02-07-2016, 11:44 AM
So i think this has probably been talked about before on the forum in one way or another, but I wanted to place it within the scope of my issues with the latest episode and with this season so far in general.
There are way too many storylines going on right now, and Grimm is not juggling them too well. Part of this issue is that I think they have such a big main cast and no idea what to do with them.
The show has a main cast of 8 (Nick, Adalind, Renard, Juliette/Eve, Monroe, Rosalee, Hank, Wu) and I think it's struggling with finding a place for them all. Especially in light of the fact that this season has been more heavily focused on guest stars like truble and meisner due to the whole uprising plot.
This has been an issue in previous seasons too, specifically with the large focus that they had on the royals and all the time that they spent focused on them. I understand why the writers keep doing this: they want to have an interesting "big bad" and to do that they need time to build them up, and other characters to fill those roles, but its happening at the expense of the cast they already have.
Renard has had next to nothing to do this season, Hank and Wu don't seem to get more than a few lines an episode and I can't remember the last time one of them had a storyline of their own. Even Monroe and Rosalee have been largely periphery this season. Adalind has been relegated to sitting in the bunker worrying about Nick and taking care of Kelly and not doing much else. I have no idea what is going on with Juliette/Eve. And even Nick seems to be being made into a sidekick within his on storyline.
I want to make it clear that I enjoy Meisner and Trubel, I think they're great characters, I don't want them to go away. I also enjoy other periphery and guest actors such as Bud, and I do recognize that they add something to the story. My issue is that this uprising plot is making this season too busy and too unfocused and the writers seem to be struggling to find away to make all of their characters fit into it.
One theory that I have, is that if Grimm focused on their main cast earlier on, on developing individual storylines and backgrounds for ALL of the main characters in earlier seasons instead of spending too much time on side stuff, this wouldn't be such a big issue now.
They had so much potential for Renard as this morally grey mysterious figure. I recently rewatched season 1 and was surprised at how different he was. They could have gone a lot more interesting places with that. But Since Nick found out his identity, he seems to have pretty much just been sidelined to royal plots and giving Nick and Hank free reign on wesen cases. He had a bit more to do last season with the Jack the ripper thing, but that was also pretty badly executed (droppng very obvious hints for weeks and then wrapping it up fairly simply in one episode).
Honestly, with the amount of main characters it has, Grimm could have focused almost the entire show around them and created tighter and more interesting storylines. Renard and Adalind's villainy could have gone to more interesting places than where they went with all the royal baby stuff. Hank and Wu's storylines could have been more complicated after finding out about the world of Wesen. Since they found out, they both just essentially function as people to follow Nick around and help him out occaisionally. Monroe and Rosalee are probably the best utilized characters except for Nick and Juliette/Eve, but I'm sure even they could be more involved.
Juliette/Eve has been another issue, and I guess your preconcieved notions and opinions on the acress and/or character will color how you see that. But I just want to specifically talk about the way that she's been written over the series. It feels like the writers have just been trying to shoehorn her in instead of trying to integrate her in a way that made sense with the storyline. I'm not a fan of this Eve stuff, but I do like that she has a more direct link to the story. HOWEVER, what I do not like is that it seems that she's becoming a bigger focal point than even Nick. It seems the writers don't know how to do anything halfway with this character. They either completely sideline her and make it so the series would not be different if she was gone (like in the first couple of seasons) or they make her front and center in a way that makes her impossible to ignore for those that are not enjoying the storyline (like the past couple of seasons).
Now I'm not saying that Renard and Adalind should have stayed villains forever, or that Nick and Juliette's relationship should never have evolved, I'm just saying that I wish the writers utilized a tighter narrative focus in order to achieve these things. They had so much potential and so many storylines that have been pushed aside and forgotten. They seem to do things on a whim, and it makes it hard for me as a viewer to connect with characters I don't really ever get to know because the writers change things up whenever they get a new or "dramatic" storyline idea. They have a wonderful main cast of actors, but right now it feels like their talents are being squandered.
This is entirely my opinion, and I am aware that it has gotten a little ranty, but Grimm has been one of my favorite shows since it started, and I was sad too look back and see how much potential it started with only to see where it's ended up now. I'm hoping that the writers really rectify some of these issues in the rest of the season.
