Grimm - "One Night Stand" - Review

Intro

Alrighty then, after a nice refreshing lunch, I'm ready to launch into my second Grimm review of the day. And this one's on time! Yay!

SPOILER WARNING

The following review is for Grimm, Season 3, Episode 4: "One Night Stand." If you haven't seen the episode, I suggest you do so before reading my review. Even my characters lists contain spoilers.

Grimm - "One Night Stand" - Review

Characters:

• Detective Nick Burkhardt - Played by David Giuntoli. Grimm. Juliette's boyfriend. Hank's partner.
• Juliette Silverton - Played by Bitsie Tulloch. Human. Nick's girlfriend.
• Monroe - Played by Silas Weir Mitchell - Wieder Blutbad. Rosalee's boyfriend.
• Rosalee Calvert - Played by Bree Turner. Fuchsbau. Monroe's girlfriend.
• Captain Sean Renard - Played by Sasha Roiz. Hexenbiest. Royal.
• Detective Hank Griffin - Played by Russell Hornsby. Human. Nick's partner.
• Sergeant Wu - Played by Reggie Lee. Human.
• Adalind Schade - Played by Claire Coffee. Former Hexenbiest.
• Sebastien - Played by Christian Lagadec. Renard's spy.
• Daniel Hopkins - Played by Pritesh Shah. Human. Deceased.
• Jake Barnes - Played by Michael Welch. Human. Love interest of Elly.
• Sarah Mahario - Played by Sara Fletcher. Naiad.
• Anna Mahario - Played by Lauren Luiz. Naiad.
• Elly Mahario - Played by Stephanie Nogueras. Naiad. Deaf.
• Abel Mahario - Played by Brian McNamara. Naiad. Father of Sarah, Anna, and Elly.
• Dominic - Played by Derek Ray. Naiad. Engaged to either Sarah or Anna.
• Jesse - Played by Coltron James. Naiad. Engaged to either Sarah or Anna.

Review:

I was incredibly impressed with this episode of Grimm. We got an interesting mix of Mythology and Fairy Tale with the Naiads. The story very much reminded me of a modern retelling of The Little Mermaid. I enjoyed the look of the Naiads and the bit of their culture we got to learn in this episode. I found it interesting that they could die pretty quickly from dehydration and the makeup showing that was awesome. My arms started to itch just looking at those girls.

The Naiad culture surrounding mating and whatnot was infuriating. It's completely believable that archaic traditions would still hold in certain regions, as we've seen before with the Coyotl Wesen. I seriously wanted to beat Dominic and Jesse up myself for the way they treated Elly and her sisters. I thought the concept of "cutting" Naiad webbing was reminiscent of any kind of mutilation, especially female genital mutilation, in this context.

The parts of the episode detailing Rosalee moving in with Monroe were super adorable. My favorite parts there were Rosalee shoving Monroe out the door with Hank and Nick and the scene with the ugly rabbit. Rosalee essentially shoving Monroe out the door was hilarious. I feel like they're almost married already. I thought it was completely realistic that Monroe would both try too hard and also be a bit afraid of sharing bits of himself he didn't before.

Lastly in the review section, I'd like to talk a bit about Nick's abilities. We got to see him display his super-hearing almost on purpose. We saw his fighting skills, which I'm gonna assume included some level of extra strength, by the looks of things. We saw some enhanced sight underwater when Nick went to rescue Elly. And then we saw that he was underwater for a lot longer than he should have been and Hank saw some death-palor or something. I didn't really notice, though I looked for it after Hank mentioned it. Nick's definitely moving down the road of being more super-human than before. I'm liking the slow transition there.

Overall, "One Night Stand" was an impressive episode. I very much enjoyed all the effect, the makeup, the dialogue, and the story. It was a fun ride and I can't wait to see what's coming next week. Looks like something suitably creepy.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Everyone got to be super cute today.
• Renard knows about Adalind now. Yay.
• Love the underwater stuff, especially the lack of other noise. Didn't even notice if there was music during that bit.
• Juliette doesn't know about Nick's mom and is now gonna suspect him of having an affair or something. This is why Juliette checking Nick's email is a bad thing.

Favorite Lines:

"Let's round up the unusual suspects." - Renard

"No one is [normal], Jake. It's Portland." - Nick

Housekeeping

Let me know what you thought of the episode or my thoughts on it in the comments below, if you would. I'm curious.

As I did not get very far at all into my catching up yesterday, I'm going to go attempt to do that. Again I've got my nephew this evening so I've got a limited amount of time to actually do much. I'll catch up with things eventually.

Love ya, Jessie

Grimm - "A Dish Best Served Cold" - Review

Intro

This review will be done entirely in note-form. I watched the episode, but hadn't actually taken notes on it, so I jotted down some notes later that night. They're longer than my usual "Miscellaneous Notes," but if you were expecting a full review for this episode... I'm sorry to disappoint. My head just wants to get on with the review for this week's Grimm instead.

SPOILER WARNING

The following review is for Grimm, Season 3, Episode 3: "A Dish Best Served Cold." If you haven't seen the episode, please do so before reading my notes/review. Even my character lists contain spoilers.

Grimm - "A Dish Best Served Cold" - Review

Characters:

• Detective Nick Burkhardt - Played by David Giuntoli. Grimm. Juliette's boyfriend. Hank's partner.
• Juliette Silverton - Played by Bitsie Tulloch. Human. Nick's girlfriend.
• Monroe - Played by Silas Weir Mitchell - Wieder Blutbad. Rosalee's boyfriend.
• Rosalee Calvert - Played by Bree Turner. Fuchsbau. Monroe's girlfriend.
• Captain Sean Renard - Played by Sasha Roiz. Hexenbiest. Royal.
• Detective Hank Griffin - Played by Russell Hornsby. Human. Nick's partner.
• Sergeant Wu - Played by Reggie Lee. Human.
• Adalind Schade - Played by Claire Coffee. Former Hexenbiest.
• Graydon Ostler - Played by Dan Bakkedahl. Bauerschwein. Chef.
• Bud - Played by Danny Bruno. Eisbiber. Refrigerator repair man. One of Nick's friends.
• Sebastien - Played by Christian Lagadec. Renard's spy.

Notes/Review:

• Interesting mystery on both sides of the Atlantic. Renard will soon know that Adalind was working with Frau Pech.
• I liked the solution to the Blutbad poisoning. I figured it was a ruse when Hank poked Monroe, though. Nick's reaction to accidentally killing his friend would have been much worse than it was if he'd actually done it. I do kind of wonder where they got all the Blutbaden to pull that off, but it was cool.
• Nick's zombie side-effects seem to be medically unexplainable.
• Loved the little Scoobie party over Nick moving out of Monroe's. Was not expecting that. Monroe covered surprisingly well.

Housekeeping

Okay, now on to the review for last night's Grimm, since I have time. W00T for unexpected days off.

Love ya, Jessie

Grimm - PTZD - Review

Intro

Third and most likely final review for this evening. All the rest of the intro-ness can be found by reading the intro I posted with my Supernatural review today.

SPOILER WARNING

The following review is for Grimm, Season 3, Episode 2: "PTZD." If you have not seen the episode, you should do so before reading my review. I spoil stuff, as usual.

Grimm - "PTZD" - Review

Characters:

• Detective Nick Burkhardt - Played by David Giuntoli. Grimm. Juliette's boyfriend. Hank's partner.
• Juliette Silverton - Played by Bitsie Tulloch. Human. Nick's girlfriend.
• Monroe - Played by Silas Weir Mitchell - Wieder Bultbad. Rosalee's boyfriend.
• Rosalee Calvert - Played by Bree Turner. Fuchsbau. Monroe's girlfriend.
• Captain Sean Renard - Played by Sasha Roiz. Hexenbiest. Royal.
• Detective Hank Griffin - Played by Russell Hornsby. Human. Nick's partner.
• Stefania Vaduva Popescu - Played by Shohreh Aghdashloo. Human. Gypsy.
• Sergeant Wu - Played by Reggie Lee. Human.
• Eric Renard - Played by James Frain. Royal. Captain Renard's brother. Deceased.
• Adalind Schade - Played by Claire Coffee. Former Hexenbiest.
• Frau Pech - Played by Mary McDonald-Lewis. Hexenbiest. Deceased.
• Two other detectives investigating the bar fight... who I can't find on IMDB so... *shrug*

Review:

This is the episode in which the action started last Season finally winds down. It's also the episode in which Nick has to reconcile the crap he did as Hulk-Nick with keeping himself on the safe side of the law. Also, Nick seems to be suffering from some kind of weird after-effect of being Hulk-Nick. Lastly, Adalind has to continue the creepy rituals to regain her powers.

