Saving up my Grimm...

So I'm a pretty big fan of NBC's Grimm, a fantasy and fairy-tale themed crime procedural which focuses on a man who can see various fairy tale creatures and his attempts to keep his town safe.

But I think I may watch it a little different than most - I've been taping episodes of the current season (4) since last October on my PVR and won't actually start watching them until next month.

For the last few years I've saved up each episode and eventually watched them at a rate of once a day leading up to the season finale, which I then watch live.

In some ways I think it's my family's style of binge watching, only instead of checking out a season over the course of a weekend, it takes me a couple weeks to a month, but at this slightly accelerated rate I feel like the season-long story arcs tend to work a little better for me.

In the last few weeks my wife and I have watched X-Company (CBC), The Americans (FX), Better Call Saul (AMC) and Vikings (History) this way, and honestly, it's working out pretty well for us.

It may not be for everyone, but I have to say, I feel like I get to enjoy the stories without the whole season becoming an amorphous blob in my memory.

Catching Up to my PVR

As the 2013/14 TV season comes to a close and my free time has been on the rise since finishing school, I'm happy to say I'm finally almost down to 50% of the space on my PVR finally being clear.

Which is pretty great as I now have the luxury to choose from the many different series I've had waiting on DVD for a while now.

Having just finished with season two of The Americans (which should definitely be on everyones "to watch" list), my wife and I are now catching up with both Mad Men (only three more episodes until we're up to date) and Grimm (we still have 14 episodes to go, dating back to January 3!)

In the end, I'm currently enjoying a surplus of free time and am finally starting to catch up on my entertainment wish list.

Things I’ve noticed: All my shows are ending!

Even though it’s May 10 today and I’ve still got a few precious weeks with my regular shows, the end is In sight for each of them and pretty soon I’ll be left to work through all the TV series I’ve purchased on DVD since last summer.

Right now I’ve got a couple shows saved up – both Grimm and The Americans sit with more than 10 episodes on my PVR and although I haven’t seen any episodes of Grimm since it’s mid-season hiatus and haven’t even seen the pilot of The Americans, I’m pretty excited to check both of them out.

Past that I’ve got both a lot of books and a video game going on right now – it’s God of War III, and I’ve spent my last three hours of game play doing the same battle over and over again (just a few more hours and I’m sure I’ll defeat that guy!)

Oh yeah, and I’m taking a class in school right now (Children and Youth Services) which is both very interesting, and a huge expenditure of my time.

Hmmm…. Maybe it’s a good thing my shows are running down.

Genre Character of the Week: Monroe

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 .