Tag: NBC

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Grimm

Note: Sorry for the long hiatus. I’ve been working 2 jobs, plus trying to selling art, so the last few months have been fairly busy. I’m glad to post again, but I don’t know how frequently I’ll be able to do that. I’m going to try for at least one post a month. If you’re reading, I’m glad that you’re here. 

This delightful little show ran for 6 seasons, from 2011 until 2017. This is another title that I will classify as a Child of the Slayer. I first mentioned this concept back in my post about the television show Reaper, but given that I don’t think anyone reads these posts, I’ll talk about it again. The term is a reference to the wildly popular series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and how that popularity spawned several children, television shows that mimic many aspects of the original. I’ll point out the similarities that make Grimm one of these children, but first, let me tell you about the show. This is not a bad show. I certainly wouldn’t call it a great show, I’m not going to tell anyone that they HAVE to track down this show and watch it, but it will always hold a place near and dear to my heart because of its star – the city of Portland.

The show itself is billed as a horror police procedural and follows the main character Detective Nick Burkhardt (played by David Giuntoli of Privileged and A Million Little Things) and his partner Det. Hank Griffin (Russel Hornsby of Seven Seconds and Proven Innocent). Nick discovers that he is a Grimm, a person with the ability to see mystical creatures that live among us, called Wesen. This is a family heritage, passed down from generation to generation, along with the responsibility to keep these creatures in check, since some of them aren’t so friendly. Given his position as a Portland police officer, he will often discover that he is looking for a Wesen while investigating a case. So, what qualifies Grimm to be a Child of the Slayer? Let me break it down.

First of all, there is the very nature of the show itself. Set in modern day America, there are other-than-normal beings that co-exist with us unnoticed. These beings each have their own histories, traditions, habits, abilities and diets. They are somewhat magical in nature. And many of these creatures, due to their proclivities, prey on humans and could be called evil, though that could just be a human-centric outlook. I should point out that due to the name of the show, all of these creatures are supposed to be related to the ones found in Grimm’s fairy tales. The premise being that the original Grimm was actually a Grimm, like Nick, and that those “fairy tales” were actual stories about the creatures he tracked down and had experience with.

Secondly, he is a “chosen one”, he has abilities, passed down through the family, that others don’t have and allow him to detect and, if necessary, kill these Wesen. This ability to see these creatures is probably his primary ability. These beings look just like ordinary humans for the most part, hold down normal jobs and lead pretty average lives. In times of stress or strong emotion, however, their mask fails a bit and anyone who is a Grimm, such as Nick, can see their true form. That’s his biggest power as far as I can tell. While he always prevails, he never displays steel bending strength or super speed; if he does have actual powers, they are understated to say the least. He does have a few advantages though. One of them being his reputation. Evidently, Grimms have a long history of tracking down and slaughtering Wesen, so those that encounter Nick are usually deathly afraid of him. He also possesses his aunt’s trailer.

His aunt, who is the one who tells him he is a Grimm in the first episode, brings an Airstream trailer with her. Inside is a weapons cabinet, filled with medieval appearing weaponry. Some of these have been chosen, because they are the only thing that can kill this beast or that. Along with the weapons, the trailer contains ancient-looking, illustrated tomes, filled with notes and illustrations of some of the different creatures that have been encountered over the years. Often times, an episode involves a great deal of research to figure out what they’re dealing with and how to defeat it. I suppose you could say that this research is another way that Grimm is like Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

But this wouldn’t be a Child of the Slayer without the Scoobies. The first one we meet is Monroe (played by Silas Weir Mitchell of Prison Break and My Name is Earl), a Big, Bad Wolf flavor of Wesen, though the show calls him a Blutbad. By day, a mild mannered clockmaker, but in his Wesen form he’s basically a werewolf. Seriously, he rips a guys arm off in the second episode. Then there is Bud (played by Danny Bruno of Nowhere Man and Leverage), who is an Eisbiber. I don’t know what that is supposed to be, but he is adorable. He acts a liaison between Nick and the rest of the Wesen community. Later we meet Rosalee (played by Bree Turner of Undressed and Good Girls Don’t) who runs an herb shop. She is a foxlike Wesen called a Fuchsbau (who the hell makes up all these names?) and assists in researching lore and creating potions.

I hesitate to name Hank as a Scoobie. He is Nick’s partner and he does help out with the cases, but for a good chunk of the show he has no idea that Nick is a Grimm or that there are even things called Wesen. Then there is Sergeant Drew Wu (played by Reggie Lee of Prison Break and All Rise), a Portland police officer who also helps Nick in a professional capacity, but, like Hank, has no knowledge of anything Wesen. That being said, Wu became one of my favorite characters of the show.

