Morning after musing: Grimm 2.01, "Bad Teeth"
Not a bad episode, but not the episode I wanted, either.
Okay, my biggest two gripes with this ep, right off the bat: first, I didn't like that Juliette and Hank's stories were relegated to a B-plot and and a bare mention, respectively. Obviously Nick's mother's story is important, and something that demanded some attention, but I would have preferred to see the balance tipped in favor of the established characters and their dillemas -- particularly since the Kelly/Nick interaction wasn't much about Nick processing her return, but was really more about Kelly herself and a further history lesson. Both of those are things that needed to happen, but maybe not all at once, in the first ep back, and at the expense of time spent on Juliette and Hank. It made me feel as if the mom storyline was hijacking the ep instead of enhancing it. Kelly should have had to wait her turn.
Second, I don't like at all that Nick made peace so quickly with the fact that Kelly abandoned him and let him believe she was dead for eighteen frickin' years. He let her off the hook and reconciled that waaaaay too quickly for me. I was expecting that tension to last a while, and to be the driving force behind their interaction for a some time. The lack of it made their shared parts of the story feel lackluster, to be honest. (I was enjoying their scenes together while Nick was bristling, but as soon as they removed that element, I was kind of over it.)
Now, I feel like the only way to make Kelly compelling is to make her a deceiver. I don't trust her any farther than I could drop-kick her anyway; I wondered in the finale if her appearance right now had more to do with the coins than anything else, and her behavior in light of Nick providing them only worsened that suspicion. So the mistrust was already there, but added to that for me now is kind of a *desire* to see them go that way with her, because otherwise I don't see that she brings much that's new and unexplored to the story.
But, moving on from that, there were things that I liked: the return of Catherine (I heart Jessica Tuck so much. She plays a marvelous bitch), James Frain's debut -- his dry, annoyed "I'm on the *phone*" while his men were torturing the guy behind him was hilarious. I loved the meeting of Monroe, Rosalee, and Kelly as much as I did when I saw the quick clip of it. I loved Rosalee's flash of ferociousness there, and I loved Nick's ragged, frantic "Do NOT hurt him!" to Kelly in defense of Monroe. I also thought it was interesting to compare Monroe's demeanor in meeting his second Grimm to meeting his first. He was certainly at a disadvantage with Kelly, and there wasn't a total absence of alarm in his reaction to her, but there was also no sign of the rattled, deer-in-the-headlights reaction that he had to Nick's attack in the Pilot. Monroe might not have stood a chance against Kelly, but he was gonna go down swinging. I like that he wasn't quite ready to play nice once they were separated, too; he didn't know who she was, but it's a safe bet, given all past Wesen/Nick encounters, that he knew *what* she was, and he didn't really give a crap. He was ready to take a piece out of her anyway. I thought that was an interesting glimpse of his character's evolution. There's definitely a little more of the wolf as a warrior in Monroe here.
I found Juliette's dream really disturbing and well done; the grotesque dissolving of Nick from the memory was creepy and striking and heartbreaking. It makes me dread what's ahead for her, and for them.
The scene with the Mauvais Dentes lying in wait for Nick was pretty cool, though I wasn't as impressed with that character as I expected to be. I think the problem there lies with his human form; it's just not imposing. When he was in creature form, he was scary, but when he wasn't, he was...kinda lame.
All in all...an okay ep, though I feel like it didn't accomplish much, for as *full* as it was. I think this is a case of them chosing to focus the ep on parts of the story that I was less invested in; it *was* covering ground, but not the ground I was hoping it would cover. I didn't need more of Kimura, I didn't need more of Renard being vague and running around threatening everybody in town. (I liked seeing him a little taken aback upon learning there were two Grimms to contend with now.) I liked the Monroe/Rosalee scenes that we got, thouhgh I would have preferred more time spent there. And I'm not thrilled about getting yet another cliffhanger.
