Grimm: Bad Teeth

“You threatened to kill her?”

“Yeah, of course!”

Season two already looks better than season one. It’s slicker, cooler, and better shot. I’m also overjoyed to see this episode end with a “to be continued”. It looks as though, like Buffy and Angel, the show’s second season is seeing a transition in to more serialised storytelling. I certainly hope so.

We re-join the show as Nick has a slightly awkward reunion with his mother. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is looking a lot older than she was in the days when the Sheriff of Nottingham was being all nasty to her and that, but she does a good job in portraying a prickly, independent, resourceful and mysterious character. Giuntoli, while, as ever, lacking in charisma, is actually pretty good at showing Nick’s conflicted emotions. But there isn’t enough time for an emotional reunion.

Of course, we get lots of exposition. Nick’s dad did indeed die, but his mother has spent the last eighteen years being all sneaky and finding out who killed her husband and friend. It seems that the three coins, still held by Nick, will need to be destroyed at the place where they were forged. I’m predicting that the show will take a trip to Europe at some point for this to happen? But we’ll have to see. I bet no actual location filming will be involved, however.

We also get a bit of history about an old map, a mediaeval war, and the fact that the royals are well aware that Nick holds the key. Meanwhile, in the present day, there is some awkwardness between Monroe, Rosalie and this new and scary Grimm. There is also a horrible little sequence introducing the show at the start, but let’s move swiftly on.

Oh, and there are of course some murders, and a Grimm fairytale, what with this being part of a multiple episode adaptation of Briar Rose/Sleeping Beauty. This is the first time a single fairytale has been spread over multiple consecutive episodes: I hope this sort of thing is repeated. The murders aren’t really the focus, though, but more of a catalyst for the other characters and their reactions. The Captain continues to be fascinating, speaking on the phone to a delightfully evil baddie in Europe (not sure whether he’s English or French) who lives in a stonking great castle and whom the Captain calls ‘brother’.

There’s a lot going on. The Captain and Catherine Schade are seemingly plotting to cure Juliette, so everything is going to be okay on that front, we hope. Nick’s mother drops some more exposition towards the end: the Grimms, or their ancestors at least, used to control the Wesen for the royal families. And these royal families seem to be coming into focus as a potential big bad for the season. Firstly, though, we have a rather big cliff hanger that makes you jump. I hope the resolution is worth it.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)

“I’m on my honeymoon!!!!”

I’m not going to repeat the things I said about Guy Ritchie’s distinctive directorial style in my blog review for this film’s prequel. Nor am I going to point out that this is pretty much an action film version of Sherlock Holmes (though this film emphasises this less), or that Robert Downey Jr is ridiculously good here and undoubtedly the greatest leading man working in Hollywood today. Yes, he’s even a bit better than Johnny Depp. He’s that good.

This film is far more respectful of the source material than its predecessor. Although not exactly a version of The Final Problem, it borrows from it heavily, including the apparent deaths of Holmes and Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls, although of course we’re not expected to believe that Holmes actually died. Are you listening, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss? If that wasn’t enough, Stephen Fry gives us a version of Mycroft which is both extremely entertaining and extremely faithful to the source material.

Moriarty’s dastardly scheme is delightfully nefarious, if a little dependent on the writers’ knowledge that the First World War would break out twenty three years after the end of the film. Moriarty’s plans to make a gun running fortune from a massive war gives us a good excuse for lots of big budget hijinks as Holmes and Watson speed through France, Germany and, of course, Switzerland.

The bromance between Holmes and Watson is handled rather hilariously, with best man Holmes not being best pleased about Watson’s upcoming marriage. This nice little character point gives Downey a chance to show what a great actor he is, and gives Jude Law a chance to show what, in my opinion, a great actor he isn’t. Jared Harris is a surprisingly middling Moriarty, and one surprisingly faithful to what little references there were to the character in the regional stories. In fact, this faithfulness is taken a little too far: is there really any need to include Colonel Sebastian Moran? Incidentally, doesn’t Moran sound a bit common for a colonel in the Victorian army?

