El Grifo

I really enjoyed this; it was fun and interesting, in my opinion. The first episode gave me huge Supernatural vibes; two brothers, an old fashioned car, the atmosphere, even flashbacks. But then it quickly diverged into Stranger Things territory...except the Mom in this show was absolutely horrible almost all the way through the whole first season. I hope they'll come out with a Season 2; I'd like to see what will happen next.

I have nothing more to say about this movie but still have more characters. I really hate that; what is this, a high school essay? Wish the people at IMDb would give their heads a shake and let us write as much or as little as we'd like.

I randomly stumbled upon the English dubbed version of The Gryphon and it's a YES for me. Kind of surprised by the mediocre reviews. I feel like it has a Netflix 'Dark' x 'Stranger Things' kind of feel to it. It's set in the early 90's (ish) and has a lot of that synth background music like stranger things (love that). In addition to the 80's synthe music there are a ton of well known alternative songs and old school popular hip hop songs. The villains kind of look like white-walkers, and the other creatures to be feared look like something out of the "Alien" movie franchise. All-in-all I am happy that I found this series and I look forward to future season(s). Fingers Crossed!

I was excited to see, this will be a series. The novel this show is based on was my start into fantasy and is probably not known to an international audience. Funnily the plot is set in 1994 which is about the time I devoured the book as a 14-year-old. I remember reading around 250 pages on a rainy Sunday.

So as it is obvious the creators are trying to follow the success of "Stranger Things" in some ways, do not make the mistake to compare The Gryphon too much to the Netflix hit. It is an original story that Hohlbein created long before. As far as I can tell after three episodes (earlier start in Germany as it is a German production) the buildup is good and leaves enough things to your imagination, while hinting enough to keep it interesting.

The series seems to be a little darker than the book, which was youth fantasy, whereas this is fun to watch as an adult. CGI quality is better than I expected and acting and plot are fine. So is the depiction of 1994 Germany, although the town of Krefelden is fictious. I feel like most clothing styles of the teenagers came up a few years later.

After almost thirty years after first reading the book (and many others by Wolfgang Hohlbein) I enjoy this so far and will keep watching, respectively bingeing the episodes to come. I just fear this season will end in a cliffhanger and the wait for continuation will be painful.

I felt like this series was made with me in mind, but I realize of course that it is also targeted at young adults and teenagers. I was a teenager in the 90s and had a frenzied Wolfgang Holbein phase where I read many of his most popular books. "Der Greif" was one of the most popular and one of the best.

I was a huge fan as a teenager. I also bought the audio play version as a young adult. I realized when I got older, that Holbein has many faults (mostly repetitions of language patterns and plots/characters, lots of clichés and he got his ideas from other famous authors I didn't know as a teen). But "Der Greif" as a live action show is a dream come true for my inner teenager none the less. It's amazing to see the world they came up with, and I really like how they did it.

They did an incredible job overall with a few weak elements that I can forgive easily. The changes and additions they made are reasonable and well done. I don't care for fantasy or teen drama, but I found the characters sympathetic and the drama engaging. That alone is rare for shows from this genre.

I think I could see the influences from "Stranger Things" and "Dark", but they did it very well.

If you like me were a teenager in Germany in the 90's, you will find they have you in mind (especially in the first episode) and lots of music is referred to in almost every episode. The main character is making mix-tapes for his love interest. It almost gets a bit too much, but doesn't take away from the overall story.

I will definitely watch the second season and I also think you don't need to have read the book to "get" what is going on. To be honest, the story of the book is rather weak, it is more about atmosphere and teenage angst stuff. The story in the show is interesting enough, they made it look really great and have nice character building and good drama. A good pace and some action.

The Gryphon is an exciting show that kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. The story is interesting and the show has a cool 90s fantasy movie vibe to it. The soundtrack is really good and there's some great classic songs that play throughout the show. I liked all the characters, Memo I'd say is my favorite with Becky a close second. There was good chemistry between the characters and it was a good experience watching them work together. I look forward to what this show may bring in the future in the next season. The first season is only 6 episodes, I wish it had 8, because it felt a little short.