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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Entertainment
Katharine Pollock

Grimm: a paint-by-numbers cop drama – with a magic detective and mythical beasts

David Giuntoli as Nick Burkhardt in Grimm.
David Giuntoli as Nick Burkhardt, a Grimm who must maintain the balance between humans and mythical creatures known as Wesen. Photograph: NBC/Rex Features

The dream of the 90s is alive in Portland, but so is the fantasy of the 1800s. Specifically, Grimms’ Fairy Tales from 1812, from which the modern-day police procedural Grimm draws heavily. Created by Stephen Carpenter, Jim Kouf and David Greenwalt, Grimm ran for six seasons in the 2010s, starting to mixed reviews and ending with the critical consensus that it was solid viewing.

For a diehard Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan, the involvement of Greenwalt – co-executive producer on Buffy and co-creator of spin-off Angel – guaranteed I’d be watching. Fans of Angel will clock several similarities: Grimm’s homicide detective Nick Burkhardt (David Giuntoli) solves grisly cases, as does private detective Angel. Both of them have secret supernatural identities: Angel is a vampire with a soul and Nick is a Grimm, a guardian who must maintain the balance between humans and mythical creatures known as Wesen. (German for “being” or “creature”: there’s quite a bit of German etymology sprinkled throughout the show.)

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