What we're talking about

Kevin Boyle on Would you vote for this guy? Go Clive, you got my vote, its about time that someone stands and says it for what it is !!!!we work to hard to be treated ... more
Mei-Lee Morris on Asbestos awareness walk Hey Guys!! Well done!! Keep up the good work!!! Looking forward to seeing you all tonight!!! more
Johnny on Foreign aid delay If bob carr stopped wasting millions on traveling around the world they might be able to pay the foreign aid !! Do they ... more
Dellas on We'll sign NDIS on our terms Western Australia. The richest, yet most draconian State in the country.Colin Barnett, Helen Morton and Troy, ... more
sherley dionne on Engelbert Humperdinck engelbert,you are (TU EST D,UN AUTRE MONDE)GENTLEMEN,CHARISME EXTRAORDINAIRE,GREAT TALENT,BEAUTÃ? DIVINE ,LOVE YOUR ... more
Kylie Welsh on We'll sign NDIS on our terms NDIS - I am a mother of an 8 yr old boy who was born with Spastic Quadraplegia Cerebral Palsy. He is non verbal, fed through ... more
steve thornton on We'll sign NDIS on our terms In Victoria the state government signed up and then raised my disabled sons rent by 27% the next day. more
Dellas on Horse racing has a problem When one looks at it in a cold logical light, horses really have no place in the modern world, do they?Except for greedy, ... more
Johnny on Power price rise 'dishonest' Just one question where is all the money from the mining boom ??? more
Johnny on Broken promises unacceptable Lets have a recall election that might keep the mongrels honest !! more
Peter on Broken promises unacceptable Good article the only error is that Larry calls it a stadium, where in actual fact it should be called "Colin's Colosseum" more
Luc Del Casale on More boats To those that are refering to the Malaysian solution, if you actually read the policy that sends 800 illegals for 4000 ... more
Johnny on Power price rise 'dishonest' Barnett should stand down he is not fit to run this state he is like Gillard over spent cant manage the money wants to build ... more
jacques v on Referendum on local council Since local govt are not recognized in the Australian constitution, why has the states included local govt in their ... more
Alastair on More marriages, more money Everyone regardless of race, colour, gender etc is entitled to the same rights regardless of who they are, otherewise this ... more
Rusty of Fremantle on Referendum on local council The Gillard Governments rationalisation of a fair and equitable carve-up to WA as witnessed in the NBN, NDIS and GST, would ... more
Dellas on We're more cynical of promises So true, Rod. This is a State without a conscience.Doesn't it make you wonder where all this money has gone? more
dellas on New grading for pre-primary Why on earth would you want stupid people teaching your child?You know, people who use ridiculous words like "descriptors" ... more
ronnie on More boats Howard, I find you to be very hypocritical. You go on about bringing in genuine refugees, and putting these people at the ... more
Barry on More boats This is now beyond a bad nightmare.One illegal refugee costs us Australians $96,000.12.8 million per boatUnhcr sanctioned ... more

Talking TV

Posted by: Paul Entwistle | 23 March, 2011 - 10:52 AM

Andrew Williams' mother must be very proud if not relieved that his seemingly misspent youth glued to the TV is beginning tio pay off. Andrew shares his views and observations on the world of TV every Wednesday at 11.30 in.

Click here for the latest 'Talking TV' episode.

Review of the week

GRIMM

EPISODES SEEN – EPS 1-4

Grimm stars David Giuntoli as Nick Burkhardt, a police detective who finds out he is a ‘Grimm’, someone able to see supernatural creatures masquerading as humans for what they really are. Set in modern-day Portland, Oregon, Grimm also features Russell Hornsby as his partner and Silas Weir Mitchell as a suspect who may not be all that he appears.

Grimm is a categorically silly television show.

If you spend more than, say, 15 seconds thinking about any one plot development in Grimm, you will head down the rabbit hole (plot hole?) faster than you can say ‘Hexenbeast’.

Grimm has silly dialogue and a wooden lead actor best known for a stint on reality television. It has terrible special effects. Half of each episode doesn’t take itself seriously and the other half is convinced it’s the great fantasy horror drama of our times.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Grimm is at its best when it knows how silly it is.

Although countless comparisons have been made with fellow fairytales-in-the-modern-world show Once Upon a Time, Grimm has more in common with the first season of Smallville. They share monster of the week storylines, bland heroes discovering their powers and some of the dodgiest dialogue in the business. But where Smallville got bogged down in romantic subplots, Grimm chooses to keep it simple. Start with a monster of the week, add pretty people, season with some ongoing intrigue and serve.

None of those procedural or serial elements are particularly good – they’re mostly ridiculous – but they’re a fair bit of fun if you don’t think too hard.

This is never more evident than in the third episode, ‘Bee-ware’ (Yep) which features a moment where our lead character is given a surprisingly complex decision to make for a show of this type. Unfamiliar with this brief flirtation with quality, the writers immediately undercut that moment with the kind of vague ‘it begins/he is here/she is coming’ pronoun-based portent of doom that so annoyed anyone who bothered to watch The Event for any length of time. Then even that moment is undercut by some of the worst special FX I’ve seen on a broadcast TV show in quite some time.

On top of that, we get lines like:

“You’re a detective, you work it out.”

(In a bee-related episode) “You better, or I’m the one that gets stung.”

“When do I have time for a bed OR breakfast?”

And my favourite: Our lead character is trying to intimidate a woman that tried to poison his mother. His partner offers to make tea, so our hero sees an opportunity to segue from the apparently innocuous subject of tea to the subject of murder by poison: “Nature is full of powerful concoctions.”

It’s the kind of line that either makes you switch off the TV in disbelief or laugh uncontrollably. I fell in the latter category.

Other great achievements in television:

- Two police officers have to tell a man both that his wife is dead and that he is a suspect, so of course they do it in consecutive sentences.

- Every single fairytale-based creature in the world has taken up residence in Portland, Oregon, and there are heaps of them.

- Our hero’s partner has not clued into anything funny going on, despite the cacophony of weird things he’s encountered in, say, a fortnight. (Including, but not limited to, assassin bee swarms.)

- The lead character’s wife has no issue with the fact he has a creepy creature-research caravan to which he retreats in the middle of the night.

Grimm is not entirely without merit. Silas Weir Mitchell is excellent (and much needed comic relief) as a suspect who is more than he seems in a couple of different ways. Bitsie Tulloch is fun as Burkhardt’s devoted wife, and there are moments where the show actually manages to be a bit scary, no mean feat for a low-budget prime-time US network TV show.

I would be neglecting my duty as a TV critic to suggest there is any circumstance in which you should seek out and watch Grimm. If the premise interests you, though, and you like shows in the Smallville/Supernatural vein, Grimm is just enough fun to be worth passing the time with.

GRIMM AIRS WEDNESDAYS ON FOX8 (5:30 PERTH TIME, 8:30 EST)

Blog comments

Hi Andrew,
I was wondering if you could find out when Smalltime Gangster was due back and if the SBS series The Protectors is still in production.
Rgs
Jason

jason gotch Tuesday 21 February, 2012 - 4:49 PM
The NFL is as close as you will ever see to a legal slave oewrns association. The players are owned by the teams and can usually expect bodily harm once a week.I can understand why the NFL would want to avoid anything that resembles racism in their business.

Thitipon Saturday 11 February, 2012 - 8:29 AM
iam boy

ahmad Friday 2 September, 2011 - 3:56 AM
I love Glee and Dancing with the Stars!

House and Land Packages Perth Tuesday 7 June, 2011 - 7:12 PM