Written by Scott Clifford
Grimm is starting its third season on NBC. The series revolves around homicide detective Nick Burkhardt (David Giuntoli) who learns he’s the last of a line of guardians known as Grimms. Grimms stop mythological/supernatural creatures, that hide among human society called Weser, from destroying them. Helping Nick achieve his goals are his partner Hank Griffin (Russell Hornsby), girlfriend Juliette Silverton (Bitsie Tulloch), and best friend/reformed Wesen named Monroe. His Wesen form is most similar to the Big Bad Wolf archetype that always means well but has a hard time controlling his behavior under a full moon. Other characters include Sean Renard (Sasha Roiz), Nick’s police captain (who is also related to royalty within the Wesen community), and Monroe’s girlfriend, Rosalee Calvert (Bree Turner).
“The Ungrateful Dead,” the premiere episode of the new season, starts off right where season two ended — the team tries to cure the zombies of their afflictions, while finding Nick before he is sent on a one-way trip to Europe. The gang is able to find the airplane that is transporting the coffin (that contains Nick) but they are unable to stop it before it takes off. Nick ends up crashing the plane himself but becomes a liability to the gang. His affliction causes him to attack innocent people, climaxing going into a house with children looking for blood as the episode ends. On the ‘B’ side of things, Analind, a former Hexenblast (think witch archetype) tries to get her powers back with Stefania’s help by burying hands, legs, feet, and a bleeding heart in a poppy field in order to be judged if she will be accepted once again into the Hexenblast fold. The dying field turning black at the end of the episode makes me feel that she will be, but with some unintended consequences.
This episode brought the pace of the series into overdrive in order to get fans back into the swing of things after the long wait. The excuse of not sending fighter jets to stop the plane because it doesn’t involve a terrorist attack feels a little flimsy. I would consider a man who can create zombies at any moment to be a terrorist. It’s okay though because the sequence where Nick fights everyone in the plane and crashes it is exciting enough to be in a movie let alone a broadcast television show. The characters maintain good chemistry. Their witty banter and concern for each other is still genuine in the third season. The balance between those emotions and taking the idea of wrangling zombies into a shipping crate seriously is an impressive feat. I was concerned that Nick would be grunting as a zombie for most of the season but next episode previews show that that’s not something to worry about.
When it comes to the gore requirement, Analind’s ritual to get her powers back fulfills that that and then some. I don’t know how someone could act like a spoiled brat when dealing with black magic but she does it well. Making her pick up a field of dead flowers by hand is probably the best passive-aggressive approach to someone you hate that I have seen in a long time. I can’t wait for something bad happen to Analind and if that’s wrong then I don’t want to be right.
This was a fun series premiere. There’s a lot of action and a lot of possibilities for this season. I look forward to the next episode and you should too.
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