I was confused when the episode started. Last thing I remembered, Renard, Hank, and Monroe were entering the bar and leaving Juliette and Rosalee outside. Apparently, I misremembered things or else there was a weird little time-skip. Either way, we pretty much picked up the action where we left off in the last episode. Hulk-Nick goes to terrorize some people in a house and almost gets shot while Monroe and Hank track him through the woods.

Hulk-Nick gets to fight all the guys and back hand Juliette before Rosalee stabs him with the cure-needle-thing. He doesn't wake up until a second dose is administered and then spends a day in a death-like sleep. The effects with the sleep thing were weird. Not sure why Nick turns grey every time, but he's pretty obviously messed up from being Hulk-Nick.

On a lighter note, Nick gets to use his Grimm-powers from last Season. That was fun. It was also fun to see the Scooby Gang come together in order to protect Nick. I'm not entirely sure why Nick suddenly has a problem with accidentally killing someone while under what is essentially a curse. I mean, yeah, he has a conscience, but the fact that he wanted to turn himself in was a bit over the top for me. After all, he spent two Seasons covering up for having to dispatch Wesen and didn't really seem to have a problem with that.

I kind of enjoyed Renard's cover-up for Nick. However, the scene where we see him trashing the bar office was unnecessary. I think we pretty much had that figured out when he pulled out the hard drive.

Adalind's disgusting rituals thing continued this episode. It was kind of weird and mostly made me want to puke. However, I really loved Adalind's facial expressions during that entire thing. Not sure whether or not she has her powers back yet, but it sort of seems so.

So, uh, yeah... that's pretty much what I thought. I know it's not my usual well-reasoned review, but I was kind of distracted during part of it and the parts I paid the most attention to, I've discussed here.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Convenient address on mailbox and a barn.
• Yup, leave the girls outside again, because that works well.
• Loved the Hank and Monroe revenge-fueled bonding moment.
• Didn't think for a second Nick would actually turn himself in.
• Surprised that the Frau Pech-goo was CGed on Adalind's stomach.

Housekeeping

So... that's it from me for today, I think. I'm gonna go try to catch up on stuff, since I clearly didn't the last two days.

Love ya, Jessie

Grimm - "The Ungrateful Dead" - Review

Intro

Second review of the day. There's a lot of gushing. You've been warned.

SPOILER WARNING

The following review is for Grimm, Season 3, Episode 1: "The Ungrateful Dead." If you haven't seen it, or the first two Seasons, you should go watch them. Things will be spoiled.

Grimm - "The Ungrateful Dead" - Review

Characters:

• Detective Nick Burkhardt - Played by David Giuntoli. Grimm. Juliette's boyfriend. Hank's partner.
• Juliette Silverton - Played by Bitsie Tulloch. Human. Nick's girlfriend.
• Monroe - Played by Silas Weir Mitchell - Wieder Bultbad. Rosalee's boyfriend.
• Rosalee Calvert - Played by Bree Turner. Fuchsbau. Monroe's girlfriend.
• Captain Sean Renard - Played by Sasha Roiz. Hexenbiest. Royal.
• Detective Hank Griffin - Played by Russell Hornsby. Human. Nick's partner.
• Stefania Vaduva Popescu - Played by Shohreh Aghdashloo. Human. Gypsy.
• Sergeant Wu - Played by Reggie Lee. Human.
• Eric Renard - Played by James Frain. Royal. Captain Renard's brother.
• Adalind Schade - Played by Claire Coffee. Former Hexenbiest.
• Baron Samedi - Played by Reg E. Cathey. Cracher-Mortel.
• Frau Pech - Played by Mary McDonald-Lewis. Hexenbiest. Deceased.

Review:

Grimm is back! Party Time!

I, for one, really, really enjoyed this episode. It was everything I was hoping, despite no one actually ending up in Europe. There was action, there were surprises, there was peril, there were awesome effects, and then came the snarky end screen. Even that was awesome. I laughed and then had to explain to my dad about the snarky end screens.

I'm going to start my actual discussion with Adalind. Her section of the episode was brief, but important as far as her character goes. I thoroughly enjoyed the seriously disgusting rituals Adalind was subjected to. I'm glad Frau Pech had more to do with the rituals, rather than just being dead. I enjoyed all of Adalind's facial expressions and the snarky comments. The entire thing felt real, which is both good and important. Hokey rituals do not good TV make.

Okay, now on to the meat of the episode. The "zombies" were a lot more fun this time, mostly because they were active. I was actually scared for Monroe, Rosalee, and Juliette. I liked Wu's plan to stuff all the "zombies" in a container. The scene where they had to add another one reminded me, strangely enough, of the Monster Book of Monsters bit in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

I really enjoyed seeing out "Scooby Gang" come together when they realized Nick had been kidnapped. The car ride to the airport was amusing and probably a lot more awkward in the parts we didn't get to see. I can just imagine the silence.

I thought Juliette was pretty awesome this episode. She didn't come off as whiny and it was cool to see her and Rosalee geek out a bit. I especially loved Monroe being very confused during that bit. I also found Juliette's concern for Nick more believable than it had been, at least for me anyway. It's a very good thing, too, because I do love Juliette.

Nick totally Hulking out because he's a Grimm was awesome! I loved the fight on the plane. I loved the confused look The Baron got when Nick started punching his way out of the coffin. I love that the plane didn't actually get very far. I thought the world through Hulk-Nick's eyes was interesting. I do wonder where he's going and/or what he's looking for. It did seem like he was looking for something, right?

This ain't over yet.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Long recap there at the beginning, but good for ramping up the tension after the break.
• Chemistry time with an agitated Blutbad.
• Poor Wu and those other officers.
• I missed Monroe's reactions to stuff.
• Of course, leave the girls outside.

Favorite Lines:

"How many tests do you have?" - Adalind

"What you mean we get them to smoke it?" - Monroe

"If one of them bites me again..." - Wu

"Thank God."
"I wouldn't." - Adalind and Stefania

Love ya, Jessie

Sleepy Hollow - "For the Triumph of Evil" - Review

Intro

I'm extremely nervous at the moment, just fyi. I've written this review ahead of time so, at this point, the only bit of possible mistakes or whatever are typos... and this review is rather long so I'm just gonna let all that lie there and start...

Spoiler Warning

If you have not seen the first three episodes of Sleepy Hollow, please leave the blog and come back after you've seen them. My reviews almost always contain spoilers.

Sleepy Hollow - "For the Triumph of Evil" - Review

Characters:

• Lieutenant Abigail "Abbie" Mills - Played by Nicole Beharie and Jahnee Wallace. The "Second Witness." Saw the Four Trees as a child with her sister.
• Ichabod Crane - Played by Tom Mison. The "First Witness." Sort of time traveled from the Revolutionary War to the present because of his magical blood connection with the Headless Horseman.
• Captain Frank Irving - Played by Orlando Jones. Sleepy Hollow's Police Captain.
• Jennifer "Jenny" Mills - Played by Lyndie Greenwood and India Scandrick. Abbie's sister. Saw the Four Trees as a child. In a mental institution.
• Detective Luke Morales - Played by Nicholas Gonzalez. Abbie's ex-boyfriend.
• Dr. Mara Vega - Played by Mary Kraft. 1st victim of Ro'kenhrontyes. Jenny's former doctor.
• Garret Gillespie - Played by Pete Burris. 2nd victim of Ro'kenhrontyes. Found Abbie and Jenny after they saw the Four Trees.
• Wiroh - Played by Alex Livinalli. Mohawk shaman and used car dealer.
• Ro'kenhrontyes - Mohawk dream demon.

Review:

I might possibly have made the mistake of reading a couple blog posts about "For the Triumph of Evil" before writing this review. Actually, I simply skimmed the second one, but in all fairness, I was trying to figure out who played Ro'kenhrontyes. The first review I read seemed to be complaining about A) the fairly easy to dispose of Ro'kenhrontyes and B) the apparent procedural nature of the show. I would like to address both these points in my review.

