Guest Contributer: Grimm and Buffy - A Tale of Two Slayers

“Grimm” is coming to an end, and I am surprised at how much I have come to enjoy the show and will miss it once it’s no more. It’s funny to look back on the show’s early days and think how derivative I thought it was of the iconic “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. The hero of each show finds out that they have gifts which allow them to slay demons or “wessen” or its ilk, in “Grimm” parlance. The death of a former slayer/grimm brings about the awakening of those gifts in the next person in line – in the case of Buffy, a former slayer, and in the case of Nick Burkhardt, his aunt.

The shows are remarkably similar in how they approach the slayer/grimm, as they find their feet, get their posse or “Scoobie Doo” gang around them, to selflessly vanquish evil. Buffy’s tragic relationship with Angel, the vampire, who is lost to her, but who becomes an ally and supernatural defender, is mirrored in Nick’s relationship with his girlfriend Juliet, who becomes the powerful Hexenbiest Eve. 

Nick’s work life as a police officer, where he tries to maintain a normal demeanor while carrying out his duties as a Grimm, are like Buffy trying to be a normal schoolgirl while slaying demons and vampires. As Nick tries to learn about his gifts and responsibilities, he meets up with Monroe and Rosalie, and begins to spend a great deal of time at their Spice Shop, where they can research their old tomes to gain knowledge on the “wessen” of the week. This teaches Nick how he can use his abilities to stop these renegade “wessen” from killing humans in their own version of Sunnydale’s hellmouth – Portland. Buffy spent innumerable days in the school library, learning about demons and slayers from old books resurrected by her version of Monroe and Rosalee – Rupert Giles and his British counterpart, Wesley Wyndham-Pryce. In fact, the actor who played Wesley appeared in Grimm as a Royal who wanted Sean Renard, Nick’s Captain, dead!

Of course, no hero exists without his coterie, and again, we find great similarities between Nick and his gang, and Buffy and the Scooby Doos. In addition to Juliet/Eve, Monroe and Rosalee, Nick’s version of Xander is his partner Hank Griffin. Neither of these close friends have any powers, but make up for it with big hearts and fierce loyalty.

This brings us to their love lives. In both cases, our heroes have lost their true loves and moved on to lovers with supernatural powers, who ended up in that position after being courageously fighting on the same side after spending some time being ferocious enemies. From this of course, I mean Spike in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, and Adalind in “Grimm”. In both cases, the hatred that the characters had for each other were able to jump that thin line into love. Spike and Adalind, both strong characters, as vampire and Hexenbiest, are strong defenders of their loves – even against their own kind. Their turnabouts into good guys, after being reviled for seasons on the show, was really shocking and somehow inevitable.

Another character that played almost identical roles in both series is that of the second slayer/grimm – Faith in “Buffy”, and Trubel in “Grimm”. These two are from the same playbook – black leather jacket wearing tough girls, with strong streaks of independence, and wanting to do things their way, even though they left a trail of destruction behind them. However, once they were able to become more centered, they turned their lives around and used their gifts for good – providing help where they could, but as secondary characters that showed up once in a while for particular plot reasons.

Captain Sean Renard plays a prominent role in “Grimm”, and one could think of him like the Mayor in “Buffy”. The Mayor, for all his good words, was corrupt and in league with demons (and one himself), and had an agenda to take over the hellmouth – similar to Sean, who is found out to be “wessen”, and was on track to take over Portland until it was stymied by Nick and his supporters in Meissner’s band of good soldiers. (Remind anyone of Riley and his band of soldiers?).

The single main character in “Buffy” for whom I have no direct counterpart in “Grimm”, is Willow. Willow starts out as the nerdy friend of Buffy’s, who comes into her own power, gets corrupted by it, and then becomes like an ex-alcoholic. “Grimm” has no such character per se. The supernatural gifts are shown by Adalind, as a Hexenbiest, and she does become very powerful, and then loses a lot of her gifts, before they slowly return. However, I would say that Willow and Tara, her girlfriend, are not really part of the “Grimm” universe. It seems funny to point out here that Xander’s girlfriend “Anya” is a demon, and that Hank suffers the same fate in “Grimm”! Another funny point that seems relevant. Amusing too, that Sargent Wu plays a supporting role as a police officer who becomes a werewolf by mistake, like Oz does in “Buffy”.

“Grimm” has a tighter cast than “Buffy”, with “Buffy” having other extraneous characters, like family members for Buffy (her mom and sister – but then again, Nick has his son Kelly with Adalind, and her daughter Diana, with Sean), and Cordelia, and others. These other characters filled out the “Buffyverse”, as it spanned seven seasons. “Grimm”, which began with all these similarities and derivations, over six seasons, became quite singular, with interesting story lines, which broke away from the familiar “demon of the week”. The characters all had goodness within them, and that made them become dear to us over the years. Although they were not first, they were still able to touch us with their characters and stories. I will miss “Grimm”.

- Jean Dewar

March 31, 2017