Season One Review: Grimsburg Eps 1-4

Overview:

Welcome to Grimsburg, where blood flows like wine, the town motto is a pained scream, and the greatest export is slaughtered corpses. It takes a steady hand to keep this chaos under control, so it’s unfortunate that the community’s greatest detective, Marvin Flute, has enough dysfunction to fill a state prison. Flute, somehow, keeps Grimsburg safe while he also conquers his own demons and fixes his failed family.

Our Take:

Detective and cop procedurals remain some of the most popular programs on television. There’s a clear, engaging formula that’s easy to replicate, and yet it’s a genre that’s relatively rare in animation, barring more obscure, underrated titles like Moonbeam City and Axe Cop. Despite this, it’s a genre that naturally lends itself to the animated medium, especially when it’s combined with outlandish comedy. It’s deeply fulfilling when a cartoon can simultaneously elicit genuine laughs and suspense. Grimsburg counts on its audience to be aware of the genre’s tried and true tropes, yet finds something original to say on the matter through its silly, absurdist slant. Grimsburg is Scooby-Doo’s ultra-violent older cousin that buys it beer and then asks if it can spot it twenty dollars. It’s a breath of fresh, whiskey-wreaking air that’s destined to make a bold, bloody name for itself on Fox or graphically die trying.

Grimsburg’s Marvin Flute is a great good satisfactory detective who’s a lot like The Wire’s James McNulty, yet somehow even sadder and more dysfunctional. He’s accrued an impressive track record when it comes to ridding Grimsburg’s streets of hyperbolized homicides. However, Flute still can’t solve the biggest mystery of all — how to find inner peace and happiness. Grimsburg gains lots of points for just how well-defined and over the top it is and it manages to make Springfield and Seymour’s Bay seem normal in comparison.

Grimsburg isn’t lacking when it comes to exaggerated oddballs and, if anything, the comedy tries a little too hard in this department. Flute’s self-destructive-but-well-intentioned actions happen alongside his cyborg partner, an ex-wife that was raised by bears, his part-sasquatch boss, and a flaming imaginary skeleton that only Flute’s son can see. Jon Hamm, Erinn Hayes, Rachel Dratch, Alan Tudyk, Kevin Michael Richardson, and Greg Chun make up Grimsburg’s main cast of miscreants. There also some fun guest starring stints from Tim Meadows, Patton Oswalt, and Hamm’s Mad Men co-star, Christina Hendricks.

Hamm is pleasant enough in the starring role and is doing what’s essentially a Batman voice for this burnt out derelict of a detective (it’s a character who feels much more appropriate for Will Arnett). It’s a tricky balance that doesn’t always work, but begins to find its footing by the end of these four episodes. It’s unclear if this performance will become more of a played out burden as Grimsburg goes on. Marvin Flute will hopefully experience some growth and character development so he evolves beyond a one-note caricature who’s rich in apathy and lacking in earnestness.

Flute’s frail, maladjusted son is Grimsburg’s weakest character out of the gate. He’ll hopefully become more than just a weak approval-seeking punching bag, although Rachel Dratch’s vocal work entertains. His imaginary skeleton friend, Mr. Flesh (Alan Tudyk!), feels like a particularly desperate bid to make the show weird and different, almost akin to Jesus’ presence in Bless the Harts. It should be very interesting to see if this element remains, evolves, or is scrapped entirely over time.

Grimsburg establishes a broad universe where it’s able to have varied fun with the crime genre’s many tropes, like Flute’s “mind palace” that he occasionally shifts into a la Sherlock, Hannibal, and CSI. This prompts some entertaining, albeit predictable gags. These sequences are actually some of the series’ most creative moments. They allow Grimsburg to really go for broke when it comes to surreal, exaggerated visuals that help make the show feel a little more special and like it’s not just a generic cop comedy with forgettable animation.

Grimsburg also indulges in heightened film noir hard-boiled dialogue that leans into this flowery genre staple. The dialogue is incredibly economical and the scripts are refined to such a level that each line is rich and hilarious, which isn’t easy to maintain. Admittedly, this extreme dialogue sometimes wavers, but it helps set the series’ and characters’ tone. It accomplishes much of the heavy lifting in Grimsburg so that the even wilder storylines ring true. Grimsburg does an excellent job with how it sets the scene in each episode. Grisy murders feel par for the course and baked into this nihilistic universe instead of a distraction that pulls the audience out of the experience.

