Bitchy...oh uh, I mean Bitsie... I wonder what her purpose in this show is, because she's completely useless. And IF she is acting then she is overacting in some weird way. And she is highly unsympathetic. The better ones are Silas Weir Mitchell as Monroe, the werewolf, and Bree Turner as his girlfriend Rosalee. And, of course, Danny Bruno as Bud (the beaver) is really good. It's a shame that he only got a minor role.

Script: Even worse than the overall story is the scriptwriting. The dialogues are boring and sometimes I found myself thinking: "How could you talk like this? No normal person in the world would ever talk like this!"

I don't expect much from TV-shows. I don't care for effects or big- budget productions. But I want to see good actors, a good script and good dialogues. Grimm is a mediocre series which shamelessly steals ideas from every other series and book in the genre. If you like this show I suggest you try and watch "Buffy" or read the "Dresden Files". You will see how this genre is done properly. With good character arcs and good dialogues.

ratatatuff 11 April 2014

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2996137/