Dresden Files 1.01: "Birds of a Feather"

[annathepiper]

Here we go with the series I've been waiting for for months now. Picoreview: It didn't suck. Part of this reaction was very likely me having a big "buh huh WHAT wait a minute" reaction to a lot of things that were changed from the books; part of it may be because it's the first show of a shiny new series and needs to get its feet really under it. However, I did definitely like it and will be coming back for more!

And oh yes, I've scarfed this icon from monkeyscorpion!


Okay, so. First and foremost, if you're like me and a longstanding fan of the Dresden Files books, there are a ton of things in the TV implementation that will be different from the books. They were enough to make me do doubletakes several times, until I reminded myself to take this as a separate and unrelated entity from the stuff jimbutcher actually wrote. Here's a short list of all the differences I noticed:

• Murphy is not small and blonde, her first name is now Connie rather than Karrin, and most vexingly of all, she's now a mother. Murphy had no children in the series, and I'm vaguely put out that the producers of the show have seen fit to give her one now. It seems too pat a way to try to "soften" an otherwise kickass female character. But I'll reserve judgement on that until the kid actually shows up on screen.
  
• Harry has a sex life?! Since when? ;)
  
• Bob, while he still lives in a skull, now manifests in a visible form and interacts with Harry otherwise normally. I expect that they did this because a disembodied spirit with no visible shape would be tough to play on a TV screen, but still, it was quite a jolt after seven books of Bob The Talking (And Smartassed and Lecherous) Skull.
  
• Harry's mode of transport is now a Jeep rather than the infamous Blue Beetle.
  
• No sign yet of technology going batshit around Harry on a regular basis, as it does in the books.
  
• james_nicoll rightly pointed out that in the books, Harry's main forte is magic that blows shit up. Which leads one to wonder why he didn't just whip out a staff and blasting rod and fuego the hell out of the skinwalker chick. However, I suppose that they'll want to build up to him doing bigger acts of magic for later in the season.
  
• Who the heck is this Melissa person that did that psychic access of Council records for him?
  
• No sign of Morgan yet either, though I know he's on the way since he's in the cast list up on the show's official site.
  
• I'm not at all sure what I think about Harry's former mentor being his uncle.

Now, that's a lot of difference to be had between the book version of the Harryverse and the TV version, enough that hardcore purists may well be annoyed by all the differences. Me, I'm going to keep an open mind about all of the above and see whether the show does indeed get its feet under it and starts standing on its own merits.

With that in mind, here's the stuff I liked!

Paul Blackthorne doesn't quite visually strike the "Harry" look for me yet, but he's definitely got some core aspects of Harry's overall personality and style. Especially the snarky humor. His little exchange with Murphy about how the first thing that comes to mind is that his car's still booted may come across as cold, but hey, there's similar attitude in the very first book, Storm Front: "Suit yourself. You're the one with the deadline!"

While this different implementation of Bob took me a bit to get used to, they've certainly thrown out initial interesting hints for his history, setting him up as a once infinitely more powerful being who's now a "shadow of his former self". It does make me wonder exactly what this version of Bob used to be.

There was definitely a first-season-Buffyesque feel about things, and that's not a bad thing in the slightest--I especially thought of Buffy when the Ravens' Nest was shown on camera, and having the kid cheerily munching down on an ice cream sundae in the middle of all those spooky-looking Ravens was a touch worthy of Whedon himself. Hee. However, I hope this show will establish its own flavor and not try too hard to be Buffy or Angel.

I liked the flashbacks to the interactions between Young Harry and his father, which at least for me captured a good sense of what the books have to say about that. (Though I don't recall offhand whether it ever got established in the books that Harry's dad realized the nature of his son's gifts.)

The kid was interesting enough, and kid-like without being overly cute or smart or cloying.

Nicely done effects, all around. Bob's glowing letters were neat, and so was the Doom Box going boom at the end. Skinwalker Chick's brief attempt to yank Harry's skin off, suitably creepy!

All in all, like I said, it didn't suck. There's enough interest here to keep me coming back for more and to see how they develop things in this initial season. And I'm really hoping they'll maybe ramp up to doing the Storm Front storyline as a major story arc. That would be cool. ;D

Comments

[kirbyk.livejournal.com]

I generally agree - a promising start, I hope and expect that it will get better as things do.

The one interesting tidbit I do know - they changed Murphy's first name because there happens to actually be a Detective Karen Murphy of the Chicago PD in real life, right now. What are the odds?

I felt like they did a good job staying true to the spirit (I've just read the first two novels, but still.) Even to the point of Harry being absolutely incapable of sharing necessary information with Murphy in the name of protecting her. Boy has trust issues. But that's really spot-on Dresden.

I think it'll settle in somewhere between Charmed and Buffy in quality. I'm looking forward to seeing the actors start hitting their stride, which seems to take a half-season or so on shows like this.

[annathepiper]

*laughs!* Oh, I had seen a passing glimmer about the real Karen Murphy thing, yeah. That's funny. I'm sure that poor cop has been razzed seven ways from Sunday about the coincidence now.

And yeah, I did see a good core spirit of the books in there, in no small part due to Blackthorne's performance. And I hadn't thought about the thing with Harry not cluing Murphy in on vital data, but you're absolutely right! That's also very Harry.

[mistwolf.livejournal.com]

Who the heck is this Melissa person that did that psychic access of Council records for him?

Dead and skinless, apparently. ;)

[annathepiper]

*chortle* Yes. Very much so.

[seattlesparks.livejournal.com]

Harry has a sex life?! Since when? ;)

Be fair; he sort of had one in the first books! It's the beginning of the series; she's still young and innocent and hasn't LOST HER MIND and decided to infiltrate the Red Court yet! ;)

Harry's mode of transport is now a Jeep rather than the infamous Blue Beetle.

