Dresden Files 1.04: "Rules of Engagement"

[annathepiper]

Okay, now we're talking. Several good things to say about this episode, and while there were still a few nitpicks, nothing too severe. A couple of things finally happened to make me go "yes, cool, this is what Harry is supposed to be doing"--and plus, we got to see another character from the books come on camera, and the way they've implemented him promises to be cool.

Plus? Not half-bad plot either.


First and foremost: yay, we finally get to see Harry doing some potion-y things! I loved watching him do the scrying work, dropping things into the bubbling brew to try to do his magical tracking. Very neat. With all the potion work Harry does in the books, this felt totally right and familiar.

On a similar note, yay, finally, we get to see something technological go bzzt around Harry! I loved that little bit in the police station where he's talking to the girl in the interrogation room--and realizes Murphy's doubtless listening in via the security camera, so he casually wanders closer to the camera so it'll go bzzt. Very neat, and not a word of explanation required, either. This also felt very right and familiar.

Third, MORGAN! Okay, sure, yeah, he's a big black dude in TV Continuity rather than the ponytail-and-beard-lookin' guy I've always kind of pictured played in my head by Sean Connery, but he's totally projecting the right severe attitude. Even if in this continuity, he seems way, way more lenient to Harry and isn't hovering around waiting to chop his head off. ;) It will be interesting to see whether this comes up eventually in TV Continuity. Oh, I hope it does. We did as I recall have the High Council mentioned in the first episode--but now we've had a mention of the Wardens, and have definitely had it established that the High Council are the folks in charge of wizards. So far, the High Council (what we know as the White Council from the books) don't seem to have Harry on the same probation that they do in the books, and it should be fun to see whether this season progresses with getting them pissed off at Harry.

Fourth, yay, Bob making lecherous Dirty Old Ghost commentary! >:) That sounded like the Bob that we in Dresden fandom know and love.

All of these things made me rather more kindly disposed to this episode than I've been to the previous three, thus far. The plot was admittedly kind of fluffy, and I was simultaneously slightly disappointed and also pleased at the clever way they put one over on Demon Guy at the end. But then, I guess it's still a bit too early yet to have the darker sort of plot ending where the Demon Boyfriend Anxious to Become Mortal actually gets his ass fried for real by his boss, in front of a Warden no less. And I have to admit, the effects on the Toasting were really neat.

Other things I liked: Harry pulling out the drumstick, which I hadn't really realized was supposed to be his wand. I should have clued in from the last episode where he had that out while he was making with the illusion of himself in the jail cell! I'm beginning to really kind of like that TV Harry is using otherwise normal-looking objects to carry out acts of magic, like the drumstick and the hockey stick. It was also neat to see Demon Guy toast the drumstick; I hope Harry has spares!

And next week: "Storm Front", the 1-hour TV version! This should be fun indeed, and now I'm going to have to go look at the trailer for next week's ep. I would have thought that that dark-haired chick we saw there was supposed to be Susan, but I thought she was going to be blonde in this continuity?

Comments

[shadowhwk.livejournal.com]

There was a blonde for a moment, which I assumed was a glimpse of Susan. I think the dark-haired chick is Bianca(?). The vampire.

[annathepiper]

Ooh, yes, Bianca would make sense. Good point!

[iwondery.livejournal.com]

Hey there, I'm nodding in ....

Yes! to what you said -- I loved the fzzzst of the camera, and really loved not getting an explanation for it. Even if viewers haven't read the books (and I'm only on the 2nd), it's nice to be treated like we can be expected to put 2 and 2 together and come up with 4.

And the drumstick for a wand, that may have been my favorite tool of the ep. I love that Harry can see alternative uses for the most common objects.

Morgan had just the right amount of sternness and compassion for me. I'll bet he can be pretty scary when he wants, which makes the kindness so valuable to me.

Still, I think last week's ep has been my favorite so far. That "dialing my nose to 11" bit really grabbed me.

And, can I just say that Actor!Harry's way of handling women synchs up sooo nicely with the way Book!Harry is written? Love it, just love it.

Okay, butting out of your LJ now....

[gilroycullen.livejournal.com]

How to comment on this episode? Let's see...

Harry has a crease from his eyebrows into his forehead that distracted me.

Loved the camera, the drum stick (not completely understanding the hockey stick yet), the scrying with the bubbling pot. I think Harry is falling for the women that walk into his shop WAY too easily, which will fuel Bob's lecherous Dirty Old Ghost commentary.

Did anyone notice how much this Carrie person looked like Murphy?

Demon Guy was a good evil sort, the ones that purport to be acting in the best interests of all while making himself more powerful. I question the High Council actually having a deal with a Demon sort...

Haven't read any of the books, as my to be read list is way too long right now, but I can't wait to get into them.

[kaseido.livejournal.com]

We watched 3 and 4 last night: I'm on board! I think it's really pulling together, and I particularly like Harry's use of ordinary objects.

Morgan wasn't scary enough for me, but I'm hoping they're going to build up Harry's conflict with the Council over the season to get there.

Good stuff!

[logrusboy.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty well with you across the board here. This, of course, leaves me with little to write about. :)

I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt on tricking Demon Dude since Morgan was there is well-known (to those of us enlightened enough to have read the books) to have no truck with any of that sneaky stuff. But I am generally disappointed with demon lords who are that easily fooled--I tend to prefer them to see them later having a chuckle over how cute it is when mortals try to be sneaky.

One ongoing gripe I have is that the show appears to consider Murphy a somewhat generic detective instead of the outcast who gets stuck with the weird stuff and who would therefore have some reason to even know who Dresden is much less let him hang around in her office so much. But maybe that's just me.