First, Ro'kenhrontyes. The point of Ro'kenhrontyes was to get Abbie to a place where she could admit she'd been wrong in betraying Jenny and banish the fear of what they'd experienced as children. Yeah, he was pretty easy to get rid of once she'd done that, but not all the "monsters" and "demons" can be ridiculously hard to dispose of. Sleepy Hollow is, after all, a heavily "monster of the week" type show. The purpose of the various hell denizens is not to be really hard to vanquish. Their job is to help the main characters develop along the overall narrative. Ro'kenhrontyes got Abbie to a point where she could reconcile with Jenny and was disposed of accordingly. I thought the disposal of Ro'kenhrontyes was actually pretty cool. I'd not been expecting him to turn to glass and I thought it made sense because glass is made of sand.

As for the procedural element of the show, it's a vehicle for storytelling and that's it. Also, what were you expecting when one of the main characters is a Police Officer? The complaint about this makes me angry. Sleepy Hollow could have gone one of two ways, which I will refer to as the Buffy route and the Grimm route. The Buffy route is "monster of the week" without police involvement at all, basically ever... except when they randomly show up, but that's not the point. The Grimm route is "monster of the week" with full police involvement. The main character of Grimm is, like Abbie, a police officer.

I think Sleepy Hollow is actually combining the Buffy route and the Grimm route to come up with their own thing. Abbie will provide the police presence and procedure. Ichabod will be both backup and "Watcher," as it were. Irving will funnel pertinent cases to them. And Luke... Luke will stick his nose where it shouldn't be and end up joining Abbie and Ichabod.

Okay, now that I've done that, we can get to my usual "I liked x, I didn't like y" thing.

I like Jenny so far. She'd self-aware, snarky, and suitably creeped out by the demonic stuff happening to her and around her. I thought her meeting with Ichabod was well done. I could take her seriously and chuckle at her self-aware wit at the same time. I'm looking forward to seeing what she brings to the team once she actually joins up... hopefully.

I actually liked the taunting Ro'kenhrontyes did before he properly went after Abbie. It was more or less realistically done, enough so that I was really thrown/creeped out by the eye turning to sand thing. Ick. Ro'kenhrontyes' Dream World, or whatever it was, strongly reminded me of Supernatural's Purgatory, until we got to the interiors. It was suitably dream-like and creepy at the same time. I was even happy Ro'kenhrontyes had Dr. Vega and Mr. Gillespie just hanging around in the hallway, as strange as that sounds.

I thought the chemistry between Abbie and Ichabod was a lot stronger this episode. It's clear Ichabod is beginning to view Abbie as a little sister. I sincerely hope they don't go the route of love interest between them for lots of reasons. I noticed Abbie trusted Ichabod a lot more as she got used to having him around. She didn't even blink when he messed up the evidence tape. It rather reminded me of when we have to take things from my nephew. Just "Oh, no. Done with that now. Moving on." Speaking of which, I like that Irving's going to let them have the Records Room. It kind of reminds me of the library during the first three Seasons of Buffy.

So... this review ended up being really long... I'm gonna go ahead and just end it here by saying: I liked "the Triumph of Evil" and I can't wait for more Sleepy Hollow!

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Tom Mison should do audio books. I could happily listen to him all day.
• Ichabod accidentally fast-fowarding or rewinding the evidence tape and then covering horribly was hilarious.
• Someone needs to take Ichabod shopping.
• The upside-down shot struck again! UGH! Do Not Want!
• I'm less certain Irving is evil now.

Theories:

Luke is going to join the "Scooby Gang" at some point and be immensely annoying meantime.

Favorite Lines:

• "You're a living being walking in the Valley of Death." - Wiroh
• "I broke a wall." - Ichabod

Housekeeping

Okay so... the nervousness is being caused by a job interview I've scheduled for tomorrow. It's my first one ever that's actually interview-y... my last one was just the phone interview. So yeah... this typing really helps with the shaking.

Tomorrow, I will hopefully have up my Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. review, no promises. If it's not up tomorrow, I'll have it up Thursday... and so on and so forth...

Last little thing, there will most likely be a Nuzlocke Challenge update here this evening, so look for that if you're interested. I'm going to go fix the Home page now.

Love ya, Jessie

The Sky's the Limit, Sweet Grimm

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen this week's episodes of Warehouse 13 or Grimm, please leave the blog and come back later. My reviews, more often than not, contain spoilers.

However, if you're the least bit interested, there will be a short Altador Cup Update and Housekeeping section below the reviews.

Warehouse 13 - "The Sky's the Limit" - Review

This episode was fairly lack-luster and standard, as episodes go. The only really big thing that happened was the introduction of Dr. Abigail Cho, the new owner of the B&B. I quite liked her. She was excited, as new Warehouse people usually are, by the artifacts and what they could do. She didn't take crap from Artie, which I liked. It's about time we had someone other than Mrs. Fredric who could actually go toe to toe with Artie.

I thought Monty was kind of cute, for a doddering old magician. That his granddaughter was willing to do what she did, even if she had no idea about the consequences, says that he was every inch the man he seemed to be. I'm glad he got a small glimpse at the Warehouse, even if he did attempt to steal that light bulb.

The Claudia and Jinks storyline was seriously ancillary to the other storylines going on. It wasn't exactly the fleshed out well enough for me to really care about it. I did, however, like Claudia's "fancy getup."

Overall, this episode didn't excite me at all. I'm glad Abigail's on staff now, I've always liked Kelly Hu. I'm glad Artie's finally actually dealing with Leena's death at his hands. But as for the rest... it was just kind of there.

Grimm - "Goodnight, Sweet Grimm" - Review

Another awesome episode from the Grimm team. I was sucked into the episode pretty much from the get go.

I liked all the sweet couple-y stuff at the beginning. I'm really glad Nick and Juliette are back together. I though Rosalee was being ridiculously nervous about her food. The entire scene with Rosalee and Monroe was just as funny and cute as usual.

I liked, but at the same time was somewhat flummoxed by Juliette's inclusion into the "Scooby Gang." I like that Juliette isn't willing to just sit at home anymore, but how she acted in the spice shop was kind of... weird. She didn't and still doesn't strike me as the person to just come out and as "What kind of Wesen are you?" Also the way she was shuffled into the background of the group huddle was a little strange. I mean, I get that Nick, Monroe, and Rosalee aren't exactly used to anyone besides themselves being in those kinds of huddles, but... I dunno, it was weird.

I was really surprised by the Adalind storyline. It twisted in a way I totally wasn't expecting, but I liked it. Frau Pech is clearly incredibly devious, but Adalind and Stefania were just one step ahead of her. I like the the audience wasn't let in on what I perceived as a cunning plan until Stefania's son garroted Frau Pech. I also really liked the effect of Adalind and Frau Pech transforming into one another. It was creepily beautiful, in a way.

I think Eric is shaping up to be a very good villain. He's evil enough to sacrifice his own bodyguard in order to see a demonstration of the Cracher-Mortel's powers. That kind of creeped me out, but in a good way. It's also interesting that Eric didn't make an overt play for Renard while they had dinner together. I was kind of expecting there to be a fight or something, but I liked what was done with that scene.

Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about the ultimate plan of shipping Nick back to Europe. That was partially surprising and partially not. I didn't see any way Nick was going to get out of being "zombified" by the Cracher-Mortel. The only way he was possibly going to get out of that was to shoot him, which he didn't do. In fact, I was really surprised that he went for hand-to-hand combat with the Cracher-Mortel. If a guy can spit stuff in your face, you usually don't go for hand-to-hand.

Finally... the To Be Continued thing at the very end of the episode was cheeky and kind of awesome. I like that not everything was tied up with a shiny bow. I like that the Grimm team is counting on people being interested enough in the conclusion to the story to come back in the fall. I also really like that they're able to get away with that kind of fourth-wall breaking. Personally, I can't wait for Grimm to come back.

Altador Cup Update

The next four teams to be "introduced" in Neopets' Altador Cup Pre-Season Coverage are:

• Kreludor - Apparently, one of the team members, a Grundo, has a thing with lucky gum that he sticks behind his ear. Uhmmm... yeah. Whatever Neopets.
• Terror Mountain - Osielle Lidel, a Buzz, had Blurred Vision during the off season, but is now fine. Luckily she could afford the incredibly expensive Extra-Thick Goggles... *fumes quietly in the background*
• Virtupets Space Station - Weldar Xupenfarb, a Grundo, apparently played last year's Altador Cup with a torn shoulder muscle.
• Brightvale - Reb Weemelatt, a Nimmo I think, is apparently a trash talker and dirty player. Good to know... maybe.