I've been told it's a surplus Korean military jeep, of a type which is apparently reknowned for having virtually no electric parts, almost pure mechnical. I'm not sure why the change, but there's evidently some logic to it, inasmuch as he won't crap out the car just by sitting in it. :)

No sign yet of technology going batshit around Harry on a regular basis, as it does in the books.

In fairness, we didn't really SEE him around much technology, and it doesn't ALWAYS go batshit around him. Generally only at spectacularly inconvenient times. And the choice of his vehicle does imply this may still figure into things!

[annathepiper]

That chick we saw him in bed with wasn't even Susan, though. It was a waitress named Laura--we see her later snippily taking Harry's order while he's there at the table with Melissa. I thought she was Susan at first, since I remember reading about the irony that in the books Susan is Hispanic and Murphy is small and blonde, and in the show that's reversed.

The vehicle choice does indeed sound apt, then.

[annathepiper]

Ah, yeah, that makes sense. Plus, while it does amuse one to think of 6'8" Harry stuffed into a tiny Bug, it'll probably go over better with the TV-viewing audience not familiar with the books if he doesn't look quite so dorky on screen. ;)

As long as they maintain the aspect of the vehicle occasionally going haywire on him, not to mention getting the obligatory suitable level of abuse, I'm cool!

[gamera-spinning.livejournal.com]

For whatever it's worth, many of these changes/concerns are addressed and explained on the Dec. 20th episode of "The Butcher Block" podcast, which you can check out here (http://butcherblock.libsyn.com/). drivingblind interviews Jim Butcher to get his take on the changes.

[annathepiper]

I knew about the podcast, yeah; I hadn't had a chance to listen to it yet. Mostly due to lack of time/opportunity. Thanks for the link, though! I'll have to check it out. :)

[snowqueene.livejournal.com]

the things that differed from the book slightly annoyed me as well... especially the murph not being a blond and having a kid. how hard it is to buy a bottle of hair dye honestly!

things that I was able to understand was 'Laura' IE: used to show harry's bad luck in relationships since I doubt she will be around after what happened... but we will have to see about that one.

Melissa at frist bothered me but then again there are 'lots' of members of the councel that we prob haven't heard about and since she died it didn't really bother me all that much.

Hary not doing some kick ass magic did kind of throw me a lil bit but I guess I can deal w/ it for the seeming building of BOB and Hary's relationship... I just hope it does not become a pattern.

otherwise I really enjoyed it .. snark and all =D I'm sure the actors will fill into their rolls and it will become all that we have been waiting for.

[annathepiper]

Well, I don't think this particular actress could have dyed her hair. I mean, some folks just can't change their hair color effectively just because they don't have the right complexion for the target color, and I couldn't buy this chick as a blonde, I think.

Part of me is vaguely annoyed that they specifically also have a petite blond actress playing Susan; I want to think, 'well gosh, if they had two actresses that specifically fit the types of the characters, why are they playing each other's roles?' Especially if they're still calling Susan Susan Rodriguez? I've seen pics of her actress--she does not look Hispanic.

The rest of me reminds that it ain't necessarily vital that the actual actors and actresses specifically match the physical types as Jim describes them. I mean, hell, if you go specifically by what Jim describes, Harry should be 6'8"--and how many 6'8" actors do you think are running around Hollywood? ;) I'm willing to accept changes like this as long as the people doing the acting can at least hold to the spirit of the characters. We'll have to see what happens.

Yeah, I suspect that Laura will not be a regular.

Melissa didn't bother me per se, it was more just a momentary 'who's this unfamiliar character?' thing. Mostly because I'm not used to Harry dealing directly with representatives of the Council except for Morgan--I mean, in the books, by and large, Harry is on his own unless the Council and/or Morgan get pissed off at him, so it was a little weird to see him seeking one of their people out, even a presumably lower-level one. But again, not really a 'bother' per se as much as a 'thing I noticed'.

[kaseido.livejournal.com]

I'm right there with you - I liked it well enough, and thought most of the translations were pretty well done.

Though, dammit, I want the *real* Murphy!

I like the actor quite a lot.

Agree with you about the similarities to early Buffy, plus Formula Detective Show. Which is a fine place to start; I just hope it does mature into finding its own voice.

[annathepiper]

Yeah, I will have a hard time for a while seeing this chick playing her, I think. I'm willing to give her a shot, but it'll be one of the main reasons I'll have to fight to remind myself "this is parallel TV universe Harry".

Here's hoping it finds a stride and hits it. :)

[kaseido.livejournal.com]

*nods*

She's in the same mental file as Jessica Alba as Sue Storm... :P

[annathepiper]

I never saw the Fantastic Four movie, but I can imagine!

[cafiorello.livejournal.com]

Nah, casting was bad, costuming was bad, lack of offensive weaponry was unacceptable, plot was weak. I *may* give it one more shot, but I may not.

Cathy

[annathepiper]

Heh, you're the first actively negative reaction I've seen. From what I've been hearing, opinions are very polarized in general!

I'm neutral so far. I do cut it some slack though given that I hear tell that Mr. Butcher likes what they're doing with the show in general, enough that he's even going to be an extra in one of the episodes. ^_^ And I figure hell, if the author is happy, I'm willing to give it a chance.

[cafiorello.livejournal.com]

Hey, if they'd put him in a leather duster and give him a blasting rod, I'd cope with the rest of it. ;)

I do like what they did with Bob--that's a reasonable adaptation to the medium.

Cathy

[annathepiper]

Hee! Yes. The duster and blasting rod are indeed required. I'm hoping they'll work those in. It'd be kind of neat to see Harry acquiring the one and maybe learning how to make the other. ;)