Not bad. Not as kickass as what I expected, but I'm still looking forward to next week, and the rest of the season.
Okay, my biggest two gripes with this ep, right off the bat: first, I didn't like that Juliette and Hank's stories were relegated to a B-plot and and a bare mention, respectively. Obviously Nick's mother's story is important, and something that demanded some attention, but I would have preferred to see the balance tipped in favor of the established characters and their dillemas -- particularly since the Kelly/Nick interaction wasn't much about Nick processing her return, but was really more about Kelly herself and a further history lesson. Both of those are things that needed to happen, but maybe not all at once, in the first ep back, and at the expense of time spent on Juliette and Hank. It made me feel as if the mom storyline was hijacking the ep instead of enhancing it. Kelly should have had to wait her turn.
Second, I don't like at all that Nick made peace so quickly with the fact that Kelly abandoned him and let him believe she was dead for eighteen frickin' years. He let her off the hook and reconciled that waaaaay too quickly for me. I was expecting that tension to last a while, and to be the driving force behind their interaction for a some time. The lack of it made their shared parts of the story feel lackluster, to be honest. (I was enjoying their scenes together while Nick was bristling, but as soon as they removed that element, I was kind of over it.)
Now, I feel like the only way to make Kelly compelling is to make her a deceiver. I don't trust her any farther than I could drop-kick her anyway; I wondered in the finale if her appearance right now had more to do with the coins than anything else, and her behavior in light of Nick providing them only worsened that suspicion. So the mistrust was already there, but added to that for me now is kind of a *desire* to see them go that way with her, because otherwise I don't see that she brings much that's new and unexplored to the story.
But, moving on from that, there were things that I liked: the return of Catherine (I heart Jessica Tuck so much. She plays a marvelous bitch), James Frain's debut -- his dry, annoyed "I'm on the *phone*" while his men were torturing the guy behind him was hilarious. I loved the meeting of Monroe, Rosalee, and Kelly as much as I did when I saw the quick clip of it. I loved Rosalee's flash of ferociousness there, and I loved Nick's ragged, frantic "Do NOT hurt him!" to Kelly in defense of Monroe. I also thought it was interesting to compare Monroe's demeanor in meeting his second Grimm to meeting his first. He was certainly at a disadvantage with Kelly, and there wasn't a total absence of alarm in his reaction to her, but there was also no sign of the rattled, deer-in-the-headlights reaction that he had to Nick's attack in the Pilot. Monroe might not have stood a chance against Kelly, but he was gonna go down swinging. I like that he wasn't quite ready to play nice once they were separated, too; he didn't know who she was, but it's a safe bet, given all past Wesen/Nick encounters, that he knew *what* she was, and he didn't really give a crap. He was ready to take a piece out of her anyway. I thought that was an interesting glimpse of his character's evolution. There's definitely a little more of the wolf as a warrior in Monroe here.
I found Juliette's dream really disturbing and well done; the grotesque dissolving of Nick from the memory was creepy and striking and heartbreaking. It makes me dread what's ahead for her, and for them.
The scene with the Mauvais Dentes lying in wait for Nick was pretty cool, though I wasn't as impressed with that character as I expected to be. I think the problem there lies with his human form; it's just not imposing. When he was in creature form, he was scary, but when he wasn't, he was...kinda lame.
All in all...an okay ep, though I feel like it didn't accomplish much, for as *full* as it was. I think this is a case of them chosing to focus the ep on parts of the story that I was less invested in; it *was* covering ground, but not the ground I was hoping it would cover. I didn't need more of Kimura, I didn't need more of Renard being vague and running around threatening everybody in town. (I liked seeing him a little taken aback upon learning there were two Grimms to contend with now.) I liked the Monroe/Rosalee scenes that we got, thouhgh I would have preferred more time spent there. And I'm not thrilled about getting yet another cliffhanger.
Not bad. Not as kickass as what I expected, but I'm still looking forward to next week, and the rest of the season.