Dresden Files
Nov. 20th, 2010 09:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
azuriteSo it's all David S.'s fault, I've started reading The Dresden Files novels by Jim Butcher. They're an excellent fantasy series, and I went from borrowing the first book ("Storm Front") to buying the second through fifth books and one of the graphic novels ("Welcome to the Jungle") at Borders. My goal is to have read all 12 books and hopefully the short stories collection, "Side Jobs," by March 29th, 2010, when the 13th book in the series comes out.
I know it was also a Sci-Fi Channel series (back when it was Sci-Fi, dammit, not Syfy and had wrestling and horrible Monster-of-the-Week B-movies on), so I've started watching that via Netflix.
Just in the first few minutes of the first episode, and I'm nagged by a few details...
Just from the description, apparently Harry Dresden's contact in the Chicago Police Force, Karrin Murphy, has gotten changed from a blonde to a brunette, and her name is now Connie Murphy, instead. The actress she's played by seems more appropriate for Susan Rodriguez, Harry's on-again, off-again serious love interest, so that change kind of weirds me out. (Don't get me wrong, Harry and Karrin probably have some bizarre "partners against crime" chemistry, but it hasn't fully developed in the books I've read yet, and to amp it up and remove Susan entirely in the TV series would piss me off.)
Harry's go-to magical spirit aide, Bob, is actually represented by a white-haired British dude with an attitude, and he seems to have implied that Harry "self-defensed" (killed) his uncle, rather than Justin, his "godfather."
The Blue Beetle doesn't exist (yet?)--Harry has, of all improbably vehicles, a Jeep. Product placement?
He's also apparently something of a man-whore; he was sleeping with some girl from a diner, Laura. Not that I don't think the Harry of the books couldn't have gotten laid easily, but he seemed so distracted by his cases all the time that he didn't have much time for women.
Harry has his mother's shield bracelet, not her silver pentacle amulet, and apparently she didn't die in childbirth, but of something else mysterious. Those are actually two pretty big deals in the series, since Harry spends a chunk of his childhood and all of his adolescence and even some of his adulthood thinking that's how she died. Oh, and the silver amulet ends up being very important in a crucial scene in one of the books. But then again, this TV series didn't last long enough to go on for a second season, AFAIK, so maybe that plotline never even came up!
He also knows some people on the "High" Council, like this "Melissa" character who can randomly go into trances that searches records, which sounds like a ridiculously convoluted way to bring in a character that has no need to exist. Harry's meant to be a sort-of loner, do-it-yourself kind of guy. Him needing to rely on people affiliated with any sort of authoritative body kind of undermines his own personal business.
...Wait, what? Murphy has a daughter?! (This might actually be consistent with the books and only mentioned in passing, I'm not sure.)
Harry's house/apartment has too many windows. :(
The fact that so many people seem to know of/keeping mentioning Justin. Plus, something so crazily-named..."The Doom Box," yet its stated purpose is to take magical power and amplify it. Within the context of the pilot episode, "Birds of a Feather," I can't imagine it deserving the name "Doom," unless it does a lot more than kill someone who's only got a modicum of magical power (these newly-appearing baddies called "Skinwalkers").
That Harry has a record player and Justin was seen getting into a towncar weirds me out. All wizards are supposed to screw with electricity...and doesn't that mean EVERYWHERE? I doubt there's a spell that can counteract the negative effects a wizard's proximity has on modern technology.
Well, it's not half-bad, for a Dresden Files-BASED television series, short-lived though it may be. I'm not sure if the actor, while Harry-ish, fits my mental image of Harry Dresden, but he's not completely off the marker. And the music is cool. I might give this series a shot, but I'll keep reading the books first and foremost.
I do kind of want Dresden Files (book/comic/TV series) icons and/or wallpaper, though....
I know it was also a Sci-Fi Channel series (back when it was Sci-Fi, dammit, not Syfy and had wrestling and horrible Monster-of-the-Week B-movies on), so I've started watching that via Netflix.
Just in the first few minutes of the first episode, and I'm nagged by a few details...
Just from the description, apparently Harry Dresden's contact in the Chicago Police Force, Karrin Murphy, has gotten changed from a blonde to a brunette, and her name is now Connie Murphy, instead. The actress she's played by seems more appropriate for Susan Rodriguez, Harry's on-again, off-again serious love interest, so that change kind of weirds me out. (Don't get me wrong, Harry and Karrin probably have some bizarre "partners against crime" chemistry, but it hasn't fully developed in the books I've read yet, and to amp it up and remove Susan entirely in the TV series would piss me off.)
Harry's go-to magical spirit aide, Bob, is actually represented by a white-haired British dude with an attitude, and he seems to have implied that Harry "self-defensed" (killed) his uncle, rather than Justin, his "godfather."
The Blue Beetle doesn't exist (yet?)--Harry has, of all improbably vehicles, a Jeep. Product placement?
He's also apparently something of a man-whore; he was sleeping with some girl from a diner, Laura. Not that I don't think the Harry of the books couldn't have gotten laid easily, but he seemed so distracted by his cases all the time that he didn't have much time for women.
Harry has his mother's shield bracelet, not her silver pentacle amulet, and apparently she didn't die in childbirth, but of something else mysterious. Those are actually two pretty big deals in the series, since Harry spends a chunk of his childhood and all of his adolescence and even some of his adulthood thinking that's how she died. Oh, and the silver amulet ends up being very important in a crucial scene in one of the books. But then again, this TV series didn't last long enough to go on for a second season, AFAIK, so maybe that plotline never even came up!
He also knows some people on the "High" Council, like this "Melissa" character who can randomly go into trances that searches records, which sounds like a ridiculously convoluted way to bring in a character that has no need to exist. Harry's meant to be a sort-of loner, do-it-yourself kind of guy. Him needing to rely on people affiliated with any sort of authoritative body kind of undermines his own personal business.
...Wait, what? Murphy has a daughter?! (This might actually be consistent with the books and only mentioned in passing, I'm not sure.)
Harry's house/apartment has too many windows. :(
The fact that so many people seem to know of/keeping mentioning Justin. Plus, something so crazily-named..."The Doom Box," yet its stated purpose is to take magical power and amplify it. Within the context of the pilot episode, "Birds of a Feather," I can't imagine it deserving the name "Doom," unless it does a lot more than kill someone who's only got a modicum of magical power (these newly-appearing baddies called "Skinwalkers").
That Harry has a record player and Justin was seen getting into a towncar weirds me out. All wizards are supposed to screw with electricity...and doesn't that mean EVERYWHERE? I doubt there's a spell that can counteract the negative effects a wizard's proximity has on modern technology.
Well, it's not half-bad, for a Dresden Files-BASED television series, short-lived though it may be. I'm not sure if the actor, while Harry-ish, fits my mental image of Harry Dresden, but he's not completely off the marker. And the music is cool. I might give this series a shot, but I'll keep reading the books first and foremost.
I do kind of want Dresden Files (book/comic/TV series) icons and/or wallpaper, though....