Again, my Altador Cup updates are horrible compared to the ones over at The Daily Neopets. They make up a lot of stuff, but it's kind of fun to read. They also have score counters and game guides. And no, I'm not affiliated with them, I just like them a lot. Also, their coverage of this year's cup hasn't started up yet so... check out other bits of their site, it's kind of awesome.

Housekeeping

Okay so... the rest of this week will most likely be... something. Probably another Altador Cup Update. But other than that, I have no concrete plans. Maybe I'll watch a movie on Netflix tonight and review it. Maybe.

Love ya, Jessie.

Goodnight, Sweet Grimm - Initial Reactions

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen tonight's episode of Grimm, please leave the blog and come back later. Initial Reactions, like live Tweets, often contain spoilers.

Grimm - "Goodnight, Sweet Grimm" - Initial Reactions

• Time for the really long recap.
• That room is very red.
• Eric just happens to have a handy test subject.
• Oh yes, incredibly fascinating.
• So they're in pain that entire thing.
• This is true.
• Oh yay, tears.
• Hooray!!!
• W00T, Voodoo rituals.
• Doppleganger?
• Gee Rosalee, way to have some weird food nerves.
• Awkward dinners are awkward. Those two are so cute.
• Romance everywhere tonight.
• Well then.
• So... Renard knows who that is?
• Zombie time. Fun fun.
• Dude, Adalind, you're pregnant.
• See, that's what drinking while pregnant gets you.
• What's she need spinal fluid for?
• I very much missed Nick and Juliette together.
• Chaos makes me dizzy.
• It's always a "shut the door kind of conversation."
• Not no mention, family matters tend to get messy.
• That would probably be the blowfish guy.
• Ah, Wu, ever so fun.
• Where's Hank?
• Oh noes! Wu's been attacked!
• Is that kind of zombification communicable?
• Gotta love random brick walls.
• Hank!
• Nothin' going on here, just sort of stealing a body for weird testing.
• Okay but... does he smell dead? I hate it when people don't use their powers.
• W00T violent behavior.
• That is creepy looking.
• I like that Monroe is totally creeped out by this.
• Yes, yes he could.
• Way to be all weird around the zombie-guy.
• Awkward punch was awkward.
• This was not what I was expecting. Oh Geez, totally not what I was expecting. That's creepifying.
• None of these things are surprising.
• This promises to be at least a little entertaining.
• Yes, that would leave an impression.
• Renard's not going to fall for your crap, Eric.
• Ya'll need to pay attention to what's across the street.
• Good evening, sunshine.
• Go Juliette.
• I'm so happy for them. And I'm not being sarcastic.
• Good girl, Juliette. You're awesome.
• Way to be somewhat creepily happy Stefania.
• Way to tell Pech your plans.
• Stefania is actually kind of awesome, for an evil chick.
• That didn't last long, for which I am very happy.
• Huh. Interesting that Adalind was in on that.
• I do love Monroe's reactions to stuff.
• Lol, Juliette.
• Ah, the awkwardness.
• It's a key, silly. Pay attention.
• Except you know that's not going to happen, seeing as Al said there were a lot.
• Hooray fight scenes.
• Way to spend a lot of precious time talking that out.
• Yeah, that was reassuring.
• I would not go face to face with a guy who spits crap in your face.
• I love cane swords.
• I saw that bit coming, not so much the carting him off to part unknown, but I definitely saw Nick getting Zombified.
• Good thing Nick had Rosalee hide the key.
• Lol, those evil, evil, evil Grimm people!

The Penultimate and the Season Finales

SPOILER, LENGTH, LANGUAGE WARNING

If you have not seen this week's episodes of Grimm, Arrow, Supernatural, or The Vampire Diaries, please lave the blog and come back later. My reviews are always peppered with spoilers. Also, there are Buffy references in The Vampire Diaries review so... if you haven't seen the end of season three of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, you've been warned.

This is gonna be a long one, folks. If you're uninterested in certain reviews, there's a "Page Down" or "Pg Dn" button on your keyboard and a scroll button on your mouse... assuming you have these things, of course. Reviews will be in the order they aired.

Also, I curse a bit in some of the reviews. I don't really believe in censoring that part of myself while writing so... yeah. It's there. Be aware of it. Or not. Your choice.

Grimm - "The Waking Dead" - Review

As a zombie episode, this one fared a lot better than zombie episodes done by other shows. *cough* Once Upon a Time *cough* It was also a fairly original way to do zombies, in the whole scheme of ways to do zombies. The thing with the puffer-fish Wesen is based off actual voodoo rituals involving making "zombies," if what I learned a long time ago watching Taboo is correct anyway. I was pleasantly surprised to see it used here.

I also thought this episode was surprisingly funny. I somehow didn't expect the Wesen reveal to be amusing at all. Bud's freaking out over showing Juliette made me think he was going to vogue at any moment pretty much from the moment Monroe mentioned it. I liked that Rosalee was both apprehensive and really calm about vogueing for Juliette. I enjoyed all the "No, you'd better go first" stuff regarding Monroe. I agree he's not the best Wesen to see first. I'd somehow forgotten just how freaky Blutbaden are compared to the other Wesen. I also really liked Juliette's reaction to her first vogue. I thought the reaction was completely normal and I didn't think for a second that she wouldn't come back to see more than Rosalee vogue.

Lastly, we've got the Adalind and Eric stuff. Adalind is in way over her head with Stefania. Stefania, by the way, is played by Shohreh Aghdashloa. Ms. Aghdashloa played Dr. Kavita Rao in X-Men: The Last Stand, just like I thought. But anyway... I think the weird interplay between Stefania and Frau Pech is interesting and creepy. As for Eric... I think he's got his shriveled heart set on taking over Portland via zombie apocalypse. Without the apocalypse part, of course. And what was up with his hair in this episode? It was all over the place....

Overall, awesome penultimate episode. I can't wait to see how things go down in the finale next week.

Arrow - "Sacrifice" - Review

Okay so... imagine my surprise when I opened up the Arrow and Supernatural Wiki pages to check the episode titles and found them both the same. Kind of a weird thing to have happen, especially with shows airing the same night.

But anyway, the episode.

We got to see Olly's first kill with the bow. we got to see Olly manage to not blow up a plane just in the nick of time. We got to see Fyers die. All of these things I personally could have done without in this already packed episode. But the Arrow writers have a thing with showing us Olly's backstory straight off and where it doesn't mesh with the rest of the episode so... bleh. I wasn't happy with that.

I thought it was interesting that Malcolm did not tell Moira about Olly's "hobby." Might have been the only good thing he did this episode. I had fun watching John Barrowman yell angrily at people. He really does have the best angry faces. I'm kind of sad to see his character killed off, though I completely understand why. I was actually more surprised by Tommy's death than Malcolm's. I know Tommy's been a royal douche to Olly lately, but I don't think he deserved to die. His sacrifice for Laurel was awesome and heartbreaking. I'm really sad to see him go.

Dry up the tears and move on to Felicity and Detective Lance. Despite their never having met before this episode, I thought they had really good chemistry. I was a lot of fun watching Felicity be not-so-smooth in the interrogation room. Kind of weird after last week's not-a-heist, but I liked it anyway. Her little speech about Olly to Detective Lance had my eyes welling up with tears of "Felicity is awesome." Beyond that, though, both Paul Blackthorne and Emily Rickards had some great scared/panicked faces while they were disarming the device and during the aftermath.

Speaking of which, I was not at all expecting there to be a second device. Good villains have back-up plans. And apparently, decide to come out as villains to their children before they both die. I was really shocked by that.

It's going to be interesting next season to see all the characters dealing with the various backlashes from the Undertaking. Moira's going to be in jail or out on bond. Roy's most likely going to come out of this alive, despite stopping to help the dude stuck between the car and the bus. Olly and Laurel are going to be dealing with Tommy's death. And Thea... is going to be... I don't know, it's going to be interesting.

Speaking of Thea, I must now rant about shoe-horned-in PSAs. I understand that texting and driving is a problem and will get you dead. However, the two seconds spent on the subject in this episode were ridiculous. Roy was not texting. He was looking at a map. Drivers have been looking at maps for longer than cell phones have been around. Yes, it's dangerous. You know what else is dangerous? Distracting the driver by stealing their phone and squabbling about it and coming out with a really stupid, out of character line about how "It's not worth it." Come on, really?

