Grimm is back for a second season, and it's still incredibly stupid. The latest episode, Bad Moon Rising, follows our protagonist, police detective Nick, as he chases a gang of coyote Wesen [= therianthropes]. The gang leader kidnaps his teenaged niece, Carlie, who, along with her parents, left the pack when she was very young. The gang leader plans to rape Carlie, as is apparently customary for coyote Wesen to increase the numbers of their pack.

This show really hates women. 99.9% of Grimm's female characters end up as victims, gratuitously injured, restrained, depowered and/or humiliated. In Carlie's case, we get numerous shots of her torture. She's bound and gagged and imprisoned in the back of a truck. Then she's suspended in an empty well, still bound and gagged. Then she's stripped and forcibly washed against her will. Then she's tied up in a spread-eagle position. Blah blah blah blah. Notably, she spends a substantial portion of the episode with her mouth duct-taped shut, literally unable to make her voice heard. That's about the size of it: Grimm regularly reduces women to objects and plot devices, while pruriently luxuriating in their objectification.

Then there's the whole matter of Carlie's impending rape. The coyote Wesen grow their population through ritualistic rape, but you'll never catch Grimm calling it for what it is: nonconsensual sexual assault. When Nick and his wolf Wesen sidekick Monroe are researching coyote Wesen, they found evidence of the traditional "mating ritual," as the script refers to it. Sure, Carlie's dad denounces this "barbaric" practice, saying that it was part of the reason that her and his family left the gang, but no one ever says, "Oh crap! A young woman is being kidnapped and RAPED. Let's make sure she's safe." Grimm's refusal to name the "mating ritual" by its correct label — RAPE — minimizes the horrific nature of Carlie's assault and even tacitly condones it… Oh, it's not that bad…just a mating ritual…

Furthermore, this particular episode displays egregious classism. The kidnappers and rapists are working-class white dudes from Texas [of course! :p] who speak in central casting's idea of a Southern accent. They're grimy and scruffy, and I think there might even be some sleeveless plaid shirts among their attire. They practically have neon signs hanging over them that say REDNECKS R US. Not just any yokels, but eeeeeeeevil yokels. Ugh.