Movies & Television Hey, we've been busy, so here's a two-fer. A new episode of Grimm airs tonight.Grimm, Season 1, Episode Five: “Danse Macabre”Beast of the Week: Reinegens, a race of working-class, bottom-feeding rat people who disguise themselves in human society as plumbers, exterminators and, lowest of all, dubstep DJs.Source Material: “The Pied Piper of Hamelin," as well as the lesser-known legend, “Deadmau5 ...   More

Movies & Television Grimm, Season 1, Episode Four: "Lonelyhearts"Beast of the Week: Ziegevolk, a.k.a. rape-goat. Seriously, it's a serial-rapist goat-man.Source Material: Taking a detour from the world of the Brothers Grimm, the rape-goat of “Lonelyhearts” is based on the French folk tale “Bluebeard,” about a wealthy aristocrat with a penchant for marrying women who “mysteriously” disappear.The Procedural: ...   More

Movies & Television “She'll sting you one day. Oh, ever so gently, so you hardly even feel it. Til you fall dead.” — Betsy Palmer, Queen Bee (1955) “No, not the bees! Not the bees!! Ahhhhhhhghhhhharghhh!!! My eyes! MY EYES!! Ahhhhghhharaghhhh!” — Nicholas Cage, The Wicker Man (2006)At the end of last week's Grimm, which interpolated “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” (and something about the dangers of Jagerbombs), ...   More

Dr. Know Shooting for the new NBC [TV] series Grimm seems to be everywhere I turn. Does the City of Portland receive remuneration   More

Movies & Television The second episode of a television series is often a far better bellwether of the show's tone than the pilot: Working from the confident position of a network pickup, the show is free to work itself into a groove. Grimm's second episode, however, spent a lot of its time wiggling its way out of traps it set for itself. (Bear traps, you might say. Then you'd pause for three seconds to let the irony of ...   More

Movies & Television Despite Monday's exciting Sean Hayes tweet to the contrary, the Oregon Governor's Office of Film & Video insists there's still no deal with NBC to film the full run of Grimm in Portland. In the meantime, I've had a chance to watch the upfront highlight reel of the filmed-in-PDX pilot, and have to ask: Is this show going to cement Portland's reputation as a capital of child abduction?It's not the ...   More

DVD & TV What can you divine about a television series from its pilot? Probably about as much as you can learn by looking at footprints in a muddy crime scene and determining the killer wore Timberlands. But   More