Friday, December 9, 2011

It's a Grimm Situation!


Lately we have been watching this new show on NBC called "Grimm." It is about this cop who is a "Grimm" who are descendants of the German story writers who in fact hunt down monsters. Every week he runs into a monster who looks like a normal person but is really a beast who has a story that was one of Grimm's fairy tales. Last night it was the one about the Pied Piper of Hamlin. There was this kid who was a violinist and his dad was a exterminator. Cliche right? But it was pretty good.

It does make you think about how these stories are archetypes of old wives tales. The Pied Piper was obviously someone who was a charismatic figure who would lead the children astray. Someone who influences other people and makes them do things that they normally wouldn't do and act in a crazy way. You know like Charles Manson. Jim Jones. Barack Obama. EBL.

They have another episode tonight with the story of the three pigs and the big bad wolf. Check it out. It is kind of fun.

55 comments:

The Dude said...

Last seen on the sidelines at Penn State, right?

Anonymous said...

I love fairy tales, especially the old ones like the brothers Grim. They didn't spare any ugly and scary details, made those liitle German kids toughen up quick.

Made several generations of Germans later turn into scary people who did some very bad stuff .

Trooper York said...

No that's not right Sixty. The EBL was nice enough to send me her new side bar photo.

I guess it was an olive branch so to speak.

Trooper York said...

This show has a dark side Allie. It is not scary but it has some horror elements.

In the episode last night a professor was trapped in his car and eaten to death by rats.

So it does have some comedy.

Anonymous said...

I need to start watching some other channels other than my very favorite MSNBC :) I watch those Prison shows on the weekends, kind of like the Brothers Grim on steroids.

TITUS!

Trooper York said...

With your heritage you might find the Grimm show interesting.

They have these guys called "Grimm Reapers" who seem Hungarian or something whose job it is to kill Grimms.

They use a lot of German names for the monsters and what not and it will be easier for you to follow than me.

Anonymous said...

Ach ya, I vill vatch der show.

My family came from the same village that the Brothers Grimm did in Hesse. A very nice Canadian Lutheran minister ( studied geneology under some German expert while in Germany for a few years) traced back one branch of our family to that village to 1680 something. Germans were meticulous with birth, baptism and funeral records.

blake said...

I've been toying with watching that or "Once Upon A Time" but--I don't even know where the networks are any more.

The Dude said...

Er, I like what you've done with your hair, professor.

Better?

Trooper York said...

I think your girls will love "Once Upon a Time." It is on ABC and the best way to watch it is On Demand. I think the Barb will paticularly love it.

Snow White is played by Ginnifer Goodwin from "Big Love." And the Rumplestiltskin dude is really cool and nasty.

And the Evil Queen is way sexy. Just sayn'

Trooper York said...

It is funny how they are set up. Grimm uses traditional characters that are in the Public Domain. But "Once Upon a Time" is a Disney production so they have access to all of the Disney characters. So we have Jiminy Crickit as a main character and we will be seeing Ariel and Belle and all of the other princesses that the kids all love.

chickelit said...

They have another episode tonight with the story of the three pigs and the big bad wolf. Check it out. It is kind of fun.

Hey, did I ever link the story of the Pee Little Thrigs?

chickelit said...

It's all really based on this: link.

chickelit said...

Wolf Blitzer hates that cartoon.

Anonymous said...

I love those old cartoons, I couldn't get enough of Betty Boop, my mother should have been concerned.

chickelit said...

I bought a CD with all of Tex Avery's cartoons & weaned my kids on that stuff. But now they watch iCarly.

Shanna said...

I just caught the first two episode of Grimm this week, but I'm not caught up (it's on hulu, for anyone else without tv). I like it so far, but it's not as good as I hoped it would be yet.

Fred4Pres said...

I saw an operetic treatment of Hansel and Gretle on PBS that was awesome. The "witch" was some pedophile murderous fiend trying to lure kids to his industrial kitchen. Yes there is a lot of wisdom in those fairly tales (you can find similar themes in 1001 Arabian Nights and other folk tales from around the world).

blake said...

Cool, Troop.

I'll see if they will watch!

Darcy said...

Hey, Fred4Pres - great to see you here and Shanna too.

Trooper York said...

It is available on Demand and I reccomend they watch it from the pilot where you get the story of Snow White and Prince Charming.

Fred4Pres said...

Darcy, I am going to predict a lot of Althouse people will start staying here and not go back. Good to see you too.

Trooper York said...

I think people will go to both places. Which is fine by me.