Okay, rant over. It's safe to come out.

I think I've prattled on about Arrow long enough for now. My closing remark: The fight scenes were awesome, as usual.

Supernatural - "Sacrifice" - Review

Most extremely obvious end to a story arc EVER. Supernatural was picked up for a 9th season so there was no way in Hell that the Gates to Hell were going to be slammed shut. The demons, Crowley especially, are just too damn interesting to get rid of. Also, of course Sam was going to die in order to slam the Gates. Had has stuff physically wrong with him that Cas couldn't fix. How was that not a giant red flag to Dean that Sam was going to die finishing the trials? Really Dean? How fricking stupid are you? Also, now that Sam's stopped the trials and Cas doesn't have his powers, how is Sam going to continue living with all the shit that's wrong with him?

All that said, the whole fallen angels thing was a surprise. It's actually pretty clear in my Initial Reactions that I actually felt sorry for Metatron until I realized he'd used Cas. The effect of the angels falling was pretty cool. Sucks for them, but it looked cool. I'm now wondering how the Winchesters and Cas are going to find each other now that Cas' angel-juice is gone.

Abbadon was fairly disappointing. I sincerely thought she'd have a bigger role here. Like, actually stop Sam from being able to finish the trials instead of Dean. Apparently, Abbadon got broken out of her boxes to end up dying pretty spectacularly as a tied-up loose end the next episode. I'm extremely disappointed because I thought she was fun to have around.

I thought the extremely convenient way in which the Winchesters caught Crowley was fun. I stress the extremely convenient part because it was just that. I'm also wondering what will happen to Crowley now he's a) stuck in a devil's trap and b) mostly cured. I don't want him to go away or stop being evil because Mark Shepherd is awesome and Crowley's one villain that actually makes good on his threats.

Overall, this season finale was a fun ride. Not particularly full of substance 'till that last bit, but fun nonetheless.

The Vampire Diaries - "Graduation" - Review

Buffy did it better. That is to say, "Graduation Day Part One" and "Graduation Day Part Two" were much more exciting and fun and filled with less cameos that "Graduation" was. Most of "Graduation" was epic, poignant speeches that mostly failed to jerk a tear from my eyes. I much preferred the giant demon snake to cameo-palooza.

Okay so... the only parts of the episode that made me cry even a little were the Rebekah/Matt parts. I loved that Rebekah basically wants to do with Matt what Klaus wants to do with Caroline, except she doesn't have any ulterior motives. I loved that she essentially sacrificed herself for Matt, even if she didn't die permanently. I'm also really glad they're going to go on a road trip together. Good for them.

I enjoyed Alaric getting to be a "bad ass vampire," though I again forgot that he'd been turned into a vampire during his last episodes. when he showed up at the Grill to whisk Connor away, I was like "What? What? How? Ooooohhhhhhh. Duh." I'm really gonna miss Alaric now.

I'm not sure how I feel about Jeremy being alive again. On the one hand, I'm really happy because I like Jeremy. On the other hand, if he'd have stayed dead, it would have made his death in the first place more poignant. So there's that.

I was really surprised to see Klaus back. I was also really surprised that he's allowing Tyler to return to Mystic Falls. He was certainly less of a brat this episode, though there was less of him as well.

The fight between Elena and Katherine was awesome. I'm sure Nina Dobrev had a wonderful time filming that. That fight's been a long time coming and I'm glad they were both mostly able to hold their own. It's going to be interesting seeing Katherine be human again. I wonder if she'll end up in New Orleans with Elijah while Klaus uses her blood to make more hybrids... nah, she wouldn't stand for that.

The rest of the episode, as I said, was just kind of... meh. Elena loves Damon. Obvious declarations from both of them were obvious. Bonnie's dead. Hooray for that. She annoyed me to no end. The rest of the supernatural "living dead" weren't much of a threat at all. All attempts to create a threat with them fell flat. The only weird/interesting thing was at the very end with Stefan and Silas. But, since I have no fucking idea what any of that actually means nor do I think you can kill a vampire by drowning... I'm not touching it. Gonna just let that sit and fester 'til next season.

Housekeeping

Not really much to say here... over the summer I'm hoping to catch up on some shows, keep watching others, and do some actual reading. Stay tuned to find out what's next... well... Saturday should see Doctor Who season finale Initial Reactions so... there's that.

Love ya, Jessie.

The Waking Dead - Initial Reactions

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen tonight's Grimm, please leave the blog and come back later. The following Initial Reactions, like live tweets, will invariably contain spoilers.

Grimm - The Waking Dead - Initial Reactions

• Evil castle of evil!
• This is all well and good until he finds out she's pregnant.
• What "proposal" is this?
• Dude, just let the girl apologize.
• You'd better have a chance! Having you and Nick apart was just heart wrenching.
• Yay smooches!
• Angry Blutbat is angry... if that was a Blutbat.
• And my cable cut out. That's wonderfulness.
• So... is that guy Wu's partner?
• This woman's voice reminds me of some character from an X-Men movie... I think.
• Ouch. That is an entirely painful way of signing a contract.
• The ME guy has purple gloves...
• It's actually nice to see Hank still on crutches. Continuity is awesome.
• Okay... who's the guy in the hat?
• Zombies. Thanks previews, you suck.
• No, that wasn't weirdly creepy at all...
• These favors are gonna get more and more awkward.
• Monroe doesn't want to show her.
• And it gets more awkward.
• Bud!
• Lol, if Bud freaks out, he might just vogue for her.
• I love Bud.
• Go Monroe. Bud's freaking out over nothing, I think anyway.
• Monroe's face during that whole scene... priceless.
• Nope, weird guy with top hat.
• Yes, because the guy under the hat doesn't matter as much...
• Poor Rosalee, getting dumped on by everyone.
• But of course, Rosalee is also the voice of reason. Also, calmer than everyone else.
• Oh, this episode. I'm totally loving it.
• Nope, that's not creepy at all.
• Rosalee's so cute!
• Dude, she needs some air. That's it.
• Lol, this is hilariously awkward and awesome.
• Yes! You're totally prepared to vogue. Lol, Bud.
• Lol, this scene is so ridiculously awesomely funny.
• Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh rawr. Blutbats are definitely creepier than everything else... everything else being Rosalee and Bud.
• Knew that was coming.
• Obviously she'd know that.
• Well that was definitely an adverse reaction.
• They're way ahead of you, Wu.
• Isn't that Renard's friend?
• Pech creeps me out.
• She looked a lot like Famke Jensen in that shot.
• Well obviously she's not there.
• Yeah... because nothing can happen in 15 minutes. (SARCASM)
• Hmmm... so what's Renard going to do?
• Ah, Wu, you have no idea.
• Huh. Was not expecting a pufferfish Wessen.
• Okay, now where's Juliette?
• Puffer-dude on a rampage.
• Well hello Prince Crazy-Hair Eric.
• What is Puffer-dude up to?
• Of course he'd be keeping them in a shipping container.
• Renard's spy is soooo gonna get caught.
• I'm interested, Bud!
• Keep tellin' yourself that, darlin'.
• They're so cute!
• Why are you having this discussion in the doorway?
• She's okay!
• Oh goodness, Eric. Really?
• Puffer-guy's working for Eric. Lovely.
• Evil laughs all around!

Kiss of the Clip Show on the Edge of Town

Preamble-y-Stuff

I have not been feeling well the last couple of days. My head's just not where it usually is or would like it to be. That's why there wasn't a review of Tuesday's Grimm or Initial Reactions for last night's Arrow put up yesterday. By the time it was time to do these things, my head was off in la-la-land. Or actually, it was closer to being in what I recognize as my "writer's funk." But did I do much writing then? No, I didn't. I did, however watch Arrow and Supernatural so there's that, at least. Without further ado, I give you:

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen Tuesday's episode of Grimm or last night's episodes of Arrow and/or Supernatural, please leave the blog and return later. I'm horrible at giving non-spoiler-y reviews of individual episodes.

Grimm - "Kiss of the Muse" - Review

"Kiss of the Muse" was interesting, to say the least. It was mostly about getting Juliette and Nick back together, mostly by having Nick act like a hormonal teenager because of interactions with a particular Wesen. No one else really had much to do besides act like they were playing a game of Telephone, passing messages back and forth and freaking out.

