RIP on the small screen

I don’t usually talk about what I’m watching on tv. However, I did sign up for Peril on the Screen as part of the R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril VII event, and these couple series I’ve been watching are definitely mysterious and maybe a little creepy. Both of these I watch on-demand, by the way, not necessarily on the night they air, which means I may be behind an episode or two.

Elementary is new on CBS this year. I was actually looking forward to this Sherlock Holmes remake. As many of you know, I am definitely a Holmes fan, but can enjoy adaptions, re-workings, and unlike my daughter I wasn’t terribly put-off by Watson being a woman. Overall I like it so far, but don’t love it.

I think Watson (Lucy Liu) and Holmes (Johnny Lee Miller) make good partners and I like that there’s romantic chemistry between them. Holmes is Holmes, brilliant, witty, insensitive. He’s just completed rehab here, so there’s drugs involved but his violin has shown up. My problem, I think is that replanting it to modern-day New York takes away so much of what I associate with Holmes and this adaptation becomes little more than all the other crime-solving shows out there. It doesn’t stand out for me, at least not yet. I’ll watch it, but I wish it was more unique.

And yes, I’ve seen Sherlock, my daughter’s a major fan, and I have to say that I think I prefer it. It has a different feeling than most of the shows. It stands out based on its style, not just by using the familiar character, something Elementary fails to do, in my opinion.

Grimm on NBC, however, is a show that I love. I like mysteries, I like fairy tales, so watching this when it first started last year was a no-brainer and I was hooked. This second season is starting even better than the first. It’s a police procedural but with the added twist that Nick (David Giuntoli) is a Grimm, one of a few people who can see the Wesen, creatures inspired by traditional fairy tales and other stories. It turns out all the monsters are real, we just don’t know it.

I like the way this one is put together. We have traditional cop show but the twist makes it different than most offerings. I also like that all the creatures are not evil, some are downright nasty, but some are good guys, others just harmless, and some are a bit of both good and bad. There’s a lot going on in this series beneath the surface. Each episode concentrates on a case, but there are continuing storylines involving Wesen politics and heirarchy that I don’t quite have a grip on yet.

Actually, I’m getting to watch a fair amount of tv this fall – what with no NHL and the Pirates not in the playoffs. And yesterday we couldn’t even get the Steelers game. Sorry, David.

This was my sixth read for R.I.P. VII, a reading event embracing the ghastly and ghostly, mysterious and grim. R.I.P. VII is hosted by Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings.

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