I just have to go over there to get free content to liven up a dead zone where fun goes to die.

Life is too short to be in the back and forth of nonsense with people like J and his ilk who are the future of the Althouse blog.

In fact in the next few months we might have a serious uptick in readers so it's time to clear the decks so to speak.

Trooper York said...

In fact this show is a wonderful apt allegory of the situation over at the EBL place.

The basic story is that an evil queen has to control everything so she transfers all the fairy tale characters to a small town where they can only talk to each other and they lose their identity and their basic humanity to conform to the evil queens plan. She controls how they work and what they say and everything they do. She brooks no criticism and has a fanatical desire to keep order and not let anyone be who they really are inside. She has a few favorites who she lets act out if they amuse her but most of the time it is a dreary and boring place.

It's freaky really!

Trooper York said...

What I meant to say was:

"I just don't have to go over there to give free content to liven up a dead zone where fun goes to die."

The EBL joint will be left to the tender musings of Cedarfords racial theories, Seven Machos hectoring, edutcher's sycophancy,Carol Herman's learned discourse with it all leavened by the witt and wisdom of "J" who is the newest star over there.

I wish them all the best.

Roger J. said...

Troop and others--I loved the looney tunes shows with tex avery--my kids gave me the complete series and I especially enjoyed the Opera renditions with bugs, elmer and the crew--but above all Foghorn legorn was my fav--boy, I say boy....great comedy.

Troop--your site is a joy--we drop the politics schtick and enjoy each other as human beings--its fun to deploy sexual entendres and other clutterings--connecting as people is far more gratifying than say, talking about progressive jews

Thanks for the site--now, dammit, if you are planning some nefarious scheme to leave us high and dry, I have a lot of folks who might take offense- just sayin

Roger J. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Roger J. said...

Am still trying to figue out how to get in Allies pants but its the damn tie died thing

Anonymous said...

Roger, I bet you would be able to figure it out eventually;)

Ritmo Re-Animated said...

This comment FTW.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ritmo Re-Animated said...

It is pretty darn hilarious to see that this whole episode hasn't caused 7M to drop his condescending pedantry one bit.

It's almost like he relishes being the only one left with an interest in debate -- that is, if by "debate" one means overweening political pedantry.

Of course, I plead guilty to the same - but wonder what it would have been like had I relied on a cyber-putsch to grab absolute rhetorical power. I doubt I'd have enjoyed that half as much as Mr Machos seems to.

It's almost like watching a guy play gleefully with "the button" from an underground bunker, months after launching global thermonuclear war.

Or you could liken it to this. But with less squealing.

Watching the aftermath of this whole mutual kiss-off is a fascinating sociological experiment. The idea that EBL actually thinks she got higher quality comments out of the grand bargain is like Josef Stalin thinking he got the best of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Delusional funny.

Ritmo Re-Animated said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
blake said...

It's freaky really!

Did you ever have the feelin' you was bein' watched?

Ritmo Re-Animated said...

Corrected link.

Ritmo Re-Animated said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Fred4Pres said...

Roger J. said...
Am still trying to figue out how to get in Allies pants but its the damn tie died thing

December 9, 2011 6:32 PM


Allie said...
Roger, I bet you would be able to figure it out eventually;)

December 9, 2011 6:35 PM




Roger, if you ever see Allie coming with a kuchen, things are looking up for you. It is probably a sure thing. Plus friends of mine you dated nurses (including my brother) tended to marry them. It is rumored that they know things.

Ritmo Re-Animated said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
The Dude said...

I'll make some popcorn...

Fred4Pres said...

Friends of mine who dated nurses...

Ritmo Re-Animated said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ritmo Re-Animated said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ritmo Re-Animated said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ritmo Re-Animated said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Trooper York said...

Buck up buddy. It's Friday night. Go out and get you some strange.

Fred4Pres said...

Titmouse, You are among friends. It is fine to unload.

Fred4Pres said...

Ritmo this phone changed your name to titmouse. WTF?

Ritmo Re-Animated said...

That's funny that my name rendered that way, Fred. I honestly don't know why it would do that.

I will say more privately for now, perhaps some more publicly in time, and everything will be good. But thanks for your kind words. That was really cool.

I'll be back soon but in the meantime will have to take Trooper's sage advice.

All the best -

chickelit said...

My iPhone wants to autocorrect "ritmo" to "rite."

chickelit said...

I guess ritmo is always rite.

What else is new. :)

Fred4Pres said...

rite as a titmouse.

The Dude said...
This comment has been removed by the author.