Grimm: Season 4

Grimm is just entertaining. No it’s not reality tv, its just creative tv. I don’t want stressful tv right now and Grimm fits the bill. It’s not scary, a bit bloody at times but I’d let my preteens watch it.

For a review of the show overall, see my Season 3 review:Season 4 Premier review:With such high expectations as have been developed around this show, it seems impossible to meet them. But the return of Grimm has happened, and we are all happy for it. Nick has lost his powers, and is wrestling to decide what that means. He's not even sure he wants them back. But can he survive now without them?Juliette is struggling with mixed emotions on multiple levels. Is Nick to blame for his infidelity, at least a little? Or is it all the fault of Adeline? Has she had enough? Too much? Or would leaving be wrong? Should Nick try to get his powers back?Trouble, introduced at the end of last season, is mellowing, experiencing life as a member of a team for the first time, and enjoying it. And now that she has become essential to Nick, she clearly is happy to be needed and wanted, also a first in her lifetime. The character is a great addition to the ensemble.Hank is wrestling with Nick's loss, and Wu's recent gain of information. Monrosalie have postponed their honeymoon, graciously refused to blame Trouble for the trouble, and are desperately seeking a reversal to Adeline's actions. And Captain Reynard has flatlined, with his mother standing outside the door. Is there a spell to save him?As of 12/05:The show is still ripping along. Trouble (Trubel) appears to be off on her own - which is a shame since she adds a lot to the ensemble cast. Hopefully she will return.The new creatures have been interesting distractions. However, not enough to distract from a rather badly done sidestory on Adeline's detention in the castle of horrors.But Nick has his Grimm back, and the process of getting back has made things with Juliette, always complicated, even more complex. But the stage is now set for an end-of-season battle-of-the-momsters. Momster in this corner is the Captain's hexenbeast mom, determined to find and claim her grand daughter Diana from Momster in that corner, Nick's Grimm and even grimmer mother. When these two meet up, we have to wonder if there will be a sneak attack, a battle royale, or a Pax Diana that forms an indestructible teaming of two women determined to protect the child together. The bet here is on the latter.And post season finale for Season 4: What a train wreck.In the few episodes leading up the finale, the season had definitely been going great guns. There was a battle royal between Adeline and the newly-created-by-Adeline-Hexinbeast Julliette that was long awaited.But then, madness. In three short shows the writers trashed pretty much the entire show, destroying key relationships and plot lines. Most viewers who follow Grimm (that I have spoken to) liked the lighthearted and funny nature of the show. In what has become a dreary habit of "going dark" with television today, the writers have decided to thumb their noses at that group of people and instead turn the show very dark. They miss, of course, that the many shows that followed Grimm that were darker failed. It was the wrong "lead in" audience.We loved this show. But our reaction to this season's finale, unlike others, is that we really aren't sure we will be tuning in again next season. If we do so, it might be very short lived. We certainly aren't going to purchase the season in advance. We'll catch it on Hulu now.In short, the last four episodes were a huge disappointment for the "direction" the show has taken. If I want dark, I'll watch Game of Thrones (not likely).

Some brilliant camera work and surreal staging and effects. Love the location.

I'll try to reflect my feelings as I was watching the show as it aired last year. There will be some spoilers for S4, though I'll try not to give really egregious ones. This season had a lot of really high highs, and a lot of really low lows. For me, the highs outweighed the lows, so I'm giving it four stars.It starts out with the writers making the wise (albeit frustrating) decision to postpone Nick's getting his powers back for several episodes. Frustrating, because it was frustrating watching Nick without powers, but wise, because when he did get his powers back, thanks to the wait, it didn't feel anticlimactic or cheap. It also gave time for Trubel to develop and for us to see some new sides to Nick, especially his frustrated protective instincts towards Trubel. It was also nice seeing Nick, who has always struggled with being a Grimm, finally realize that he misses it. It felt natural and real. And I loved the incentive for finally moving forward with the cure... after seeing Monroe and Rosalee drop everything to help him in every episode, it was great to see Nick return the favor.Which brings me to the big high highs... Chupacabra, Wesenrein, and Tribunal. Those three episodes were absolutely fantastic. Chupacabra was the last episode before the winter hiatus, which lasted months (though thankfully not FOUR months like the S2 hiatus!), and it left us with not one, not two, but THREE extremely exciting cliffhangers to chew on. Then the winter hiatus ended, and Wesenrein and Tribunal were fantastic episodes - easily among the shows best to date - that kept me on the edge of my seat and anxiously awaiting the next installment.Then there was filler, which is to be expected.And then things started to go downhill. Not only IN the show, but FOR the show. Because they took what was an extraordinarily promising storyline involving Nick and Juliette, and... I don't know what they did with it. Sometimes it almost felt like they knew what promise this storyline for Juliette held, and they did everything possible to circumvent all of that promise. One of the main themes of this show has always been that people have choices about what kind of people they're going to be, and don't have to be slaves to their genetics (see, "Monroe")... but whoever the current batch of writers is, I think maybe they missed the memo on that. What they did to Juliette's character... for a long time (specifically, the whole time between the middle of Iron Hans and the middle of Cry Havoc), nothing that Juliette did made any sense to me. Not only was it not identifiable (that's ok, in a villain), but her reasons for becoming a villain were... unrecognizable and not adequately explained. For that entire time between Iron Hans and Cry Havoc, I had no idea what she was thinking or feeling, or why she was doing anything that she was doing. And that colored my enjoyment of the entire rest of the show.Which is really too bad, because the second half of the season still had some really good points. They did a masterful job of mounting the stresses on Nick's head, for example. You really felt for him. They're doing a halfway decent job of totally rewriting Adalind's character in a way that seems somewhat believable (although it will still take a lot of time for most serious fans to be onboard with a Nick/Adalind relationship, which is likely where this is going, if only because it should take Nick some time to grieve his relationship with Juliette and find some closure). Wu's story arc was great to watch. It was great seeing the Council again in Marechaussee (although the unnaturally fleeting nature of what should have been a far-reaching plot - the Council placing a bounty on Nick's head - strained credulity). Cry Havoc (the finale) was another fantastic episode, almost as good as Tribunal, and definitely kept me eager for where Nick's character is going in S5.

