television
How J.J. Abrams broke Star Trek
Star Trek: The Next Generation 30th Anniversary Print by Dusty Abell, Copyright © 2017, Roddenberry Entertainment Inc. Reprinted with permission. All Rights Reserved. Dusty Abell is a comic artist who has pencilled countless comic books, is an illustrator, and has been involved in the animation industry as a character designer since 2000. He has worked on productions such as Batman: Return of the Caped Crusader, Batman vs. Two-Face, Young Justice, Mike Tyson Mysteries, King of the Hill, The Official Handbook of the Invincible Universe for Robert Kirkman, the creator of The Walking Dead, and many, many others.
The first Star Trek television show, known colloquially as The Original Series, ran from 1966 to 1969. The series, produced by Paramount Television and both commissioned by and broadcast on NBC, had its moments with episodes that broke critical new ground, like the first inter-racial kisses in Season 1’s introduction to Khan Noonien-Singh, “Space Seed,” and the more frequently cited kiss between Kirk and Uhura in Season 3 episode “Plato’s Stepchildren.”
NBC's Grimm is freaking amazing
Peg me as a media nerd, and I'll nod and thank you for the compliment. I love media. The various types of media I consume are just different methods of telling stories. I love books and music and anime and comics and movies and television, but more specifically what I really love is a good story.
NBC's Grimm is a good story.
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In a nutshell, Grimm is a supernatural crime drama that is based on the simple premise that all of the monsters of worldwide myth are real and living among us. In the first seasons, Nick Burkhardt discovers from his aunt that he is an heir to the generations old mantle of monster hunters called Grimm. Yes, those Grimm, as in the Brothers Grimm, the real brothers who collected, wrote about, and popularized much of the folklore we know today. Cinderella is one such tale, but Grimm is not a Cinderella story. Grimm is dark, gritty, heartbreaking, funny at times, and exciting. Grimm is a really good story.
Now, a Grimm is a human who can see Wesen (pronounced 'vesin'). Traditionally, Grimm have accepted their fate and travel wherever needed to root out and kill Wesen. Wesen are creatures who appear to be human most of the time unless they Volga, a kind of shape-shift. There are two kinds of Volga, one which only Grimm can see and one that everyone can see, which is the implied source for various folklore. Wesen , for the most part, live like pretty much everyone else. In the course of his police duties, Nick starts to see people as Wesen, but instead of killing them, he does his best to spare those who aren't harming anyone. I'll just say this isn't an easy task.
Now, I'm not going to detail out summaries of each season. You'll just need to watch. As the seasons pass, Nick is joined by more and more people and many secrets are discovered, and later revealed. Grimm isn't just a Monster-of-the-Week series, it is a deeply complex tale with a number of interconnected story arcs and a bewildering array of Wesen, all portrayed by an excellent cast of characters. This isn't your average Good vs. Evil show and, while some of the drama can be quite soap opera-like, it does draw you in and make it easy to understand the motivations and emotions of the diverse and chaotic world of Portland, Oregon.
Grimm is a really GREAT story.
I just wrapped up Season 4, and it's an amazing twist machine. There were a large number of surprises in that season, and I am looking forward to getting into Season 5, which has a lot to work from. A lot of questions were answered in Season 4, but new questions were raised, and some goals weren't met.