Sunday, May 5, 2013

Grimm in Portland

The German media have taken note of Portlandia, available here on DvD, but we have not seen anything on Grimm.

The shows are set in Portland, Oregon, and that's all they have in common. Portlandia is a series set around the life of hipsters, alternative types, dumpster divers and so forth.

Grimm is a fairy tale inspired cop show, much more fun if you enjoy seeing people morph into bears, birds, ogres, beavers, rats, and a host of other creatures.

One aspect we find extremely charming is what you could call their use of "borderline German". Take creature names like Blutbad, Fuchsbau, or Hexenbiest.

Doesn't that sound like fun?  Or how about Bauerschwein and Eisbiber?

One episode, for instance, deals with the murder of a construction company boss, who turns out to be...an Eisbiber. And the name of the company?

Grosszahn!

Big tooth, if you are too busy to look it up. There is more, and better, German in the series, because the Reapers of the Grimm appear to be based out of Germany. We saw the city of Mannheim featured as a base of the bad guys in one episode.

Which makes more sense than the series producers are probably aware of.

The K-landnews team enjoys the quirky, unpretentious style and the fact that the Germans in the series are neither Nazis nor goose stepping ex commies nor Lederhosen wearing beer guzzling yodeling mountain goblins.

Grimm is a funny, well written, well acted take on subject matter that is traditionally relegated to animated movies and well worth watching if you have had enough of the contrived realism of Homeland or the various CSIs.

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