Still, this is enormous fun to watch, if slightly long, and I have to admit it was excellent. In fact, I would admit this film to that elite club of sequels that are better than their originals.

Grimm: Woman in Black

“Here goes. I can see things that...”

“That what?”

“That most people can't”.

Phew. You can tell this is a biggy from the sheer amount of stuff in the “previously on”. We have three epically big things happening: Nick finally tells Juliette the truth, it doesn’t go well, and she falls into a coma after being scratched by Adalind’s cat; the fourth man who killed Nick’s parents, Akira Kimura, comes to visit Portland and is not a very polite guest; and then there’s that mysterious woman in black, who, happen to be Nick’s dead mother... WHAT?! Nick’s mother is Maid Marian?

The scene with Nick telling all to an obviously unwell Juliette goes as badly as we can possibly expect. It’s arse-clenching viewing. What makes it even worse is that she immediately succumbs to a coma. The whole thing is left unresolved. But this is only one element of a big, big episode, and by no means the only thing that is keeping us in agonised suspense.

That Akira Kimura is well hard. So hard, in fact, that he comes very close to killing our good friend Captain Reynard! We get a very strong impression that he really, really wants those three coins. It’s becoming more and more obvious that for as long as Nick holds them he will not be safe. Neither will his family or friends.

The episode ends with a fight scene which is very well shot with shaky camera, culminating in that cliffhanger. I for one am glad that I don’t have to wait too long to see the resolution!

Grimm: Big Feet

“I may have Bigfoot on my couch!”

This may be based on Grimm fairytale called Hans the Hedgehog, but we all know it’s about Bigfoot. This, admittedly, is not inappropriate for a show set in the Pacific North West. There’s a third influence, too. The nasty psychiatrist with his nasty potion is a bit Jekyll and Hyde.  All these influences have finally prompted me to ask an inevitable question: are all the crimes in Portland Wesen-related? Do Nick and Hank ever get any “normal” crimes to investigate? Hank is going to have to smell a rat soon. And it seems that this episode is where it starts.

I like the beginning of the episode: it’s very Blair Witch Project. I also like the involvement of Juliette in the case; her profession as a vet gives her the perfect excuse to do a little research of her own, and her open minded attitude to cryptozoology seems to bode well for the inevitable moment when Nick tells her everything.

The fact that the main suspect is a friend of Monroe’s gives us a bit of a clue that the real baddie is not obvious. As it happens, this is a very Scientology friendly episode, with a psychiatrist as a baddie. It seems, though, that this time Hank has seen enough to cause him to question things, especially his encounter with a bestial Monroe in the woods during a chase. I suspect there can be no going back from this.

Grimm: Happily Ever Aftermath

“Am I too late…? Oh no, I can't be too late- you're still alive. That's a good thing.”

For the second time in a row we get an easily guessable fairytale. It’s Cinderella, so of course we get screeching bat-like creatures. It’s also the second time in a row that we get a nicely witty treatment of the source material. Our Cinderella analogue is a spoilt rich bitch who is all nasty and that to her ugly sisters. Written down like that it seems more obvious than it is, but the reveal is really well handled.

The first victim in this traditional murder mystery, which surprisingly is a rarity for this show, is her wicked step-mother. That strikes me as the most appropriate thing that could possibly happen in this show. The whole thing is a story of the week, perhaps, but it’s one of the best yet. There’s also plenty of arc stuff going on. Hank’s refusal to believe Spencer when he tells the truth about being a Batman and all that is a fairly blatant signal from the writers to the viewer that he simply has to find out everything sooner or later.

The same applies to Juliette, or course, given Nick’s continued failure to confide in her. But this time she begins to research the death of Nick’s parents, and discovers it was a homicide. Of the four suspects, three have been seen before and I’m sure we can expect to see the fourth before too long.