The Details

Grimm

Fridays, 9 p.m., NBC

Unlike ABC’s whimsical Once Upon a Time, Grimm takes its fairy tales very seriously. Both shows deal with fairy-tale characters inhabiting our modern world, but while Time is bright and witty, Grimm is mostly, well, grim.

The show conceives of mystical creatures as criminals hiding among average people, and its hero is a stone-faced cop (David Giuntoli) who tracks them down and brings them to justice. It’s basically a dark procedural with mystical elements, and the first episode’s reimagining of the Big Bad Wolf as a nasty serial killer is more laughable than scary. Giuntoli is flat as the lead, and while Silas Weir Mitchell is amusing as a reformed-creature sidekick, the supporting characters generally aren’t very compelling.

The half-formed mythology doesn’t show much promise, although with producer David Greenwalt (Angel, The X-Files) onboard, it could develop into something richer. Right now Grimm is just another somber crime drama, plus tacked-on mysticism.