It’s no real surprise that Grimm gives off such Buffy vibes, it has a more direct connection than most other of the Slayer’s children. One of the showrunners was David Greenwalt who was also a co-executive producer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and co-creator of its spinoff Angel. Another showrunner, Jim Kouf, also worked on Angel. Even Alex Denisof was in a few episodes. Yes, the actor who played Wesley in both Buffy and Angel, was Viktor Albert Wilhelm George Beckendorf, a power hungry human trying to rule the world.  As for other people who worked on the show, I did try to find out the writers, or at least the process, for coming up with the names for the different Wesen. Turns out they’re most just German words, which many times make no sense when translated. There are over 100 different Wesen presented in the show, so they dipped into other mythologies and, when they did, the names were words from those cultures. I did find out who did the illustrations in the many books they pour over. Carly Sertic is a freelance film maker and graphic designer who has worked on several other productions. Her Oregon connections are strong. She graduated from the University of Oregon and has worked on Portlandia and Twilight. There are a few other crew members with Joss Whedon connections. Jose Molina was a co-executive producer for 5 episodes of Grimm, but he also worked on Firefly and Agent Carter.

The show is not without its problems. The whole Grimm’s fairy tale thing doesn’t always work and often comes off as a bit forced. In the first season, we get to see Wesen based on bees and for the life of me I can’t remember any bee creatures in any fairy tales. The show tends to start mysteries and plot threads that fizzle out and go nowhere. The woman playing Nick’s wife, Juliette (played by Bitsie Tulloch of Quarterlife and Superman & Lois), is annoying as hell. They must have realized this, because they kill her off and bring her back as a Hexenbeast, a witch-like Wesen, which doesn’t really improve her any. Later in the show, season 5, I think, they introduced another Grimm to the cast, Trubel (played by Jacqueline Toboni of Easy and The L Word: Generation Q). I’m not sure what the writers were thinking introducing her character so late in the show, but she just wasn’t that interesting.

But, again, the real reason I watched the show was because of Portland. I’ve lived in Portland for over 20 years and I love this city. I loved the show, because Portland was prominently on display. Unlike certain other shows that filmed in Portland (I’m looking at you Leverage), but pretended they were in another city, Portland landmarks were celebrated. Nick and Juliette’s house was classic Portland, in a charming little Northeast Portland neighborhood. The exterior of the U.S. Custom House building downtown was often shot for the police department that Nick worked at. There’s a scene at popular tourist spot Multnomah Falls. A number of episodes were filmed at Hoyt Arboretum. Fuller’s Coffee Shop, the Raven & Rose and Nell’s Cafe all had scenes in Grimm. The easily recognizable pink boxes of Voodoo Donuts show up on a regular basis. They even filmed a scene at a house across the street from where I was living in North Portland.

But as I had said, it was far from a perfect show and if you weren’t in love with Portland, Grimm may not have made quite the impression that it did on me. It got mixed reviews from the critics, though it did seem to have a pretty loyal following from the viewers. There was a spinoff planned, one that would focus on a female Grimm, perhaps that was what they had planned for Trubel, but it the project was declared dead as of June 2021. It was popular enough to get a comic book series from Dynamite Entertainment, which lasted about a year. Three novels were published based off of the show. Episodes are not easy to find these days. I looked for it on the NBC website and then on Peacock, NBC’s new streaming service, but no dice. Amazon Prime has it, which seems like an odd place for it and ensures that I won’t be watching reruns anytime soon. I’m not too concerned; it was a fun show while it lasted, but there are better things to watch right now. And besides, the star of the show, the city of Portland, I just happen to live with her.

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Chuck

Before there was Limitless, the Bradly Cooper vehicle about a brain boosting drug, there was Chuck. The hero trope has been around since before the Greeks spoke of Olympus, someone special, better, and with the will to fight to make the world a better place. In some of the earliest stories, this came in the form of overwhelming strength, as in a Samson or Hercules, or extreme prowess, as in the Samurai mythos or even Robin Hood. As we have entered more of an information age, intelligence, both intellectual and emotional, have come to the forefront when it comes to superpowers. Perhaps Neo of The Matrix films could be considered in this sense, having the intelligence and perception to see through the veil of “reality” and tap into the source code underneath. I’ve already mentioned the Limitless franchise (the TV show was pretty damn good) and another obvious entry into this category is the Scarlett Johansson movie, Lucy. But, in 2007, an unassuming little action/comedy came along called, Chuck.

