The Vampire Diaries: O Come, All Ye Faithful

Stefan (to Klaus): "I need to find a cure now more than ever. Yet here you are making post-modern snowflakes."

Josie asked me to fill in for her by reviewing this episode - something I'm really excited about since it was this site that got me to give the show another chance after the pilot. Unfortunately, the episode itself was kind of a mixed bag.

Grimm: Season of the Hexenbiest

Text on screen right before credits: "To Be Continued . . . Sorry."

Those four little words completely sum up my frustration with this episode of Grimm. This was the midseason finale. Everything was building to a climax. Characters were dancing around each other trying to keep secrets. And the writers kept up the dance right up until the end, where they gave us one minor reveal before fading to black.

At least they apologized about their meanness.

Grimm: To Protect and Serve Man

Wu: "Clean up, aisle 4!"

In this Hank-centric episode, we get a glimpse of Nick's partner as a young cop, arresting a murderer with a crazy story. Now that Hank knows about Wesen, he's starting to think the story might not be so crazy, and he and Nick have only 36 hours to find the truth before the man is executed.

Grimm: The Hour of Death

Hank: "Just because he's a Wesen doesn't mean he's guilty, right? He could have run from you because he knew you were a Grimm."

This week's episode was unusual in that it opened mid-case, with Nick struggling to get some sleep on the couch while dealing with an intense missing-persons case.

Grimm: La Llorona

Monroe: "Halloween for us? Come on, that's, like, bigger than Christmas. There's a long Wesen tradition of an All Hallows' Eve midnight Woge - running through the woods, scaring the crap out of villagers. Literally, sometimes."

This episode of Grimm gets a Hispanic twist as a child abduction points to the legend of "La Llorona" - the woman in white. Valentina Espinosa joins the team as an expert on these serial kidnappings.

Grimm: The Other Side

This week's "Previously On" clips seemed to indicate we'd get some movement on the Renard front - both with the effects of the potion and his relationship with his brother. Unfortunately, things still seem to be progressing very slowly. Now I'm just hoping we get some major developments for the midseason finale.

Grimm: The Bottle Imp

Hank: "I gotta say, man, you live one weird life."
Nick: "Tell me about it."

The story this week focuses on a father and daughter who are badger-like Wesen, while Monroe manages the shop for Rosalee, and Renard and Juliette suffer some side effects from the "pure of heart" potion and the kiss.

Grimm: Over My Dead Body

Juliette: "You know I may never remember who you were, but I'd like to get to know who you are."

This Monroe-centered episode introduces a new enemy, gets rid of a past frenemy, and sends Rosalee out of town on a bus - for the character to visit an ailing relative, and for the actress to go on maternity leave (Bree Turner and her husband recently welcomed a baby boy, Dean, to their family).

Grimm: The Good Shepherd

Grimm returns with a more widely-known tale - the story of the wolf in sheep's clothing. A Blutbad is pastor to a flock of Seelengut (sheep-like Wesen), and Monroe goes undercover to solve a murder.

Elementary: Pilot

"You have two alarm clocks. No one with two alarm clocks loves their job. Two alarm clocks mean it's a chore for you to get up in the morning."

Elementary has an uphill battle to fight. TV snobs complain that it's just another CBS procedural drama. Sherlock devotees whine that it's a blatant and inferior rip-off of their beloved show. Clueless TV dabblers assume it's set at a school for young children. But what is the show actually like?

Grimm: Quill

Grimm kicked it up a notch with this episode - it's right up there with many of the best episodes of the show, while (apparently) establishing a status quo for what the rest of the season will be like. And yes, it looks like there's a Scooby Gang forming.

This episode also removed the voiceover from the new intro, which made it a hundred times better.

Grimm: Bad Moon Rising

Grimm (and Nick) finally let Hank in on the secret in this episode - Wesen exist. Why Hank can see them is still a mystery, but with Monroe spending more time with Rosalee, it's nice that Nick has someone else who understands (at least a bit) about what's going on.

Last Resort: Pilot

I've been rooting for this show since pilot season. The premise was intriguing - a US sub disobeys orders to fire nuclear missiles and sets up its own government on a small  tropical island - but the cast really got my attention. I especially looked forward to seeing Dichen Lachman (Dollhouse) and Autumn Reeser (No Ordinary Family) back on my TV screen.

An excellent promo only whet my appetite, so when ABC offered an online pilot preview, I dived right in. And was blown away.

Grimm: The Kiss

Grimm finished its two-part season opener with a bang - great fight scenes, humorously awkward moments, and wow-did-they-really-just-do-that revelations.

Grimm: Bad Teeth

Grimm is back! The action picks up right where we left off last spring - well, actually 10 days before that. I'm not sure why the intro had to back up and show all the 10 days, yesterday, one hour ago stuff? I think we could have figured it out, though I guess it shows that the cargo container, with its vicious surprise, traveled to Portland from far away. This new kind of Wesen, Mauvais Dentes, is pretty gruesome, truly embracing its saber-tooth-tiger-like side. It's worth noting that this is one of the few kinds of Wesen on the show that don't have a German-based name.

Grimm

Season 1 | Season 2 |
Cast

Programming note: We are no longer covering Grimm.

Portland detective Nick Burkhardt starts seeing ordinary people morph into legendary and animal-like creatures, and learns from his dying aunt that he is the last in a long line of Grimms. Grimms, like the fairytale-writing pair of brothers, both catalog and defend the world against these supernatural creatures called Wesen. While Wesen appear human, a Grimm can see who they truly are when they lose control.

Nick teams up with Monroe, a reformed blutbad (a wolf-like wesen), who helps him understand this new world and solve Wesen-related crimes. Nick's girlfriend, Juliette, and partner on the force, Hank, are both ignorant of Nick's new abilities. Captain Renard, Nick's boss, knows what Nick is, but chooses to keep that knowledge, and his own true nature, a secret.

Part crime show, part supernatural drama, Grimm mixes in humor and mythology while turning fairy tales on their heads.

Season One

1.1 Pilot
1.2 Bears Will Be Bears
1.3 BeeWare
1.4 Lonelyhearts
1.5 Danse Macabre
1.6 The Three Bad Wolves
1.7 Let Your Hair Down
1.8 Game Ogre
1.9 Of Mouse and Man
1.10 Organ Grinder
1.11 Tarantella
1.12 Last Grimm Standing
1.13 Three Coins in a Fuchsbau
1.14 Plumed Serpent
1.15 Island of Dreams
1.16 The Thing with Feathers
1.17 Love Sick
1.18 Cat and Mouse
1.19 Leave It to Beavers
1.20 Happily Ever Aftermath
1.21 Big Feet
1.22 Woman in Black

Season Two

2.1 Bad Teeth
2.2 The Kiss
2.3 Bad Moon Rising
2.4 Quill
2.5 The Good Shepherd
2.6 Over My Dead Body
2.7 The Bottle Imp
2.8 The Other Side
2.9 La Llorona
2.10 The Hour of Death
2.11 To Protect and Serve Man
2.12 Season of the Hexenbiest
2.13 Face Off
2.14 Natural Born Wesen
2.15 Mr. Sandman
2.16 Nameless
2.17 One Angry Fuchsbau
2.18 Volcanalis
2.19 Endangered
2.20 Kiss of the Muse
2.21 The Waking Dead
2.22 Goodnight, Sweet Grimm

Cast

David Giuntoli (Nick Burkhardt)
Russell Hornsby (Hank Griffin)
Bitsie Tulloch (Juliette Silverton)
Silas Weir Mitchell (Monroe)
Sasha Roiz (Captain Sean Renard)
Reggie Lee (Sgt. Wu)