You don't think that's scary?

Sometimes you just have to scratch your head and wonder who's handling the big thinking at NBC. The network that gave us The Playboy Club — for three weeks, at least, before canceling the show after realizing that the people most likely to watch it are at strip clubs  — is launching a primetime creature feature with the dark and unconventionally creepy cop drama Grimm, premiering at 9 p.m. Friday (Channel 4 in Detroit). 

The network initially planned to unleash Grimm last Friday, Oct. 21, but earlier this month NBC made the executive decision to push back the debut to capitalize on the natural synergy in the days leading up to Halloween. 

Now wait a pumpkin-pickin' minute. Just weeks ago NBC recognized that opening their spooky new Friday night show the weekend before Halloween might be a sharp idea? This didn't occur to them last summer when fall TV premiere dates were set? Did they forget when Halloween was? Can you imagine some programming lackey bursting into NBC's executive suites and shouting, "S.B.! Halloween is at the end of October! Why don't we introduce that new series, Grimm, around the same time?"

More astonishing, the network already had scheduled Halloween-themed episodes of its Thursday night sitcoms — Community, Parks and Recreation, The Office and Whitney — to air tomorrow night. Like I've said here before, they don't seem to get out very much at NBC.

Produced by the surreal thinkers that gave us Angel (Jim Kouf) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (David Greenwalt) — along with Sean Hayes (Will & Grace), which is pretty spooky in itself — Grimm is a modern "reimagining" of classic Grimm's Fairy Tales set to a police procedural beat. It will be compared unavoidably to Once Upon a Time, the ABC myth-and-legend drama that premiered Sunday. Both will, in time, present 21st century depictions of Snow White, Cinderella and Prince Charming, among other big-name legends. While Once Upon a Time trades on superior production values and special effects, however, Grimm appears to be staking its hopes on ... really scary faces. 

The series is filmed on location in Portland, Ore., and looks like it. The lead actors are hardly household names (yet), and only barely recognizable. David Giuntoli (Love Bites) plays Portland Police Det. Nick Burkhardt, who's finding it tough enough acclimating to his new job in homicide when his dying aunt informs him that he really is among the last of the Grimms, the ancient family charged with keeping mythological creatures in check. He has the ability to see the real faces of the evil beasts as they try to blend into everyday society. Believe me, this is a power you don't want to possess (unless you're online dating, I suppose), and it causes much consternation for his partner (Russell Hornsby, Lincoln Heights).

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