There are way too many storylines going on right now, and Grimm is not juggling them too well. Part of this issue is that I think they have such a big main cast and no idea what to do with them.
The show has a main cast of 8 (Nick, Adalind, Renard, Juliette/Eve, Monroe, Rosalee, Hank, Wu) and I think it's struggling with finding a place for them all. Especially in light of the fact that this season has been more heavily focused on guest stars like truble and meisner due to the whole uprising plot.
This has been an issue in previous seasons too, specifically with the large focus that they had on the royals and all the time that they spent focused on them. I understand why the writers keep doing this: they want to have an interesting "big bad" and to do that they need time to build them up, and other characters to fill those roles, but its happening at the expense of the cast they already have.
Renard has had next to nothing to do this season, Hank and Wu don't seem to get more than a few lines an episode and I can't remember the last time one of them had a storyline of their own. Even Monroe and Rosalee have been largely periphery this season. Adalind has been relegated to sitting in the bunker worrying about Nick and taking care of Kelly and not doing much else. I have no idea what is going on with Juliette/Eve. And even Nick seems to be being made into a sidekick within his on storyline.
I want to make it clear that I enjoy Meisner and Trubel, I think they're great characters, I don't want them to go away. I also enjoy other periphery and guest actors such as Bud, and I do recognize that they add something to the story. My issue is that this uprising plot is making this season too busy and too unfocused and the writers seem to be struggling to find away to make all of their characters fit into it.
One theory that I have, is that if Grimm focused on their main cast earlier on, on developing individual storylines and backgrounds for ALL of the main characters in earlier seasons instead of spending too much time on side stuff, this wouldn't be such a big issue now.
They had so much potential for Renard as this morally grey mysterious figure. I recently rewatched season 1 and was surprised at how different he was. They could have gone a lot more interesting places with that. But Since Nick found out his identity, he seems to have pretty much just been sidelined to royal plots and giving Nick and Hank free reign on wesen cases. He had a bit more to do last season with the Jack the ripper thing, but that was also pretty badly executed (droppng very obvious hints for weeks and then wrapping it up fairly simply in one episode).
Honestly, with the amount of main characters it has, Grimm could have focused almost the entire show around them and created tighter and more interesting storylines. Renard and Adalind's villainy could have gone to more interesting places than where they went with all the royal baby stuff. Hank and Wu's storylines could have been more complicated after finding out about the world of Wesen. Since they found out, they both just essentially function as people to follow Nick around and help him out occaisionally. Monroe and Rosalee are probably the best utilized characters except for Nick and Juliette/Eve, but I'm sure even they could be more involved.
Juliette/Eve has been another issue, and I guess your preconcieved notions and opinions on the acress and/or character will color how you see that. But I just want to specifically talk about the way that she's been written over the series. It feels like the writers have just been trying to shoehorn her in instead of trying to integrate her in a way that made sense with the storyline. I'm not a fan of this Eve stuff, but I do like that she has a more direct link to the story. HOWEVER, what I do not like is that it seems that she's becoming a bigger focal point than even Nick. It seems the writers don't know how to do anything halfway with this character. They either completely sideline her and make it so the series would not be different if she was gone (like in the first couple of seasons) or they make her front and center in a way that makes her impossible to ignore for those that are not enjoying the storyline (like the past couple of seasons).
Now I'm not saying that Renard and Adalind should have stayed villains forever, or that Nick and Juliette's relationship should never have evolved, I'm just saying that I wish the writers utilized a tighter narrative focus in order to achieve these things. They had so much potential and so many storylines that have been pushed aside and forgotten. They seem to do things on a whim, and it makes it hard for me as a viewer to connect with characters I don't really ever get to know because the writers change things up whenever they get a new or "dramatic" storyline idea. They have a wonderful main cast of actors, but right now it feels like their talents are being squandered.
This is entirely my opinion, and I am aware that it has gotten a little ranty, but Grimm has been one of my favorite shows since it started, and I was sad too look back and see how much potential it started with only to see where it's ended up now. I'm hoping that the writers really rectify some of these issues in the rest of the season.