Since this was never the most popular of shows, I’m going to assume that the majority of viewers haven’t seen this one, so here it goes. The titular character, Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi of Shazam and voice acting for several of the Tangled films), is a directionless 20 something, working as an IT guy for a big box electronics store. The show presents Chuck’s “best friend” as Morgan Grimes (Joshua Gomez of Invasion and Without a Trace), a fellow employee at the unimaginatively named Buy More store, but, honestly, I see little in their relationship that I would call friendship. I’ll talk more about this, but let’s table it for now while I go on with the rest of the show. Chuck lives with his sister, Ellie (Sarah Lancaster of Saved by the Bell: New Class and Everwood), and her fiance, Devon, AKA “Captain Awesome” (Ryan McPartlin of Sequestered and L.A.’s Finest), both of them doctors.

The premise of the show begins when a former classmate of Chuck’s, Bryce Larkin (Matthew Bomer of Doom Patrol and White Collar), a CIA agent, emails something called the Intersect to Chuck. Upon opening the email, Intersect, the merged database of both the CIA and NSA, downloads itself into Chuck’s brain. Bryce then destroys the computer that the Intersect had been in, making Chuck the only known repository of the secrets of two of America’s biggest intelligence agencies. Unfortunately, Agent Larkin dies in the process. Given the resources of the NSA and CIA, they have little trouble tracking down Chuck and send two agents to deal with him. The CIA sends the obligatory (not that the CIA is obligated to send a hot, female agent, but that a show of this nature is obliged to have a hot, female lead) hot, female lead, Agent Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski of Dexter and A Handmaid’s Tale), while the NSA sends the farcically intimidating , Major John Casey (Adam Baldwin of Firefly and The Last Ship). These two are allies in that they both must protect the asset that Chuck has become, but adversaries in that they are from two separate entities that each have a vested interest in Chuck.

So, what sort of asset is Chuck? Not much, at first, him being portrayed early on as the bumbling everyman that has had greatness thrust upon him. He’s mainly a repository for knowledge. He’ll be in a situation, then something will trigger these “flashes”, times when the Intersect is activated by some clue in the environment and a quick cut montage of images will be played to indicate these classified details that enter his mind. This Intersect will allow Chuck to defuse bombs, recognize international terrorists, etc. Other than this ability, he is a liability in the field, flanked by the more experienced agents Walker and Casey, Chuck displays no coolness under pressure, no fighting prowess, no more abilities than hiding under a table and somehow not being hit by the swarms of bullets flying around him. This will gradually change over the course of the series, when the Intersect seems to be able to imbue him with an almost inhuman ability at spy craft. Depending on the situation, viewers will see Chuck become a master martial artist, an expert marksman, he’ll even get the ability to play musical instruments and speak a foreign language. The whole thing can get somewhat deus ex machina at times, but given that the show never really takes itself that seriously, it’s not that disruptive to the narrative.

The high point of the show for me is the romance that develops between Chuck and Sarah. It’s obvious from the start, and no different than what a hundred other shows like it have done, but Strahovski does such a great job with Sarah’s character, it just feels natural. And, yes, I’m giving her most of the credit. Levi is great, but his investment in the Sarah/Chuck flirtation seemed minimal. The low point of the show is Chuck’s “best friend” Morgan. This character is about as appealing as a cold sore. I’m not sure what the producers envisioned for this character, but over the course of the show, we see him constantly perv on Chuck’s sister, sneak into Chuck’s room without anyone’s knowledge or permission, shirk work duties that would help Chuck, blow Chuck’s mission on several occasions and just generally be an annoyance to everyone. Possibly this was meant to be comic relief, but the guy seems like absolute slime to me. Now that I’m thinking about it, there’s a number of elements about the show that bother me. Why were Chuck and his sister (along with her fiancé) living together. Sure it’s Burbank and it’s expensive, but they were both doctors. Even if they were residents, together they easily could have afforded their own place. Did they just pity Chuck? Also, having the intelligence agents work nonsensical cover jobs to keep an eye on Chuck was ridiculous. Again, I feel this was to add one more comedic element to the show, but, damn, did it get old quick.

