Review of season 1.

Before I started watching "Grimm," I was surprised to find that the writing was widely regarded as having improved pretty much all through its run. That's not something you hear every day about a TV show. But it's true: season 1 visibly improved from beginning to end, and season 2 is better than season 1. I'm mostly talking about the dialogue, which was painfully wooden when they started (and the actors haven't significantly improved, so there's still some woodenness).

That's not to say they've managed to avoid turning the whole thing into a huge fantasy-horror soap opera - they haven't. There's the "good guys" in Portland: Nick the policeman and Grimm and his partner police partner Hank, Blutbad Monroe and his Fuchsbau girlfriend Rosalee, and Nick's girlfriend Juliette, and their dubious Zauberbiest ally, police Captain Renard. Then there's the bad guys in Vienna - the Royal Family who want the mysterious key that Nick has, and who are always attempting to murder Nick (and occasionally his allies). But we're not remotely done: there are the far more dubious groups and people, like the Wesen Council (who have appeared momentarily several times and done dubious things), and we should never forget the vile Adalind Schade, who is all tangled up with everyone and seems to slowly be shifting into someone not-quite-so-vile.

They also went full-on obnoxious with the cliffhanger between the second and third seasons - complete with a title card that was a "fuck you" to their fans, something like "you know we had to do it."

Other notes about the season: they dug into the horror a bit more, with more than just the opening scenes having occasional gooey nastiness. Bug-head-guy was the worst of their CG special effects, but at the same time probably their most successfully creepy story line. The ensemble cast they've put together is quite fun, even if none of them are particularly good actors.