ottilie

I actually like the 'royals' storyline the best, and I know the writers have a bunch of constraints to work with. They realize that a lot of the audience can't watch each week so they can't follow a highly detailed storyline, so instead they created a generalized european royal family that wants to regain world power, and a generalized, murky 'resistance' group. I also like that it's implied that witches or hexenbiests will have a larger role this season. If you think about it, most wesen just have a certain personality, like fuchsbau with proclivities for making medicine and a weakness for drug addiction, or trolls which struggle with being bullies. I guess some wesen do have powers to kill in inhuman ways. But hexenbiests have special magical powers that are elevated above regular wesen. But they aren't super-powerful. It's unclear what skills Renard actually has. Since a witch can remove a grimm's powers, were they the ones to initially create them, or to give wesen their alter-ego? Anyway, creating this story beyond Portland which suggests that these bloodlines go back for centuries, helps give some purpose to the characters. Rather than just dealing with a few wesen who wish to steal or use violence on a local basis, it makes it seem like there is a bigger purpose for it all.

yeah - seriously. Grimm has a lot going for it or a sense of style, that most television crime shows or fantasy shows don't have (the acting on CSI which my parents watch is a bit cardboard and the culprit is always the 3rd suspect they consider 10 minutes before the episode ends, and shows like Sleepy Hollow were initially creative but turned into constant, unbelievable violence). Grimm makes Portland look like it is all forest and craftsman houses, and it at least has some fantasy creatures who are charismatic or have a sense of purpose, and the multiepisode stories hold it together. When the Grimm writers sort of write themselves into a corner and have to break the rules of their own fantasy, it at least helps the story - for example giving Hank the power to also see wesen by the magic rubbing off from Nick, even though grimmness is supposed to have family inheritance. It was also inconsistent when Nick's mother at first is shocked that he would socialize with a fuchsbau and werewolf as though all wesen are problems, but then she adopts Adalind's baby for having valuable traits. I think I like Renard the police captain and his story the best, and also any multiepisode stories involving a specific type of wesen. The way they typically have to have Nick discover a new type of wesen to solve a crime and then send them off to jail sort of interrupts the flow of things. I'd like to see wesen with a certain type of criminal tendency such as trolls be a persistent presence in the city, and then we could see how the different groups interact. I couldn't resist biking by 12 blocks out of my way on the way home from work around 4:30p. Didn't want to stop and leer, but I believe what I saw was the crew holding the film camera prepared to shoot a scene with Trubel approaching on a cruiser style bicycle and interacting with someone in a silver high-end car (resembling the latest cadillacs) parked to the side of the house. That could be my misinterpretation and the person with the bicycle could have been someone on their support staff who looked like the actress due to haircut and black jacket, because most of the people standing on the street were their crew. It is clear that they need a few dozen crew to keep it all going. At my job, my coworker Scott got his Volvo featured in this episode of Portlandia because he took it to his mechanic, and the mechanic's brother works on the set of Grimm, and he knew the crew for Portlandia and they needed a Volvo for the hesitating yuppie character Peter to drive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lqKfBp0MyI Anyway, it makes you realize that it would be really hard to be a serious actor who can keep their composure and appropriate emotional tone in a scene when just outside of the camera range, there are all sorts of nonactors staring at them, as a major distraction. My friend's sister's husband was saying that he is waiting for Grimm to come film on his street because he wants to go out with a leaf blower and make them bribe him to stop.

I live in Portland and today I bicycled by the Juliette house at Prescott avenue (which was pointed out in the Oregonian) and they were setting up to film tomorrow. The house had red garland around the front door columns, which many might first associate with Christmas, but the lawn had little plastic crocuses and tulips in it, so perhaps they were trying to make it look like spring. It still looks a lot like summer around here, so they would have a hard time making it look like the rainy season today. There were a couple security guards drinking coffee and signs saying to move your car 10/6 for filming or it would be towed. I don't necessarily see a lot of grimm activity on my pathway around town, although I knew they would have to move the trailer when I saw condos start to go up on the vacant lot. A lot of other people in Portland say that they see the film sets downtown a lot, but then they'll add that they don't watch the show or own a television set

So, a couple of days ago I was at my friend's vegetarian cookbook release party at Microcosm press in Portland. It is by Providence Hospital on Williams street. http://microcosmpublishing.com/ He provided a lot of food that was set out. The actor who plays Bud the beaver came with two friends. I think I must have been one of the only people who actually recognized him and I don't think anyone spoke to him as an actor. I explained Grimm to a few people. One said that Grimm paid his other place of work $300 to rent their parking lot at 11th and Alder.

My more sophisticated friend pointed out that Reynard is the name of a famous trickster character in european folktales, going back hundred of years. Reynard is a fox character who plays a similar role to Br'er rabbit in africa, or coyote or raven in north american stories. They are flawed characters who play tricks and run into trouble, but they also are charismatic and able ally with friends or come back into favor after cheating someone. Do you think the script writers could have possibly randomly selected his name? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynard The figure of Reynard is thought to have originated in Alsace-Lorraine folklore from where it spread to France, the Low Countries, and Germany.[1] An extensive treatment of the character is the Old French Le Roman de Renart written by Pierre de Saint-Cloud around 1170, which sets the typical setting. Reynard has been summoned to the court of king Noble, or Leo, the Lion, to answer charges brought against him by Isengrim the Wolf. Other anthropomorphic animals, including Bruin the Bear, Baldwin the Ass, Tibert (Tybalt) the Cat, all attempt one stratagem or another. The stories typically involve satire whose usual butts are the aristocracy and the clergy, making Reynard a peasant-hero character.[1] The story of the preaching fox found in the Reynard literature was used in church art by the Catholic Church as propaganda against the Lollards.[2] Reynard's principal castle, Maupertuis, is available to him whenever he needs to hide away from his enemies. Some of the tales feature Reynard's funeral, where his enemies gather to deliver maudlin elegies full of insincere piety, and which feature Reynard's posthumous revenge. Reynard's wife Hermeline appears in the stories, but plays little active role, although in some versions she remarries when Reynard is thought dead, thereby becoming one of the people he plans revenge upon. Isengrim (Alternate French spelling : Ysengrin) is Reynard's most frequent antagonist and foil, and generally ends up outwitted, though he occasionally gets revenge. http://en.wikifur.com/wiki/Reynard_the_Fox http://bestiary.ca/etexts/morley1889/morley1889.htm