Dresden Files 1.08: "Storm Front"

[annathepiper]

Hrmmm. Picoreview: not as good as I was expecting, and yet, I find myself really curious about what the longer version of this episode was like. I was definitely hampered going through it since I'm very familiar with the book version of this plot--in fact, I'd listened to my audio copy only a few months ago, so it's still fairly fresh in my memory.

In general it came together... kind of roughly. It played for me very much like a one-hour version of a plot that really should have been allowed to have two hours. I would have really liked to see this, I think, as a season closer. This way, it felt kind of crammed.


The basic concept of the plot is the same as the basic concept of the book: murders are being done via black magic. Several of the characters that show up are the same, though the underlying motivations have in this version wound up being different. There are several bits that felt extremely familiar to me, as they were lifted fairly verbatim out of the book--and other bits that were completely different, clearly as part of the adaptation to the TV version.

Some good things I really liked, in no particular order:

* Harry using way, way more magic, both small and large.

* Mister! It's ABOUT TIME WE SEE MISTER! Yay kitty! ^_^

* Ancient Mai does not actually appear in the novel, but I definitely liked her appearance here. She's quite creeptastic.

* Morgan finally whipping out the sword on Harry, which I've been waiting for ever since he first showed up on camera.

* More references to tech and Harry not playing nicely together: two thumbs up. I liked Murphy giving him shit about not having an email address.

Some things I took issue with:

* We needed way, way fewer voice-overs. For a pilot episode it would have been good to help establish the mood, but since this version of the episode was no longer the pilot, the audience has already had time to pick up a lot of basic concepts of the world. It felt redundant to have Harry talk about some of these things all over again (e.g., white vs. black magic, and the addictiveness of the latter, since we've already been told about this).

* Where the heck was Bob? Sniff. (I know that in the prior version of this episode, they hadn't nailed down how they were going to implement Bob, so I know they had to edit out the previous version of his appearances--but I didn't know this didn't mean we weren't going to get any Bob at all.)

* Introducing Susan as a brand new character at this point felt way too rushed. I wish we could have seen more of her in earlier episodes to try to establish the mood between her and Harry. I mean, sure, she's also a brand new character in the book, but all the characters are. ;) Plus, in the book, we get way more time to get to know Susan and learn more about her and Harry's background. Tangentially related to this, I am also disappointed that we saw no sign of the soulgaze that they were supposed to have done prior to the events of the book! It would have been really nice to see that on camera.

* We did get to see Bianca in a previous episode, which helped to establish some context for Harry going to see her this time, but her appearance here felt rushed, too.

All in all, unfortunately, one of the weaker episodes of the set we've seen so far. Sigh!

Comments

[shadowhwk.livejournal.com]

I thought it was okay, but in the middle of the season, it didn't work as well as it could have. We got to see Mister, yes, but we haven't seen him before now which seems odd. Also, the fact that he has an apartment came out of nowhere. All we've seen until now is the office.

Susan seemed very random, and I thought there was too much magic this episode.

But it wasn't terrible, I suppose.

[annathepiper]

Yeah, the randomness of elements we haven't seen before--like Mister, like the apartment, like Susan--is part of why this ep didn't mesh with the previous ones well for me.

And while I didn't have a problem with the magic, I do agree that given Harry's use of it in the other episodes so far, the sudden jump was very strange. I wonder if we'll see him suddenly revert back to the previous patterns of use for the rest of the season.

Though I hope we do see Mister some more. ^_^ KITTY!

[firni.livejournal.com]

But where is Mouse?

[annathepiper]

Mouse doesn't come into the series until after several books, and if they're starting early enough in the storyline to only do a version of Book 1 in this season, no reason to have Mouse on camera yet. Mister's with Harry from the word go, though.

[tvaddictgurl.livejournal.com]

I definitely did not like this episode as much as I have other ones. My roommate, who does not like this sort of show usually at all, but has been watching the series and enjoying it said to me that if this had been the first episode she never would have continued watching the series.

[annathepiper]

Yeah. Even taken independently from the book, it just doesn't hold together well as a TV episode. The way it's put together is very rushed and crammed.

[gilroycullen.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... This was an interesting story line. I haven't read the book, so can't compare it to the actual written text as of yet. (To Be Read is a NASTY tall pille, boxed up so I can move.)

Things I liked:
- The sun effect, shoot all the magic Harry did. Hockey Stick Ho!
- Morgan being menacing as usual
- Freaky switch in Bianca's attitude toward Harry
- Ancient Mai. Nuff said.

The show seemed to be pulling things out of thin air for some stuff though.

[annathepiper]

Yeah, the Bianca behavior we see in this episode is a lot closer to what we see of her in the book.

