Monday, April 9, 2007

The Dresden Files—Things That Go Bump








Tonight we launch into the second-to-last episode of the debut season. It doesn't seem like it's been that long, but yep, we're on episode 11 of 12. I hope this show gets picked up--they've done a great job of building on the premise, and it's really starting to gel.

As we open, Harry does yoga. Sun salutes. His form's quite nice. Murphy shows up complaining about a green explosion and dissing Harry's wardrobe. Morgan bursts in with Ancient Mai, who's been injured. We launch into a bunch of exposition for some reason. We know these people by now--why are they telling us who they are? I blame Episode-Out-Of-Order-Itis. After the entry of the High Council folks, a large, black cloud of magical death energy surrounds the building. A figure appears in the blackness and eats one of the High Council dudes. In Harry's words--"That's not good."

With Murphy smack in the middle of all the mystical goings-on, Harry finally gives her a basic primer on his magical abilities. Something is linking Harry's apartment to the Other Side, and they need to break that link to escape. Morgan says they'll deal with Murphy after, as in erasing her memory of the events, and Harry goes postal on him in an entirely hot manner. The spell was apparently cast from inside the building, so they're trapped in Harry's apartment with the bad guy. And the dark cloud is coming inside.

Except it's not just coming inside--the entire building has been shifted into Hell. Where they're trapped. With whoever put them there.

Again--not good.

This was a really good episode. I found myself holding my breath more than once, most notably when Bob went out into the Field o' Death. The twist at the end was great, I thought, and I didn't see it coming at all. (Now lots of people will say, dude, I saw it coming a mile away, and I'll say yeah, right, sure you did, and then there will be hair-pulling and biting and wedgies.) Anyway, it was also a bit disappointing because I really liked Murphy in this episode. Well, until she started barfing green flame. But until then, she was bossy and cool and badass. There were some nicely touching moments between Harry and Bob, and some nice character bits between Harry and Morgan. (Did I mention the Hotness of Harry when he went off on Morgan? Oh, wait, yeah, I did. Sorry.) Even the bits between Harry and Murphy were very well-done--too bad it wasn't really Murphy.

In any case, while I thought the first few episodes were a bit shaky, the last few make me cross my fingers that we'll be seeing more of Harry and Co. after next week's season finale.

Dresden Files on iTunes:
The Dresden Files - The Dresden Files, Season 1