Next episode is “Last Grimm Standing,” which I have been excited for since I first heard about it. But, alas, we have to wait two weeks.
Every time he goes to the Trailer of Ancient Knowledge to research that week’s creature, I think how nice it would be if he could have all of that stuff digitized and indexed. Instead of starting off the evening by deciding whether he’s going to plow through The Book of Weird Shit, Volume I, or The Book of Weird Shit, Volume II, he could just boot up a database, type in a few relevant search terms, and be done with it all.
It would be boring watching him type. What would he do with the books after he digitized them? Would a digital library be less secure? It would be easier for his enemies to copy. What about all those weapons?
The Trailer of Ancient Knowledge is just another boring form of expository dialogue, and I dread its appearance each episode. I suppose it spares Monroe from having to constantly function as a walking grimoire, but on the whole I can already figure out what the bad guys are doing without the weekly stop at the Windstar.
Just piping in to say that my neighbor and friend got his first major acting gig that lasted more than one line in the beaver episode. He was the beaver that answered the door and dropped the beer bottles.
Humorous note: he went to University of Oregon and is a huge Ducks fan, and a huge non-Oregon State Beavers fan. We were all greatly amused that in his first role he’s a beavers fan that morphs into a beaver. 
Bowerswine.
As a strong Beaver partisan(I’m an OSU dropout,) this cracks me up.
The show’s getting better overall, but I wasn’t terribly impressed with this last episode.
Are Portland cops in real life so quick to draw a weapon? I mean, Nick’s house is getting egged and he runs outside with a gun? I understand he’s supposed to be on edge, but, man … that’s harsh. And someone with more police knowledge will have to tell me whether sneaking up behind a bystander and putting a gun to his head is an acceptable method of maintaining a quiet approach.
(Of course, police recklessness isn’t new for this show; I haven’t counted the number of times they’ve shot at unarmed and fleeing suspects, but it’s more than once. I’m waiting for the captain to loudly chew Nick and his partner out before grudgingly congratulating them for being good cops who get the job done.)
Nick’s aunt was in the Portland area for a long time, wasn’t she? Was she inactive, maybe due to illness? Because otherwise it seems odd for everyone to be so shocked and full of disbelief that a Grimm is nearby (or even exists at all). Perhaps she just went about her business more quietly than Nick. But surely Grimms like her didn’t go about murdering perfectly harmless mice and beavers for no reason — so then why are they so afraid?
Finally: The producers may consider trying not to strain the CGI budget so much. The spider transformations were pretty bad, as was the vomiting of acid. I’m not sure whether it was awesome or groan-worthy that Acker ended up caught in a “web”, but her spider-face and the slo-mo kind of ruined it.
On the good side, I think Nick’s getting a little more personality; I’d like to see a bit more sarcasm from him. I’m looking forward to more arc-y stuff, particularly what the captain’s intentions are. I wonder if he’s hoping to ally himself with the Grimms somehow, and protects Nick for that reason.
My understanding is the aunt didn’t live in Portland. She only came to town to tell Nick about his Grimmness and she was dying. Nick was raised by her after his parents died, probably doing Grimm business. I think Hank has intimated that he’s a Portland native -ironic since Portland is one of the whitest major city in the US, but Nick and the other characters are probably transplants.
Thank you.
I’m wondering about the Captain. Have the writers planned in advance where this is all headed, with the Captain and his secret organization, or they just winging it episode to episode?
That makes sense, yeah. It’s too bad she hasn’t shown up again; I liked her; I thought we’d at least see a dream sequence or two.
I was going to mention that in my critique, but I looked up the stats: the population of Portland was nearly 8% Black as of 2010. Still apparently one of the whitest major cities, but even in my hometown (2.67% Black as of 2010, woohoo diversity!) I still came across persons of other races fairly occasionally. Most of the extras and incidentals seem to be white. (I did notice that Asian Cop was absent this past episode.)
Of course there are nonwhite people here -I went to a predominantly nonwhite middle school. It just strikes me as funny that of all the major characters, the nonwhite one is probably the only native. Most of the only Portland natives I know now are people I grew up with; it seems like the native to transplant percentage these days is about 40 to 60, respectively.
I believe it’s “Bauerschwein.” Which apparently means “farmer pig.” In this last episode Monroe mentioned “Wildschwein” (according to the closed captioning). Perhaps it’s the difference between domestic pigs and wild boar.
I’m not so sure that his enemies copying what’s in the books is the issue. I mean, it’s all information about them. It’d be like if you owned someone’s autobiography, and that person broke into your house to copy it down. What’s the point? As for all of the weapons (and potions and whatnot), I figure he can leave them where they are; unless it’s a special beast that requires some special killin’, he’s not going to need any of that. As far as typing being boring, well, any number of forensic shows out there manage to get over that, mostly through the use of delightfully easy-to-use and colorful graphic design. This is all academic of course, as the show clearly is more interested in rocking the old-school vibe of him leafing through all those dusty tomes. But it’s fun to go on about nevertheless.
Just noting that we were watching The Artist last night, and the Grimm’s girlfriend showed up in the middle of a reel. Kind of odd and dislocating.
Carry on.
I was wholly absorbed in this week’s episode. It was completely gripping. I was pretty freaked out ever since Silas Weir Mitchell got nabbed.
I can’t imagine their friendship not being impacted by this whole incident in the future. I mean, he put him directly in harm’s way, causing him to throw out much of his “zen” and pilates approach to keeping his Blutbad in check.
Strictly speaking, he didn’t - he was only supposed to find out the where and when - and pass on the info - that the ferret(?) led him to a trap was not expected.
That the Grimm came to his rescue speaks volumes.
I kept thinking that if I was Nick I’d feel horrible about what happened and more reluctant to have Monroe gather information in the future.
yeah - I also noticed that in this episode Nick specifically stated “Monroe found x…” at the police station - so it seems that was either a slip OR the writers are intending to have Monroe more directly involved - as in known to the rest of the cops.
Capt. Renaurd has not encountered Monroe, has he? Would he know that he’s a blutbad, since is special/royalty in some way? Would he know who is in his territory? Since he seems to be somewhat protecting Grimm, possibly having some use for him in the future, I would think he would welcome someone from the other side helping him, too.
It seems like the creatures don’t always recognize each other until they give the ‘secret handshake’ of changing appearance for a second. Monroe had to do that in The Organ Grinder and the betting shop, to get inside information. I would have thought they could all sense who was also like them out in the world. Then again, in Tarantella, the guy who picked up the spinnetoid at the art gallery seemed surprised when she changed. That is one type of creature he would not want to have taken home.