Grimm's Pilot Reviewed

Did any of you manage to catch the premiere of 'Grimm' last night?

'Grimm' is exactly what its title suggests--a modern re-telling of the classic Grimm fairy tales, with a twist. In last night's episode Nick learned that his ancestors were the original Grimms. They are the only people able to see the true faces of supernatural people walking among us. Unfortunately, now that Nick's aunt is nearing death, he is inheriting her power. I say unfortunately because it seemed as though Nick's life was going pretty well before his aunt burst his bubble. He had a job he loved, a nice house, and an almost-fiancee. It's highly questionable which of these things he'll be able to keep now that he knows the truth.

Yesterday's episode had its strengths and weaknesses, not unexpected for a pilot. One of its biggest issues was a reliance on situations which have now become somewhat contrived in fantasy/sci-fi shows. The idea that a person is happily living their life, only to be suddenly interrupted by magical powers/a secret gift and instant responsibility is nothing new. We saw it in the first episode of 'Charmed' and 'Smallville' and even 'Fringe'.  It's such a typical plot device at this point that I expect the main character to develop special abilities or supernatural knowledge at the beginning of every new sci-fi show I watch.

Sticking with cliches, 'Grimm' also offered us a mysterious and beautiful blond (when her face isn't doing the whole "I have fangs and a furrowed brow because I'm evil" thing) who it's fairly easy to guess will probably be somewhat conflicted about her orders to destroy Nick. Despite the fact that this woman (played by Claire Coffee) got limited screen time, she was still a lot more interesting than Nick's girlfriend, Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch).

Juliette was presented to us as the love of Nick's life, but the screen-time she got was limited, and when she was there she might as well not have been. When she discovers Nick investigating his aunt's trailer in the middle of the night she barely questions what he is doing, and doesn't even ask him about the huge old book he was just paging thorough. Also, while I'm sure the questions she was asking about where Nick grew up and how long his aunt raised him were written in for the benefit of the audience, they made her seem completely clueless about her boyfriend's past. I hope they build up her character a little more.

In terms of the actual plot of the episode I think that more could have been done. I definitely enjoyed watching it, so in that sense it was successful. But there was no real mystery at all. It told us who the murderer was fairly quickly, and they found him equally quickly. That was fine in the pilot, which was really more about establishing Nick's abilities, but now that we know about them I'm hoping the writing is more complex in the future.

What were your thoughts on the premiere episode? Will you be watching again?

Watch 'Grimm' Fridays at 9/8C on NBC.