Each Grimsburg episode effectively juggles Marvin Flute’s fractured family life with his detective exploits. Both of these become the series’ core tenets and compliment the general thesis statement that the living are more conflicted than the dead. It will be interesting to see if Flute ever fully fixes things with his family and if there will be growth and changes there or if Grimsburg is content to embrace this stasis in a way that works. Hopefully the former takes place and Flute’s ex-wife and son can gain greater depth as a result, too.

A major hurdle in a show like Grimsburg that revolves around crime and murder mysteries is how difficult it is to create spectacles that actually make sense, respect their audience, and satisfyingly connect the dots so that there’s a sense of gratification when everything comes together, whether the audience is able to solve the case before Flute does or not. It’s hard enough to create a solid animated comedy that lands its gags and features compelling characters, let alone one that juggles smart, original mysteries on top of everything else.

Grimsburg episodes, by design, need to be quite plot heavy. This isn’t inherently a problem, but it proves to be the show’s biggest asset as well as its most distinct weakness. Episodes struggle to balance storytelling, comedy, and a fully layered mystery that’s complete with suspects, motivations, and red herrings.

A highlight from these first four episodes includes an Agatha Christie homage, “Murder on the Splurt Express,” which presents a murder mystery that’s set on a wild train/mansion “tran-sion” hybrid that brings Archer and Futurama’s vintage genre parodies, like “Skytanic,” to mind. A seemingly innocent game becomes a prime opportunity to properly test Flute’s real detective skills and it bears a lot in common with Glass Onion in the best way possible. These episodes also explore the rich field of true-crime reenactments and how artifice can take over when murders are filtered through a glossy TV production. There’s also a really fun and entertaining episode that embraces slasher summer camp slashers.

Grimsburg’s first episode, which admittedly has the most exposition and setup to get through, is easily the weakest of the lot. Fortunately, it doesn’t take long for it to find its footing and build a more confident, entertaining rhythm. At the same time, Grimsburg also isn’t afraid to explore other genre riffs, like a fun ode to The Shape of Water that’s one of the silliest, satisfying B-stories to come out of this initial episode batch. It’s more unpredictable choices like this that are essential to prevent Grimsburg’s stagnation.

One of Grimsburg’s most notable features is its extremely graphic violence. There’s a vicious chainsaw decapitation within the first minute that effectively hammers in that disturbing deaths are the point of this hyper-realized murder hamlet. There are killer clowns and Zodiac-esque killers who freeze their victims in ice blocks and other ludicrous conceits like a murder spree where animal bones are the killing tools.

This all comes as a bit of a jarring shock, considering Grimsburg’s special pilot presentation airs at 8pm, before it begins its regular schedule on Sundays at 9:30pm. It’s difficult to not just use copious blood as a crutch for actual laughs. Grimsburg’s murder scenes are extreme and there’s usually more in play than simply the sight of gore. However, it definitely feels – at least during this first collection of episodes – that Grimsburg wants to be known as the “graphic murder comedy,” albeit with an emphasis on the first part of that label.

Grimsburg is a mixed bag of body parts, but one that still includes some solid gags. The biggest laugh in these first four episodes comes out of a meta jab about a joke that will “get finished in post.” Honestly, one of the series’ most consistent gags is the shifting bleak Grimsburg town motto that changes during the opening credits of each episode. Grimsburg waxes philosophical about how there’s no such thing as a perfect crime, but the same proves to be true for it’s comedy. That being said, it builds a solid foundation where there’s lots of room to grow and unique storylines that can’t be seen on any other animated series.

Grimsburg has the potential to be a big hit for Fox that’s destined to dwarf Krapopolis. On that note, Fox has already secured a second season of Grimsburg ahead of its premiere, an approach that they’ve also recently taken with Krapopolis. If nothing else, a foul animated comedy that engages in sweeping Agatha Christie lampoons is never a bad thing.

A special pilot showing of ‘Grimsburg’ airs January 7th at 8pm before it begins its official schedule at an unannounced date