But in the context of the show, it didn't mesh well with what we saw out of her in her earlier appearance. Way too little time was spent on explaining the difference--which, I think, made me feel like this episode was two hours' worth of story crammed into a single hour.

[starsongky.livejournal.com]

I thought it played a lot like a pilot, and wondered why they were showing it now. Reminded me of Firefly's muckup with Fox showing their episodes out of order.

[annathepiper]

From what they were saying on the Butcher Block podcast, "Storm Front" was actually filmed first, and as a two-hour version. But they hadn't really nailed down a lot of what they were doing yet--such as how they were going to deal with Bob. An earlier implementation of him was apparently in the two-hour version--they were treating him kind of like the fire-spirit in Howl's Moving Castle.

But they apparently diverged on a lot of what they wanted to do as they got other episodes dealt with and so they decided to shift this ep to later in the season. Which also meant they had to edit out the bits that no longer worked with the other episodes.

So it was a deliberate choice of the show's producers, rather than the episode just being out of order.

Question for you

[firni.livejournal.com]

The library has finally started coughing up Dresden books, and I've started with "Dead Beat" from 2005.

I just read a portion where he's talking about faerie, and Queen Mab, the "Queen of Air and Darkness", of the Winter Court of the Sidhe.

Laurell K. Hamilton started writing about faeries back in 2000, and she has Queen Andais, the "Queen of Air and Darkness" of the Unseelie Sidhe.

Is Butcher ripping her off, or are they both ripping off myth? I see they both live in Missouri, hmmmmmmmmm.

Re: Question for you

[annathepiper]

LKH and Butcher are both drawing off of Sidhe mythology rather than each other. "The Queen of Air and Darkness" is a concept straight out of the fairy tales, as are the Seelie and Unseelie Courts. Jim's thrown a few twists of his own in on it by calling them Summer and Winter rather than Seelie and Unseelie, as well as doing this thing with triple Queens of each Court, but at the core of it they're both pulling out of mythos.

Dead Beat is book seven! It's a good solid book, but way far along in the series, so you're coming in after several critical plot points. Go earlier if you can to get caught up. Summer Knight, book four, is where Jim brings in his version of the fey and establishes what's up with Mab.

Re: Question for you

[firni.livejournal.com]

The problem is the order the library sends them to me, and it seems there are other "johnny-come-lately" fans out there.

I suppose I could use my Borders coupons and go buy paperbacks when I get over this frickin' cold. At least his books can be read out of sequence without getting completely lost!

Re: Question for you

[annathepiper]

Ah, gotcha!

Still, Dead Beat is fun and the very tail end of it has one of Jim's greatest moments in the books ever. :D I'll look forward to hearing your thoughts on it, I hope you enjoy it!

And sorry to hear you're ailing. Suck!

Re: Question for you

[firni.livejournal.com]

So far it's refreshing, especially after reading Hamilton's latest Gentry novel (got it from the library), which consisted of the author stretching what appeared to be a couple of hours of "screw everything in sight to make the flowers grow" over 212 pages, making very few plot points other than the constant sex and blood.

Seriously, the book took me maybe 90 minutes to read. I'm betting it took her half that to write it. I'm almost glad it was the library who paid for it, except they used my tax dollars to do so. bleah

Re: Question for you

[annathepiper]

Yeah, that's about what I hear about all the recent Hamiltons, in both the Anita Blake series and the Merry Gentry one. I've been scared to touch 'em, myself!

Re: Question for you

[firni.livejournal.com]

They're easy reading when you're bored and don't want to use your brain.

Unfortunately, she's packed so much lame sex into her recent books that reading them has become painful.

Re: Question for you

[annathepiper]

That too is what I keep hearing from most other LKH fans who, like me, used to really like the early Anita Blakes. I mean, I don't have a problem with sex in a storyline, but when they're so much sex in the book and it's all repetitive, boring sex.... well.

Re: Question for you

[firni.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Laurell... we get the point that you especially like oral sex when the guy is still soft. You've used that particular game in numerous books now, with both your protagonists. WE GET IT, MOVE ON. How about some PLOT? Maybe MOVE THE STORY ALONG?

I'd say I have the urge to strangle her, but she'd probably enjoy it.

Re: Question for you

[annathepiper]

Heh, I voted with my feet after I read Narcissus in Chains and the second of the Merry Gentrys and haven't touched a word of hers since. I just hear all this stuff from people who are still reading her. ;)

But even then, I'm vexed on general principle about this trend she's in of having the recent books maybe only cover a couple of hours tops, and then, not even resolving whatever the general point of the plot is supposed to be.