I quite liked both the new Wesen introduced in this episode. The Luisant-Pêcheur was kind of cute in his, and I'm not even sure how to spell this, volged form. The otter face was just so cute. The character, however, could have been a younger, Muggle, rocked-out version of Severus Snape for all that's worth. I thought the Musai was beautiful in the volged form. The way her powers worked was interesting, though I'm really coming up confused on her characterization. She seemed really into using her powers at some points but freaked out when she realized Nick was a Grimm and she'd used it on him. Maybe it was just the Grimm thing, though... I don't know, she was pretty.

I'm glad Juliette and Nick are apparently back together now. Having them apart saddened me since they're both so right for each other. I really enjoyed the parts where Juliette was talking to Monroe and Rosalee in the shop. The looks exchanged between the couple during the conversations made me laugh. I also liked that Juliette has now pretty much accepted what Nick had been trying to tell her at the end of last season. It makes me so happy! Looks like next week she's going to be seeing the Wesen she knows in the volged forms so that should be even more interesting.

The very end of the episode had me grinning. Captain Renard pulling out the "Hexenbastard" as a threat was just awesome. I wasn't expecting that to happen, but it's handy.

Arrow - "Darkness on the Edge of Town" - Review

Let me just say how much I loved this episode. It was fun without being overcrowded, which I liked. It was great getting to see everyone interact as they individually investigate The Undertaking. And by "individually" I mean the individual groups, not individual people. Although watching them all individually was fun, too.

The not-a-heist at Merlyn Global was amazing to watch. I really felt for Felicity when she was climbing through the walls/elevator shafts with Olly. I'd be freaked out, too. Though I did think it was weird that she didn't have a backpack of something for her tablet. Carrying it while climbing around inside a building didn't really seem like a good idea to me. Also, she seemed strangely comfortable playing her role through that whole sequence. Made a big change from her gambling thing last week. I thought Diggle was amusing in his security role. Any time he gets to kind of let loose is great.

And speaking of Diggle letting loose, I'm sure it felt good to punch Olly in the face a few times, even if he was pulling his punches. I was completely taken in by the ruse of Olly and Moira getting kidnapped, too. Like, I didn't realize it was Diggle under the hood until he asked about The Undertaking and they showed him about to hit Olly. For some reason I thought it was Malcolm under there... which would have been weird, but that's where my brain was at.

I thought Roy and Thea's bit was both cute and heartbreaking. Thea's quite the con artist with the police... though that bit might have been last week. My head's a little weird so it's hard to remember. That the storyline is blurring together from episode to episode that much is a good thing, I think. Olly threatening Roy had me grinning. Roy breaking up with Thea made me want to slap him, especially seeing the look on her face when he said what he did.

Which then brings me to the relationship things going on. I completely understand how angry I perceived Tommy to be at the end of the episode. Olly just got done telling him he was free to get back together with Laurel and then goes and sleeps with her. Tommy has every right to be angry about that. Moira and Walter's impending divorce took me by surprise, actually. I'm not entirely happy with it, but it makes sense why Walter's delivered the divorce papers.

Lastly, I'm wondering what's going to happen as Detective Lance starts to investigate Felicity. I'm assuming he will, seeing as she seems to be his only lead on the Merlyn Global thing at the moment. I do kind of wonder how his computer guy got Felicity's name off of that hacking stuff. Knowing nothing about hacking myself and having a few assumptions about it makes me wonder how her name would be attached to it at all.

Supernatural - "Clip Show" - Review

I have to say, there's a reason in-universe fiction about the main players in the universe is never a good thing. I do kind of wonder why the Supernatural books haven't been picked up by Crowley or someone like him before now. As it is, I'm glad they're being used for something other than hilarity, even if that does mean characters we met way back when are getting killed off. That said, there's also a reason Crowley is my favorite villain on TV right now. He's no-compromising about actually being a bad guy. There's no "redeeming qualities" about him at all. I really, really like that in a villain and especially on Crowley.

On to... Cas. Cas is back! Yay! He's always good for a bit of random comedy, which this show needs a lot of. My favorite part from "Clip Show" was Cas freaking out the cashier guy over the pie. It was clear he's trying to get back in Dean's good graces. The way he's going about it amused me to no end. That said... I'm not so sure about Cas teaming up with Metatron and closing Heaven. There are several reasons for why I have a problem with this. First, locking the angels up together to have them argue things out is clearly not going to end well. That sort of problem solving rarely gets anything done, even when we're not talking about angels. Secondly, Cas completing the "First Task" seemed to me more out of interest of saving Metatron's life than Cas actually doing it to do it... if that makes any sense. I don't think Cas would have killed the Nephilim if she hadn't been trying to kill Metatron. Also, what the hell Metatron? You come out of hiding and your first thought is to lock all the angels in Heaven?

On a side note: the Nephilim gave me Charmed flashbacks. Whitelighters are essentially angels so... Chris and Wyatt was Nephilim. I don't know why, but it made me laugh a little.

Lastly, Abbadon being free and not immediately going to kill Sam and Dean was a little suspect to me. She could totally have sneaked up on them. If I'm guessing correctly, though, she's going after Crowley now... or something. She was really surprised when she found out he was the King of Hell now so I just figure that's what she's going to be doing.

Housekeeping

I am planning on watching The Vampire Diaries tonight. Not sure if I'm gonna be doing Initial Reactions for it as of right now so... if I do them, they'll be up. If I don't, I'll just review the episode tomorrow.

Love ya, Jessie.

Kiss of the Muse - Initial Reactions

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen tonight's episode of Grimm, please leave the blog and come back later. The following Initial Reactions will contain spoiler-y babblings.

Grimm - "Kiss of the Muse" - Initial Reactions

• That's not a normal cat scratch.
• Oh, that's actually a cool way to do that.
• Never had veggie steaks, but they don't sound appetizing.
• Yay, Hank's back!
• Zip lining? Weird.
• Lol, Nick and his dry humor.
• Mass panic. Always a good sign.
• Those poor books!
• Wonder what kind of Wesen that guy was.
• He's an otter Wesen!
• Right, so batting your pretty eyes at Nick is going to make everything you say sounds better.
• Gotta love those gossipy land ladies.
• Nick suspects something hinky...
• That painting with the eyes is really creepy.
• No, but it would be cool.
• So, Muse chick inspires guys to eventually commit murder...
• Cooking on either side of the phone. Fun fun.
• This is not gonna turn out well.
• A number? Like pretty much all of his paintings.
• *cue screaming at the TV*
• Seriously?
• She's all elf-y and pretty!
• Too late.
• Okay... that was an interesting way to do a thrown brick.
• Bad plan, almost standing up Juliette.
• Juliette looks awesome.
• Okay, that's doubly not good.
• This is really a bad time for the Muse to be messing with Nick.
• Off is an understatement.
• Nick's head is being messed with...
• Geez Nick, way to act like a teenage kid.
• Ouch.
• Got to love the line of communication.
• Weird guy in the bar is weird.
• Geez, Nick.
• Dude, Hank, don't let Nick go off by himself!
• At least Nick drew her.
• The trailer!
• Rosalee's first time in the trailer!
• Rosalee's totally geeking out. It's kind of awesome.
• Interesting painting materials there, otter guy.
• Of course. Why wouldn't it be in German?
• Thought I'd heard that artist's name before.
• That's an interesting take on Van Gogh.
• That's really very not good.
• Except she's kissed him, OBVIOUSLY.
• Of course they don't.
• Poor Nick.
• Got to love those puzzle pieces.
• Which we found out with Juliette and Renard earlier.
• Listen to your girlfriend! Good boy.
• Wow...
• Lol, yes, the drawings are always very weird.
• So that's it? That's her not-diseased-state reaction to that?
• That sucks.
• Oh good, Juliette went back to Rosalee's shop.
• Hint hint, Juliette.
• This is really, really not going to end well.
• So now she's pitting them against each other?
• She's enjoying it?!
• That's a crap ton of broken glass.
• Lovely way to explain without explaining.
• Ohhhhhhh.... not cool.
• Team Grimm to the rescue!
• Spell broken?
• *Happy Tears*
• Good job, Renard! Oh, that made me laugh.
• Hexenbastard makes an awesome threat, doesn't he?

 Love ya, Jessie.

Grimm - Endangered - Review

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen yesterday's episode of Grimm, please leave the blog and come back later. the following review will contain spoilers. Also, feel free to jump down to the Housekeeping section below the review.

Grimm - "Endangered" - Review

As usual, the Grimm team has turned in a great looking episode. However, it was filled with a lot of convenient bits that made it feel... not so stellar.

