***Not a bad start. Police detective Nick Burkhardt starts seeing unusual things and comes to find that he is one of the last remaining descendants of the Grimms and that, like them, he can see real-life fairy creatures for what they really are. Also, he clearly wants to be Brandon Routh, though I'm not entirely sure why, since he shows more range in the pilot than I've seen from Routh in his last three or four projects (excluding his surprisingly entertaining turn in the delightful Scott Pilgrim vs. the World).
Perpetual guest star Silas Weir Mitchell, always a joy to watch, seems to have been promoted to series regular, and he earns his keep as "reformed" big bad wolf Eddie Monroe. The other characters don't really stand out (Nick's obligatory girlfriend Juliet and skeptical-but-supportive partner Hank seem particularly bland, though they may well blossom into full-fledged characters in future episodes). Apparent repeat guest star Claire Coffee makes the most of her few minutes on screen and Tim Bagley is, as usual, extremely effective (and creepy) in his guest appearance.
The story line seems to be largely a Supernatural/Buffy redux--Nick becomes aware that the villains of fiction are real and that he (alone?), by virtue of his inherited ability, has the power to fight them. Instead of a library or car trunk full of weapons and old books, he has a beat-up trailer fully stocked with all the necessities of fairy-fighting. This courtesy of his aunt Marie, who manages to kick a little fairy butt despite being a) old and b) a heartbeat away from succumbing to an unspecified terminal illness. (It is unclear why, precisely, his aunt needed all these obscure and unusual weapons, since both villains encountered in this episode can be felled with ordinary bullets shot from an ordinary gun.)
It's been a successful premise in the past, the pitting of a modern day everyman against villains of lore, but whether the particular iteration will be successful remains to be seen, especially with another fairy-tale themed show (ABC's Once Upon a Time) as competition, and several new fairy tale movies due out in the next year (Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters and two Snow White films, featuring Charlize Theron and Julia Roberts as the evil queen).
Bottom line: It's not a show I'd mind watching, but I probably won't actually watch much. And I'm ok with that.
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