Friday, November 2, 2012

'Grimm' Review - 2.10 The Hour of Death

        On the newest episode of NBC's Grimm, a brutal vigilante homicide is made public and sends the Wesen community into a frenzy; Nick discovers the pattern is similar to that of a brutal line of past Grimms and must learn if another Grimm is in town or if it's a copycat; and Captain Renard offers Juliette comfort in handling her ongoing dilemma with Nick.

        After a somewhat decent/polarizing Halloween, Grimm this week was able to tune out a fantastic episode. The hour was able to hit deep at some very big thematic issues of the series and was mostly successful in that venture - except for the misstep that is the Juliette-Renard love story. How Nick has changed the status quo of being Grimm has been one of the overall narrative ideals of this series and this episode added a unique situation/villain that was able to test those boundaries.
        I will admit that it took a long time to really get into this episode. Around the time that the torture video was posted, the hour's main plot was riddled with great tension and through into question the traits of several main characters. Sure, it was pretty predictable to guess that Ryan the intern was the killer. It's always those awkward and quiet ones whose small presence in previous episodes make you question why the show is devoted so much time to him. The fact that he wasn't even a Grimm made the theme hit extra hard because for centuries the Wesen community have learned to fear Grimms and Nick is trying to change that by having a code.
        Everything the show does well in this episode is unfortunately undercut by how terribly slow moving and awkward the whole Juliette and Renard love subplot is. In past reviews, I asked the show to accelerate this story along so we can burn through the plot faster and I believe they heeded that advice in this episode. I'm still not invested in this plot but perhaps now it will come to a head much quicker and thusly allow the show to do something else later on this season.


So what did everyone think of the episode? How annoying is it that Hank always has to ask if the person is a Wesen? Do you care about the Juliette-Renard stuff? Share your thoughts in the comments.