Spoiled by some crass minor details involving Apple advertising and product placement -- you can see the bloopers for yourself, such as an Apple computer among a rank of surveillance monitors (all Windows, Unix, Linux or proprietory OS, as such things are), every mobile phone belonging to a "GOOD GUY" being an Apple, every "bad guy" owning a rival brand....ah, such is the world of endorsement. Beyond that, the series is really beginning to deliver some decent blows. What started 4 seasons ago as an obvious effort to make some surplus studio cash disappear before the tax man spotted it now commands a high special effects budget, and can afford grade-A guest stars per episode (check out some of the names...where did you see them before???). Even establishing shots have been upgraded, the trailer no longer sits in the same puddle of water every time it's shown. And it really is bigger on the inside...!The on-going storyline fades in and out of coherency, sometimes very intriguing, at other times, a pile of old drivel. But all in all this is becoming one of the better series on TV. Series 3 ended with the cliff hangar to end all cliff hangars -- a marvellous achievment -- but sadly season 4 kicks off a little lamely and takes a while to get going. Too many unresolved storylines cause a chaos of wandering attention. You begin to understand what's going to happen next long before it actually happens...you just want all that out of the way and some new stories to take their place.

The premise is as before. Creatures described by Brothers Grimm are for real. They remain among us, but in human guise. Most are peacefully integrated, but others pose a threat. Nick is a Grimm, dedicated to protecting Portland from the worst.Dramatic events at last season's climatic wedding here cast long shadows: Nick minus his powers; Captain Renard close to death. Much is to change in Season 4. One main character, hitherto nasty, becomes more tolerable. Another main character, hitherto likeable, rapidly becomes very unpleasant indeed. Tension throughout is high, one massive act of destruction certain to shock fans.Nightmarish? Gruesome? Brutal? Sadistic? You bet! The series remains true to the original stories (which needed much watering down to be rendered palatable for children). Here the tales are for grownups, with occasional humour to lighten the mood.Result? Enjoyable hokum, full of morphing (all by technical wizardry, relieved cast thereby spared hours in makeup). Viewers will have their favourite characters, Monroe and Rosalee mine. (Little Diana is worth the wait.)22 episodes. Interesting bonuses on Disc 6, "Highlight Reels" an exhilarating high-speed look back on major moments.Understatement of the season? "I know it's been a little rough around here lately."Very true. Fans would not have it otherwise.

I am totally hooked on this franchise and, even though it's gone away from the original format, it hasn't lost anything. David Giuntoli is excellent as Detective Nick Burkhardt / Grimm, as is Russell Hornsby as Detective Hank Griffin and Nick's partner, Silas Weir Mitchell as Monroe, Bree Turner as Rosalee Calvert and Sasha Roiz as Captain Sean Renard and Reggie Lee as Sergeant Drew Wu is great. What spoiled it for me was the performance by Bitsie Tulloch who plays Juliette Silverton; she really annoyed me as a lot of her performance, to me, was wooden. She also looks anorexic in this season as she's become drawn and her face looks totally emotionless; perhaps she's had botox. Claire Coffee who plays Adelind Schade over-acts and she really doesn't need to. Fortunately the other characters counteracted this. The introduction of Jacqueline Toboni as Teresa "Truble" Rubel was just inspired and, in the final moments of the last episode, I hope she has succeeded permanently in doing what she did (nothing more or it will be a spoiler). These are personal observations and don't detract from the fact that I'm looking forward to Season 5 if only to see where the writers will take us next.

Following on from the cliff-hanger at the end of season 3 grimm is very much established now in how things will go. There will be some brilliant episodes with imaginative Wesen, great writing, and high stakes. There will be a few filler episodes that really just pad the season to 22 shows a series, and there will be one or two awful episodes.I feel that this series is a good one overall. the issues around nicks powers are dealt with pretty fast, the storyline with Monroe, Rosalee and the extremists is actually pretty hard hitting, and the last few episodes ramp things up pretty hard before a big finish. However there is still some utter rubbish in this season, all I will say in that regard is 'Jack the Ripper' and that accent.If you are interested in season 4 then you must be a fan, and I think that it is actually well worth your time.

This is a series i loved from day 1.It has David Greenwalt(Buffy) on the credits & so thats a hallmark of quality right there.This is better than Buffy! Youll fall in love(or hate) with all of the characters in one weekend binge.This isnt heavy or meaningful....Its just good old fashioned monster of the week entertainment with a decent story arc going through it.Think "Supernatural" crossed with a good cop show.I bought this for my Sister(whos been converted,)& the copy went missing in the post,but this company got straight on it & replaced it within a day.Very satisfied.