Ooooh. I found something to write after all. Go, me!

[annathepiper]

Yes, I found myself suspecting indeed that we'll eventually see Morgan want to bring down the hammer on Harry. I can buy them wanting to not start with that out of the gate for a TV context; it makes sense to me for them to introduce the character first and then later on set up a conflict to get him into cranky mode.

Though this does raise interesting questions about how Morgan may participate in next week's episode, vs. his function in the book. ;)

[annathepiper]

*laughs!* Yeah, that thing with Harry's forehead distracted me, too. ;)

The hockey stick is supposed to be Harry's staff, I'm given to understand. Of course, we haven't seen him do anything magical with it yet on camera--only that he's grabbed it just before going into potential combat situations--so that's a totally reasonable thing to Not Get Yet. I only know this because I've heard it mentioned while listening to the Butcher Block podcasts.

I don't have a problem with Harry being attracted to beautiful girls coming into his shop. Since you've not read the books yet, you'll not have the context here, but in the books Harry is a self-professed sucker for helping out women. He outright says this to the reader, in the narrative. ;)

Yeah, the High Council being anything but outright hunting down demonic types does seem strange to me--I don't know if we'll get any further description of what's up with that, but it'd be nice if we did.

Do read the books as soon as you get the chance, they are highly entertaining!

[logrusboy.livejournal.com]

Quick edit: Para 1, Sent 1 parses rather better with the addition of "and" between "Morgan was there" and "is well-known". Sorry, all.

[annathepiper]

Hiya and welcome!

I liked the "dialing my nose to 11" bit last week, too! It was very much in keeping with Harry's general voice from the books. :) A bit of a shame that he didn't get much of a chance to use that enhanced sense of smell before the werewolf FBI chick and her boyfriend showed up.

And indeed, I find TV Harry being a sucker for the girls so far very, very much in keeping with Book Harry also being a sucker for the girls. :)

[annathepiper]

Yeah, kisanthe and I were talking about how Murphy seems to be a more run of the mill cop in TV Continuity. But I also thought that perhaps that's harder to deal with in a TV context--it's not exactly easy, after all, to just casually work "As you know, Murphy, you work for the Chicago PD Spook Squad" into dialogue. ;) One would think they could briefly mention it in one of Harry's voiceovers, but they seem to be trying to keep those to a bare minimum.

I halfway hope that this will be another thing they'll develop over the course of the season. In TV continuity, the Real World is apparently supposed to know less about the supernatural--even though that makes Harry's advertising himself as a wizard kind of weird. ;) Maybe in this continuity, the Spook Squad hasn't been formally established yet?

[logrusboy.livejournal.com]

I could establish that with one line:

CAPTAIN (yelling): Damn it, Murphy, I pay your worthless ass to make this boogeyman crap go away!

Of course, since we apparently aren't getting them in the order they were shot, we may not have seen all the things established that we know are supposed to be there but haven't been shared with us yet. :)

[iwondery.livejournal.com]

Well, this could just be the network's way of balancing out Terrance Mann's reading of Bob as somewhere between effete and drag queen. The first scene of the first episode we were shown had Harry in bed with a woman, right? Maybe the network's just overcompensating. (Has no one told them about slash? {blinkblink} I don't see him with Bob, though -- physics aside.)

On the other hand, I have a whompin' big No Problem with Harry having a sex life.

And? Love your icon. :)

[iwondery.livejournal.com]

That dent in his lower lip. I can't take my eyes off of it. I want to run my tongue across it. That's maybe number 3? on my list of things I want to do with him.

Okay, completely distracted now.

[annathepiper]

*chortles* He is rather fetchingly disheveled, isn't he? Or is that disheveledly fetching?

[annathepiper]

Ooh, there you go. Yeah, something offhanded like that would work very well. Well done!

Now whether we'll actually get that will be another question entirely. ;) Though as you say--we're not getting them in the same order they were shot (though I'm not sure if this applies to more episodes than just "Storm Front"). It'll be interesting to see how many more details they're going to keep dishing out across the next several episodes.

[logrusboy.livejournal.com]

Luckily, I'm all about the patience so I won't have any trouble sitting quietly and waiting like a nice boy.

[eveshka.livejournal.com]

Well, this was the first episode of Dresden I've watched and I've not read the books, so I'm a total newb there.

Thoughts:

Groked the drumstick, that was amusing.
Why does he use refried beans to scry with?
Zap really doesn't need much explanation.
Bob is highly amusing, though he reminds me a bit of Al from Leap.
Sadly, I'm disappointed with the Dresden/Murphy interaction. It's too much like House/Cuddy for my taste.
The plot on this one was a little see-through, but that could be because I'm a writer and my brain is constantly skipping around the plot possibilities.

Needless to say, this one's now in my DVR list for capture.

[annathepiper]

*laughs!* Book!Harry whips up some pretty vile concoctions, so TV!Harry's scrying goop looked about on par--but HAR, 'refried beans'. I hadn't thought of it that way. ;)

Yeah, the plots so far have been pretty lightweight; I'm hoping things kick up another notch or two as the series proceeds. I'm still very much getting a "first season Buffy" vibe off of it, and that's not a bad thing, so!

Glad to hear you enjoyed the ep!

[eveshka.livejournal.com]

That's what it looked like!!! (Can't imagine what it SMELLED like... ugh!)

I'm hoping to catch more on repeat, so will be able to make more 'educated' comments in the future! :D

[annathepiper]

Neat, I'll look forward to your comments! And oh my yes, the smell that stuff must have generated... if you get a chance to start reading the books, look out for the description of the potions he makes in Storm Front, Book 1. ;)

[annathepiper]

For this, I have quite the store of patience to spare, indeed. :)