So, while I did enjoy the show, it was by no means perfect. And I’m certainly not alone in that, given that the show teetered on the renewal roster for almost its entire run. As early as season 2, NBC considered canceling Chuck, due to it’s consistently low ratings, but fans launched a “Save Chuck” campaign to bring a season three into existence. There was the standard letter writing and push for renewal on social media, but then they got creative by teaming up with Subway. Yes, the restaurant chain; please note that this was all before the Jared Fogle arrest, which occurred in 2015. As Chuck’s run continued, constantly plagued with the threat of cancellation, fans would team up with a number of unlikely organizations to save their beloved show, such as the American Heart Association. It ran for 5 seasons, which isn’t bad, as shows go. And Agent Bartowski has not been forgotten. There are still Chuck fan websites out there and even Chuck themed fan art. Wildstorm publishing, affiliated with DC Comics, I believe, put out a Chuck comic book, and the cast of Chuck has definitely been doing the Comicon circuit. Their fan base has been so enduring that a Kickstarter for a Chuck movie started up earlier this year. I think these fans know that the world needs a show like Chuck. Sure there’s action, comedy and romance, but it’s all done with such an element of wholesomeness, of innocence, that’s it’s an oasis of entertainment protected from the maelstrom of drama, spite and violence that plagues most of television these days. After I’m done watching the endless parade of bipartisan bickering, the constant reminders of how we are destroying the Earth and the ever looming threat of war, I want a bit of fun escapism. After a year like this one, we need Chuck more than ever.

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Manifest – In Defense of Bad Television

Manifest is NOT a good show. In fact, it’s downright bad. Which is what makes it the epitome a guilty pleasure. For those not in the know, Manifest is an NBC supernatural drama, now in its second season and, in my opinion, has its place along with the other religious-centric shows that I’ve been writing about. But as guilty as these pleasures are they are still pleasures, and even more than that, they are perfect for my art purposes. As I said weeks ago, while some people listen to music or podcasts, I watch videos while I do art, and I can’t do that if they’re too good. I’ve tried doing art to the shows Dark, Mindhunter, The Wire and the like, and it’s simply impossible. Either I get too caught up in these shows and don’t get any art done or I can’t follow the show, because I’m too focused on doing art. I’ve learned to choose my shows carefully and I’ve become quite good at figuring out which shows will work or not. Manifest fits this bill to a tee.

If you are unfamiliar with the show, Manifest follows the passengers of Flight 828, a flight that disappears on its return flight from Jamaica and reappears 5 years later. To the passengers themselves, no time has passed and it’s not until they land that they discover that everyone else has considered them dead. This sets up two parallel storylines. One is the mystery of the flight itself; what happened to it, where were they during that lost time, etc. The second is the effect their return has on everyone they left behind. People who were not on the flight have continued to age normally, marriages dissolved and new relationships formed; five years doesn’t sound like a lot until I think about how different my life was that far back. These are both solid plots, but, of course, they’re not enough for the writers and the show adds one more by giving all the passengers psychic powers.

Not cool ones, like Professor X or Martial Manhunter type psychic powers. No, that would be too useful. These are vague visions that plague the passengers, at times, driving them to suicide, that must be deciphered and agonized over. And this is the primary religious aspect of the show. They start calling these visions “callings”, and, while they seem to make little sense, if they have faith and persevere to follow these callings to wherever they lead, then they will be rewarded. Lives are saved, evils punished, wrongs set right. God or religion is never mentioned, but there is a lot of focus on faith, and the overall tone is so “churchy” that I gotta wonder if they have a religious consultant on staff. The core cast begins to recognize a higher power behind these callings and following the direction of this higher power becomes their mission.

All of this is not why the show is so bad, but it doesn’t help. Although the simplistic nature of the show is so heavy handed, a deft writer and a solid cast could potentially allow the story to rise above these short comings. This is not the case. Central to the show is Ben Stone (Josh Dallas of Once Upon a Time and Zootopia), a mathematics professor, who after returning, commits whole heartedly to his role as holy crusader. Unfortunately, he comes off as such a goody two shoes that it’s hard to root for him in his various quests, his over whelming demeaner being self-righteousness. Equally as bad is his son, Cal Stone (Jack Messina of, well, the only other thing he’s been in is an episode of The Marvelous Ms. Maisel), who seems to be more in tune with these visions, this higher power, than anyone else. Not sure how the show runners envisioned him as, but he comes off as the consummate creepy kid, complete with eye-rolling seizures and portents of death. Rounding out the cast is Michaela Stone (Melissa Roxburgh of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Star Trek Beyond and Legends of Tomorrow), Ben’s sister and a New York police detective, Grace Stone (Athena Karkanis of Suits, Zoo and House of Cards), Ben’s wife who was not on the plane and a few others that I frankly can’t be too concerned over.

