The Televangelist: ‘Grimm,’ 1-2

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• The better to eat you with, my dear ...

Last week “Grimm” had the dubious fate of being viewed so soon after I watched the British crime drama “Luther.” This week it came on the heels of my watching an even better British crime drama, “Sherlock.” But while the acting and the camera work and some of the logic can’t, of course, hold a candle to what’s been happening with some of these other shows, I can say that “Grimm” improved bit this week from the pilot (as expected), and has set up a fairly layered fantasy world in which it operates its case files.

But “Grimm” is still struggling between being a procedural and a Fantasy Quest for a Chosen One, and as a result both sides of the story suffer. Little things about the mythology niggle me: since guns seem to work just fine on the Reapers, why bother having a medieval war chest? Is Nick’s partner going to, at some point, realize that every time he sends him off at a crucial moment he always returns to find somebody shot and Nick standing there looking earnestly confused? Bless David Giuntoli for being easy on the eyes, but so far he only seems to have two expressions: earnest and confused (or a third, as mentioned, combination of the two). His relationship with his girlfriend seems pretty bland, and not typical of the “rogue cop / chosen one who must venture on his own.” Might she have a short life ahead of her? And then there’s Aunt Marie (R.I.P.) and Nick’s undeveloped partner Hank, who seems to blithely go along with Nick’s strange whims. As my friend Paco noted, “the big bad wolf guys save it.” I completely agree. So far the characters feel familiar and vanilla except for Eddie, our wolf friend. He’s sarcastic, funny, conflicted, relatable and knows a lot more about the world Nick is operating in than Nick does. “What am I, your persona Grimmipedia?” he scoffs. I’ll look forward to Nick actually repaying Eddie for some of his help - as Eddie notes, “you owe me three.” For now Eddie is just tearing arms out from sheer good will. How long can that last?

The COTW revolved around a family of bears whose traditions dictate that they hunt humans as a kind of “bear mitzvah.” I wracked my brain to figure out which Grimm tale this corresponded to, and came up empty. In my post-episode research, I learned a little something about the Brothers Grimm: despite the fact that most of us are only familiar with a handful of Grimm tales, the Brothers were exceptionally prolific, penning hundreds of frightening little stories. (once again, The More You Know!)