First, we got a bit more back story on "The Key." Turns out, even Renard doesn't know exactly what the keys are keys too. It's the usual "Alchemy, everlasting life, untold riches" kind of thing. Uhm... yeah... that wasn't what I was expecting.

Next, we got a little bit of development on Juliette's retrieved memories. I was actually really surprised how upfront Monroe was about the Grimm thing. Mind you, he basically echoed what Nick said about it. Juliette still has yet to learn about Wesen, but at least she's rediscovered her lover for Nick.

The rest of the story with the glowing Wesen was really... weird. I wasn't a fan of it. It hinged on a lot of coincidence. People showing up in the right place at the right time with some mysterious black market selling of Wesen. I did like Monroe going all Blutbat on the bird-guy.

I'm really hoping next week's offering is better than this was.

Housekeeping

I will not be doing Initial Reactions for Arrow this evening. Odds are, I also won't do Initial Reactions for The Vampire Diaries tomorrow either. I've got some babysitting issues going on.

That's about it for me this evening.

Love ya, Jessie.

The Living and the Endangered

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen tonight's episode of Grimm or last night's episode of Warehouse 13, you should leave the blog and come back later. The following review and Initial Reactions will contain spoilers. If you're interested, there's a small section of the newest "skirmish" in Neopets Obelisk War after the Initial Reactions section, as well as the Housekeeping section.

Warehouse 13 - "The Living and the Dead" - Review

I honestly don't know what to think about this episode. I was incredibly excited Warehouse 13 was back, but "The Living and the Dead" was kind of lack luster. Artie gets a "get out of dead free card," we meet another one of history's artifact users, and supposedly get a new villain introduced. At least, I hope she's going to be a villain. She certainly looks the part.

First I want to talk about Artie's mind and subsequent trauma. It was said in the episode that it makes sense for Artie's mind to be Warehouse 13, but even with that said, it was really obvious that's what it would be. The Warehouse 13 set is already there so what else would they use to do Artie's mental landscape? I found it interesting that Artie decided to communicate with Claudia and Jinks through the mental avatars of Vanessa, MacPherson, and finally Mrs. Frederic. It made sense considering Artie himself was hiding away with his memory of Leena. I'm not entirely sold, though, on the reasons the MacPherson avatar gave for showing up as one of the protectors. I'll take it at face value, though, because, well, there's nothing else to really take it as.

Artie hiding himself away with a memory loop of Leena was quite depressing, actually. I get exactly why he did it and then won't talk to anyone but Mrs. Frederic about it after he's shoved out of his mind. The trauma of what he remembers doing and what he interpreted from Leena when he killed her was just too great to lay on the people he didn't want saving him.

The rest of the story hinges on two things: the lock-picking artifact and Professor Sutton. I thought the lock-picking artifact was a handy deus machina device. I thought Professor Sutton was expertly portrayed by the ever wonderful James Marsters. His fake bumbling and pompous attitude were just brilliant. As he is immortal and it's revealed at the end of the episode that he didn't die from obviously not-fatal wounds, we should be seeing him again. I honestly can't wait.

My favorite scene from "The Living and the Dead" was in the crypt while the "poisonous darts" were flying around. Pete, Myka, and Sutton dodging them was just hilarious. I do wonder, though, what significance the diamond has to Sutton and Charlotte.

I sincerely hope next week's episode is better than this one. I expected to be utterly wowed and just wasn't.

Grimm - "Endangered" - Initial Reactions

• Oh yay, recaps.
• Constantinople? What is this nonsense?
• Cow tipping?
• Nope, udderless dead cow.
• Make that cows.
• Glowing blue thing.
• Okay... that was weirder than usual.
• So Monroe's trying to farm his parents or Nick off on Rosalee?
• It's nice seeing those two together doing normal couple-y stuff.
• Awkward.
• lol
• They're so friggin cute!
• Must. Stare. At. Key.
• Monroe knows everything about everything Wesen.
• Just happened to have a useful relative.
• For sure? You know period?
• This is gonna be cute.
• Juliette looks awesome.
• Awww...
• Yup, that was cute.
• Back to the blue guy.
• He's got a pregnant wife?
• OMG, it's that chick!
• And of course there'd be a UFO nut involved.
• So now we're being all tense with each other. Great.
• Of course there was.
• Two of those have to do with everlasting life: Alchemy & Everlasting Life
• I think Renard trusts Nick more than Nick trusts Renard.
• I love Wu.
• So... what did he take? The chick was obviously eating something.
• Hey, that looks like a reused farm location.
• Enter the UFO nut.
• Lol, Wu.
• Yup, best way to get your hands on a vehicle. Scare the bejeezus out of the driver, hope they don't run into any trees.
• And that's supposed to be what?
• I've got a feeling the UFO nut's gonna find the weird glowy Wesen.
• In other words, Wesen.
• Hooray contractions.
• Convenient abandoned cabin...
• Monroe's face.
• I like Juliette's coat.
• Except Monroe isn't actually that good at keeping secrets.
• Especially that secret.
• Well that's certainly an interesting way to put it.
• That's actually a good question. What is it with cows and aliens?
• UFO guy isn't what he seems, then. Huh.
• And he's a Wesen. Interesting.
• She has to eat their ovaries? Why?
• Rosalee's reminiscence was pretty awesome.
• So now we gotta find her.
• And be awkward about Monroe and Rosalee's relationship there.
• Bird boy's watchin'.
• And loading a gun. This is not going to end well.
• Ew... that effect was gross.
• The "Scooby Gang" to the rescue!
• Lol, Nick.
• Portable dissection table.
• Monroe has a wicked nose... not that anyone wants to point this out.
• Oh, NOW we talk about Monroe's nose.
• That was a crap shot.
• That's a slightly creepy partial vogue.
• Like, could technically be a lot of time... gotta love those TV short labors.
• Rosalee just happens to know how to deliver a baby.
• That is a really clean baby.
• And of course the jerk "UFOlogist" shows up.
• And Nick scares him for just long enough.
• Boom. Dead.
• Happy ending, for them at least.
• Okay... that's just a lot of weird.

Neopets Obelisk War Update

I know I said this thing was over, but it's really not. Three of the remaining factions have been chosen to "fight to claim the oracle's blessing for themselves" according to today's "Latest News." The three factions battling are:

1. The Seekers
2. The Thieves Guild
3. Order of the Red Erisim

Once again, I will be supporting the Order of the Red Erisim. I will not, however, be turning the blog red again.

I'll keep you updated on happenings with the new "skirmish." You currently have 29 hours to choose your faction. That's the rest of today and all of tomorrow.

Housekeeping

Uhmmm... yeah... this is basically going to be me begging you for comments. I very rarely get them and I think it would be fun to actually interact with those of you who actually read this thing. Let me know what you thought about the shows I review, my reviews, or, ya know, just say hi.

Love ya, Jessie.

Volcanalis - Review

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen last night's episode of Grimm, please leave the blog and come back later. The following review contains episode spoilers.

Grimm - "Volcanalis" - Review

Grimm is back! It's also moving to Tuesdays. Thanks, NBC. And yes, I'm being sarcastic about that. I dislike when networks change around the schedules, especially mid-season. It confuses people. On the other hand, I might end up getting to do Initial Reactions for Grimm again, seeing as I shouldn't be babysitting while it's on.

Anyway, episode review. On it.

I really enjoyed this episode. I was absolutely giddy while watching it. "Volcanalis" was so full of wonderful tidbits, character development, and world building. Best of all, it didn't give me episode whiplash, like other shows I could mention.

I thought getting Hank out of the episode and on vacation was a good choice, but also an amusing way to slightly de-clutter the cast. I thought the way Bud and Monroe were trying to cheer Nick up was cute. The pair of them together was amusing, as was their choice of watching soccer.

The scenes where Adalind goes to the gypsys were... weird. I think it's sad how she's going to sell her child in order to get her powers back. I also thought it was interesting that Adalind initially let her gypsy friend do the negotiating... if only for a few moments.

I found the way Juliette has to get her memory back intriguing. It allowed for some more backstory on her and Nick's relationship as well as discovering things other people don't really want her to know. The entire unpacking scene had me laughing and repeating "He has an Elvis-head lamp" over and over. I think Juliette's tears at Nick's proposal is a very, very good sign.