None of the characters are likable, all overly dramatic and lacking in any sort of logic in their actions. Compounding this is an outlandish story that includes a shadowy government agency and human testing in a secret laboratory, a hiker who survived being trapped in a cave for a year that has a mysterious connection to flight 828 and a cult of worshipers of the passengers of flight 828 that pops up almost overnight. And, with all this, I still can’t stop watching this show. The mystery surrounding these visions, where they will lead and how they came to be in the first place is just too damn compelling. I don’t know why that is! All my criticism is valid. Hell, if you don’t believe me, just watch a few episodes yourself, and you’ll ask yourself, what the hell does he see in that show, and I honestly couldn’t tell you. Some have called the show the reverse Lost, a previously lost flight returning home and bringing their mystery with them, and they’re not wrong.

And much like Lost, whose mystery made the first season so addictive, Manifest is at risk of being buried under its own questions, if it goes on long enough. Seriously, as much as I love this type of show, unless some of those mysteries are resolved, it’s going to lose its audience. There’s only so far curiosity is going to hold someone. To anyone looking for an hour (or 43 minutes, if I’m being truthful) of mindless TV fun, it’s worth a look, if only to marvel at how cheesy it is. If you’re looking for the next great television show that will stand the test of time, you may want to give this one a pass.

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The Good Place

I was going to write about Messiah, the Netflix miniseries, but with the phenomenal NBC series, The Good Place, coming to an end, I felt compelled to speak a little about that. I’ve been contemplating exactly what to write about this show, and, honestly, it’s not easy. Mainly because I like this show so forking much. I don’t, in general, like sit-coms. I’ve been watching TV since the 70’s, so I’ve seen the entire run of M.A.S.H., of All in the Family, of Happy Days (yes, I saw them “jump the shark”) and the list goes on and on. Sit-coms have barely changed at all. I’m willing to bet I could find jokes and storylines from The Dick Van Dyke show or Gilligan’s Island that play almost verbatim on Last Man Standing or Modern Family. Don’t believe me? There’s an entire website dedicated to listing all of these worn out, over used tropes. With few exceptions, sit-coms are lowest form of television, their position only recently usurped by the worst of the worst, reality based shows.

I started watching The Good Place on the recommendation of a good friend of mine, who shares my love of television, and even then I was hesitant. But, what the hell, it’s only a 30 minute show. How bad could it be? By the end of that half an hour pilot episode, I was hooked and I’ve been a dedicated fan ever since. If you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favor and see it. See it now and let me tell you that the less you know about it, the better. The story follows four individuals that have died and found themselves in “the good place”. Elenor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell of Veronica Mars and Frozen) is a basic girl from Arizona and the first character we are introduced to. Along the way, we meet Chidi Anagonye (William Jackson Harper of Midsommer and the Electric Company), a philosophy professor from Senegal, Tahani Al-Jamil (Jameela Jamil of Freshly Squeezed and The Misery Index), a British socialite, and Jason Mendoza (Manny Jacinto of Supernatural and iZombie), a Taiwanese monk who has taken a vow of silence. These four souls are guided in the afterlife by Michael (Ted Danson of Cheers and Becker), an “Architect” of the good place and Janet (D’Arcy Carden of Broad City and Barry), who is sort of a programmed guide to help the humans. Not a Robot!

The cast is great, each one portraying their character with enough strength to express their individuality and not just become part of the group. I’m not going to weep once the show is over (well, maybe just a little), but I’ve really developed an affection for these fictional characters, as only the best shows can inspire one to do (I’m looking at you, Buffy Summers!). The writing is smart, weaving philosophical concepts into the jokes, without being pedantic. It’s heart-warming without being sappy and deep (we’re pondering the freakin’ afterlife here) without being cerebral. While the Christian framework from which the story takes place is thinly veiled, it doesn’t let itself get bogged down in religion. God and the Devil are never mentioned, angels and demons are mostly referred to as Architects, Heaven and Hell as the Good Place and Bad Place respectively. Even purgatory gets included as the Medium Place. One of the reasons I didn’t mind bumping my piece on the show Messiah is because the Good Place fits in with the whole theme of using religion as a major plot device, though they have chosen the path of comedy, rather than drama.

As a visual artist, I have to give a special shout out to whoever did the sets and costumes on The Good Place. They are spectacular, some of them being so over the top that I was distracted from what was actually going on. The show itself was created by Michael Schur, who also did The Office and Parks and Recreation, so the type of comedy is really no surprise. In researching the show to write this piece, I learned that he based a number of the premises and cliffhangers on the show Lost, which came as a total surprise to me. There is nothing I don’t love about this show, including, unfortunately, its all-to-short, four season run. In the wise words of Elenor, “Every human is a little bit sad, all the time, because you know you’re going to die. But that knowledge is what gives life meaning.” While I am sad to see it go, the ending is one of the things that makes this show so special.