This week I’m looking at not just my own, but one of my whole families favourite characters in Dark Fantasy, Monroe, the Blutbad (pronounced BLOOT-Baad-in) from the television series Grimm.
For a quick description of Grimm, you can either view it as a Fairy-Tale themed Police Procedural or (as I do) the American version of the current Canadian Dark Fantasy series Lost Girl. Basically you have a cop in Portland, OR who finds out he is the last in a long line of Grimms, that is people who can see the monsters (called Wesen in the series) around them and are innately good at fighting and killing these creatures.
In the pilot our Cop/Grimm (named Nick and played by David Giuntoli) comes across the character of Monroe and the two become friends, or I suppose uneasy allies, then friends.
Here’s what I like about Monroe – he’s a kind of wolf-like creature called a Blutbad (which translates to “Blood Bath” in German) who is working very hard, through drugs, diet and sheer willpower, to be a better non-violent person. The idea of a non-violent killing machine is pretty cool, and he also tends to get the best comedic lines in every episode.
Played by Silas Weir Mitchell (Who I had really enjoyed in both My Name is Earl and Burn Notice), the performance is a really nice balance between a man who has found a sort of peace with himself, but is also just barely holding himself over an abyss of primal violence.
Although I’m still a bigger fan of Lost Girl at heart, I have to say that Grimm has grown on me, and a large part of that is due to the character of Monroe .
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