The best parts of the episode were the Volcanalis bits. I thought the Volcanalis itself was kind of interesting, though it reminded me a lot of the Beast from Angel. I like how another Volcanalis was responsible for Vesuvius erupting. I liked how Nick and Monroe teamed up with Renard to fight the Volcanalis. The scene while they were getting ready to blast it with liquid nitrogen was super amusing. I also had a thing last night where I was deliriously happy that "they have someone who can read Latin." I don't know why, but that amused me to no end.

I can't wait to see what happens on Tuesday. Looks like Juliette's finally going to re-find-out about Wesen and Grimms. And no, that's not a spoiler, it was in the trailer for next week.

Housekeeping

Due to certain circumstances in timing of babysitting, the news, and tonight's episode of Doctor Who, I may or may not be posting Secondary Reactions for that at some point tonight. Never fear, though, I will have a review for "Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS" up tomorrow. A review for "Hide" may or may not be forthcoming, depending on my mood.

Love ya, Jessie.

Possibly The Most Hilarious Episode Of Grimm Ever

Hey look, I managed to do Initial Reactions for once this week! Yay! That means SPOILERS for tonight's episode of Grimm.

Grimm - "One Angry Fuchsbau" - Initial Reactions

• Second commercial break because babysitting happened.
• I think Juliette's memory things are interesting.
• I want to know what that lawyer is.
• I'm worried about Rosalee.
• Also, my cable's being all weird today so... yeah.
• Is the maid a Wesen?
• Seriously, what the hell is this guy? He's got telepathic powers, obviously.
• Nope, not suspicious at all creepy lawyer guy.
• Frog? It's cute.
• Eeeewww.
• Oh! He's one of those satyr thingies.
• More interesting backstory on the Verat.
• That was a toad?
• Wu!
• Seriously?!
• There went the sound on my TV.
• Came back a few seconds later.
• That toad seriously looks like a frog.
• Oh yay, subtitles.
• So now the question is how to get it into him... and how to get the sweat.
• Ziegevolk are gross.
• Monroe.
• Nice plan, guys.
• Bud!
• Crap, Bud's ruining the plan.
• Or Bud was part of the plan. Nice.
• Yay!
• Lol, Bud.
• Of course, it could be easy. That would be too easy.
• And of course the toad would be running away.
• Awkward interrogations are so much fun.
• Wrong toad.
• Oh look, Adalind!
• Interesting dress. Very Cruella de Vill.
• Yeah, he's not an idiot, Adalind.
• I hate skeezy people.
• Rosalee would be the spokesperson.
• Not the wrong toad! Yay!
• Lol, the Ziegevolk shows up at Rosalee's.
• Ooo... that was slightly fun.
• Lol, assault charges. That's hilarious.
• Poor Juliette.

Housekeeping

Good news! I should be able to review Grimm tomorrow! Although I'm not sure if I'll actually get that up tomorrow... maybe I'll do it tonight and set it to post tomorrow... hmmm...

Anyway... that's pretty much all I had to say tonight.

Love ya, Jessie.

Nameless, Brave and True

Housekeeping

Oh! What's this doing here? This is supposed to be at the end... oooohhhh! I have an announcement? I see. Well, here goes:

I missed the 7PM showing of Doctor Who "The Bells of St. John."

There, I said it. However, I will be watching the 10PM showing and doing Initial Reactions. I'm so excited!

Meanwhile, I have a review for this week's Once Upon a Time and Grimm. So this is also serving as the SPOILER WARNING.

Once Upon a Time - "Selfless, Brave and True" - Review

All of the cards are on the table! At least, they seem to be. Now all that's left is for the Storybrooke crew to figure out that Tamara and "Greg" are up to something. The possibilities on that end are, well, just about endless.

I'm gonna make a Lost connection here, mainly because I've blown through the first four seasons on Netflix. It's not spoiler-y at all, promise. This episode of Once Upon a Time reeks of Lost storytelling methods. A new character comes in, or we need to know a lot more about an existing character, and we get an entire episode containing their back story. This happened last week, too, though I refrained from saying anything about it. We got back story this week on both Tamara and August. Quite a fun and eventful back story, too. There, that wasn't such a bad connection, was it?

I'd pegged Tamara as a "black hat" pretty much since the promo for "Selfless, Brave and True." As it stands, I'm not disappointed by her, though I want to know just exactly what her motivations are. I'm not sure I like that she and "Greg" are involved romantically. Poor Neil's going to be heartbroken, I think.

I thought the August bits were... pretty formulaic. I thought it was interesting that a) he was turning wooden before he got to Storybrooke and b) that he talked to Neil again before going to Storybrooke. I'm somewhat disappointed he was age-regressed when he was turned human again. I think a love-triangle between Emma, August, and Neil would have been interesting. Forgetting Tamara in there, of course, cuz that's just not going to end well.

Now it's time for closing comments/thoughts.

• Still not entirely happy with Snow, though she was better this episode.
• Regina's slowly getting back in my good graces. She was brilliant when confronting "Greg."
• I wonder if The Dragon was actually a dragon or just a sorcerer?
• The Blue Fairy is really fast or else precognative.
• I can't wait till the next episode. Why all the breaks, ABC? WHY?!!

Grimm - "Nameless" - Review

Okay so, last week we got a lot of development from all over the place. This week we got a more concentrated look at some of that development. I, for one, really liked that. I thought last week's episode was too crammed full of stuff to really deal with it effectively. Again, we get stuff with Juliette, stuff with Renard, and then the case with Nick and Hank.

Juliette's stuff was intriguing. I think the Nick "ghosts" are a nice way to bring her memory back. I also really enjoyed her burgeoning relationship with Rosalee. If those two really become friends, I'll be overcome with joy. Monroe's inclusion in the "slumber party" was amusing. I think he and Nick need to get over themselves and just tell Juliette the truth.

Renard's business stuff was... interesting, from what I caught of it. Upset and screaming babies do not make the best TV-watching partners. I caught something about the Royals wanting to seize power again and make things all Imperialist again. Okay, that explains Renard wanting things to stay democratic... sort of. I'm honestly not sure what's going on there, but it was interesting until the explosion killed Renard's guy.

Now on to Nick and Hank's case. I thought it was fairly obvious they were doing a take on Rumplestiltskin. I also thought the Fuchsteufelwild looked like the Green Goblin from Marvel comics. I honestly wasn't paying much attention to those parts. It was a fairly standard plot thing-y as far as the case went. Though I was just as taken in by the police ruse as the Fuchsteufelwild was.

As I said last night, I honestly can't wait for next week's Grimm. Looks like it's gonna be a lot of Adalind-y fun.

Love ya, Jessie.

Mr. Sandman - Review

I would like to start off this blog post by saying: I'm totally caught up on Grimm now. I would have included Initial Reactions to tonight's episode with this post, except, well, I was babysitting my nephew. I didn't get to do Initial Reactions, though I did watch the episode... well, watching it as I type.

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen last week's episode of Grimm, please leave the blog and come back later. The following review contains spoilers. This week's episode review should be done tomorrow, so no spoilers for that.

Grimm - "Mr. Sandman" - Review

Hooray for development! Here we got a bunch of stuff with Juliette, a short bit with Renard, and even some development of powers for Nick. Seems bits of Juliette's memories are coming back in a fairly spooky fashion. Looks like I was a bit right about those electrical motes being synapses firing. We didn't really get an explanation for them. Renard's mind seems to be having a hard time letting go of Juliette. Not sure what's going on with the aging thing, but it was creepy.

Speaking of creepy, I thought the Jinnamuru Xunte was creepy as fuck, more so because of his power than his appearance. I'm having a very visceral reaction to even the thought of maggot-y worms in my eyes. I'm pretty sure the Grimm team is going to have to try really hard to top themselves in terms of creep-factor for me. At the same time, the Jinnamuru Xunte's powers either gave Nick a new power or triggered one he already had. It's rather Daredevil-esque, this power. I do hope he gets to use it more often.

Last but not least on my list of things to talk about is about Miss Adalind. I want to know who this Hexenbeist she's talking to is and what she's gonna do. As much as I hate Adalind, her storyline right now has got me hooked. I wanna know!

After watching this week's episode, I seriously cannot wait for next week! But more on that later...

Housekeeping

I'm slowly catching myself up with shows. Tomorrow I'm planning to watch last week's Once Upon a Time and maybe Arrow and Supernatural, though I'm definitely watching Doctor Who. That's right, Doctor Who is coming back tomorrow! I'm so excited!

Love ya, Jessie.