100th Time's The Charm

Reaching 100 episodes is a big deal for a network show.

Time was, reaching that milestone meant that a show could be sold into syndication, thus prolonging its run in the public eye and making more money for the creators and cast.

Now, of course, with all the myriad ways of dispensing content, it’s not quite so all-important to reach that magic number, at least in terms of syndication. But, it’s still a big deal.

NBC’s Grimm reached that milestone with the broadcast of “Into the Schwarzwald” March 11. The cast got together to celebrate and to discuss the series and their roles in it on March 5 at the SAG/AFTRA Actors Theater.

In general, the cast was simply surprised to make it to 100 episodes. A network show about someone fighting supernatural creatures is not exactly what many would consider a slam-dunk for longevity. Silas Weir Mitchell, who plays Monroe said, “We weren’t expecting to get to 10 episodes, let alone 100.”

Reggie Lee, the actor playing Sgt. Wu, one of lead character Nick Burkhart’s  (the Grimm himself) fellow cops, agreed, “We were just happy at nine!”

David Guintoli, Nick’s alter ego, calls the achievement “Fantastic, “ adding that he wants the fans to know “how thankful we are. This show is a strange bird, with strange, wonderful fans.”

Grimm is, indeed, a strange bird.

Set in Portland, OR, where the show is also shot, it follows the story of homicide detective Nick Burkhart, who, in the pilot episode learns from his aunt that he is descended from a long line of “Grimms,” people tasked with protecting humanity from Wesen, creatures like werewolves, vampires, and all manner of monsters.

Only a Grimm can see these creatures when they woge (change or morph) into monsters. To everyone else, they look like normal, if rather violent, people.

Gradually through the series, others in Nick’s life discover that Wesen are in their midst, including Nick’s partner Hank (Russell Hornsby), his girlfriend Juliette (Bitsie Tulloch) and Sgt. Wu. Nick also befriends a few Wesen, such as his precinct captain Sean Renard (Sasha Roiz), and Monroe, a blutbad (a wolf-like creature) and his wife Rosalee (Bree Turner), .

Good guys and bad guys change sides frequently. In the opening episode, Nick met a character named Adalind (Claire Coffee), who is a hexenbiest, and also a sworn enemy of the Grimm.  One hundred episodes in, Adalind is now a human who has borne Nick’s son, and his erstwhile girlfriend Juliette has become a hexenbiest, taking over Adalind’s powers.

Both actresses have worked through the changes, even working together behind the scenes when they exchanged places in one story arc.  Tulloch noted that, even though they are “pitted against each other” and that there is a lot of “interconnected stuff,” they rarely shoot together. She notes, however, that “We did help each other out,” when they had to play each other, working on body language and line readings.

Coffee agreed that the change was profound for the characters. Playing Adalind has been quite a journey for Coffee. She said, “Before, she was just a beast, focused on the job at hand. Now she’s a person, more like me being me.”

On reaching the 100 episode mark, she said, “I’m just feeling so grateful. I’m in disbelief.” She feels that the science fiction/fantasy fandom is “very smart, with some great ideas.”

Another character who seems to flip from bad guy to good guy is Sasha Roiz’s Captain Renard. He says, “Renard walks a fine line. He’s unpredictable and keeps you guessing. He seems like he’s always five steps ahead of everyone.” Renard has been on the side of the good guys, fighting the “bad” Wesen for the past season or so, and Roiz says, “It’s time for him to go dark again. He’s been too good for too long.”

One character who has remained fairly stable in the series is Bree Turner’s Rosalee. Rosalee is a fuchsbau, a fox-like creature, who came into the series part way through the first season, and became more prominent in the second and third seasons, eventually marrying Silas Weir Mitchell’s Monroe, an inter-Wesen marriage. Rosalee runs the local herb shop, and is always ready to help to cure various ills that beset the other characters, human or Wesen.

Turner laughs when asked if she is interested in herbs and other natural healing. “I’m married to a Western doctor. I’m not an herbal kind of gal.” But she does find the new vocabulary she learns as Rosalee fascinating. She says the cures and herbal concoctions are based on real things, and she enjoys researching them. However, she warns, “Bree couldn’t heal anyone!”

Only two of the series regulars have no special powers, Reggie Lee’s Sgt. Wu and Russell Hornsby’s detective Hank Griffin.

At the beginning of the series, neither character was aware of the Wesen in their midst. Weird murders occurred in Portland, but they investigated them as they would any crime. Only Burkhart recognized the supernatural element in them.

Eventually, Hank accidentally sees a Wesen in his woged state and thinks he is going mad. The same thing happens in a later episode to Wu, so they must both be let in on the secret. By the 100th episode, they have formed a police department within the department who deal with these kinds of crimes while keeping the world at large in the dark.

Lee says he is enjoying the evolution of the characters in the series, and his interaction with the fans. He says fans have formed a “Team Sgt. Wu,” and that he has had a few Twitter exchanges that have been rewarding. He says he’s “hit the jackpot” in being in the show.

Hornsby agrees. He feels that Hank represents the everyday people, those who are the skeptics and the cynics when it comes to the supernatural. He says, “There is a real joy in that.”

He also greatly enjoys being able to use his imagination on a daily basis, since the actors on the show don’t actually use make-up to turn into the Wesen versions of themselves; it is all CGI put in after the show is shot. He says it reminds him of being a kid and imagining and playing pretend. “It forces you to live in the moment,” which is something he thoroughly enjoys as an actor.

Even after 100 episodes, the actors are all determined to keep the stories and their performances fresh. David Guintoli says, “We’re in the trenches; we can’t phone it in.

"I think my biggest regret would be not doing my best. We’re trying not to get lazy at all.”