Dresden Files on DVD

In better news on the Dresden Files front, the first season DVD set is now available for pre-order at Amazon. This of course doesn't make up for the cancellation, but at least they're going ahead with a DVD set.

Dresden Files News

According to SyFy Portal, The Dresden Files has been canceled.

This makes me sad. :-(

The Dresden Files—Second City

A mysterious hooded figure stabs a random guy with what looks like a hot poker. Or possibly a wand. Random Guy dies a horrible spitty, pukey death. Okay, that was weird. And also gross.

Murphy and Harry are at a bar having a drink and a chat. Murphy tells him her reputation is suffering from her work with him. He says maybe he'll do less work for her, and she asks if they're breaking up. Murphy is called to the scene of the death of Random Pukey Guy. Somehow the guy drowned two miles away from the lake. He turns out to be a member of the Russian mob. His name is "Sticky." That sounds Russian to me. Mr. Sticky has a strange brand on his shoulder. Also, he drowned in sea water. That's not very Lake Michigany.

Oh, and Murphy's estranged dad is in town.

Investigation focuses on surveillance tapes of a hooded man carrying a possible branding iron, while Bob examines pictures of the actual brand. Harry's very concerned about how Murphy's co-workers are reacting to his involvement with her. Then Mr. Murphy drops by to give Harry the "Stay away from my daughter," speech. It sounds like there's a connection between Dad Murphy and Mr. Sticky--Mr. Sticky was involved in the death of Mr. Murphy's partner back in the day. (Okay, his name is Reyes but I like Mr. Sticky better.) Murphy isn't nuts about her dad's interference and tells him to back off. She and Harry continue their investigation. They follow a magical trail to the killer's hideout. Harry kisses Murphy to get her to slap him to jolt the ant vomit he's using to make the magical trail visible. He's so romantic. *swoon*

They encounter Mysterious Hooded Guy. Murphy shoots him, but to no apparent effect. Murphy is pulled off the case because of irregularities in how she found her way to the bad guy. Kirmani, assigned to the case in Murphy's place, finds a nitro pill on the scene. Which points toward Murphy's dad.

Harry works out that Harrack, a journalist, is the one who got them thrown off the case. Kirmani arrests Mr. Murphy while Harry goes after Harrack and discovers the killer was Munser, another cop. He's taking away the victims' close brushes with death and using them to engineer near misses for himself, so each time he's nearly killed, for instance when Murphy shot him, he has to steal somebody else's near miss to stay alive the next time.

Using pages from a scrapbook Munser was keeping to find people he could pull energy from, Harry and Murphy intercept Munser with Dad Murphy tagging along. Interrupted in his attempt to murder another victim, he takes his second chance from Dad Murphy instead. Harry uses the branding iron to counteract Mr. Murphy's death and prevent Murphy from killing Munser out of grief for her father. Very intriguing concept. I'm not sure it was consistently presented, as far as who gets branded when, but still a neat idea.

Harry destroys the branding iron. Murphy apologizes for slapping Harry and says it won't happen again. Hm. Is that, like, flirting?

Overall this was a very good episode but it didn't really feel like a season finale. I read somewhere that "What About Bob" was scheduled as the season finale, but obviously it wasn't. If it was originally slated to fall into that slot, it might have had a more finale-like feel to it. It's hard to say since it was on a couple of weeks ago.

So I suppose I should sum up this, the first season of The Dresden Files. Overall? I had a great time spending these thirteen not-quite-hours with Harry Dresden and company, and I hope the ratings--particularly strong among us ladies, I hear--will convince SciFi to grant Dresden a deserved second season.

Dresden Files on iTunes:

Coming Tonight...

Reviews of the first 2 episodes of Drive. Also review of the season finale of The Dresden Files. Watch this space...

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:

News: Dresden Files/Robin Hood

The Dresden Files moves to a new timeslot tonight, an hour later than previously. That's 10 pm Eastern Time, and you can do the math from there. Also, the April 15th episode, Second City, is the season finale.




Also on April 15th, BBC America will be showing a Robin Hood marathon, starting at 8 am Eastern and running through 7 pm, showing every episode they've aired straight through in order.

The Dresden Files—What About Bob

This week we're treated to lots of flashbacks, fleshing out the story of Harry's past--his father's death, his uncle's murder. We even get to see Harry meet Bob for the first time, and some scenes of Harry's early magical training, under Bob's tutelage. Murdering his uncle with black magic was what got Harry into hot water with the High Council, and now we get to find out why. It's a nice addition to our hero's semi-tortured backstory. I like that Harry's kinda dark. Cause it makes him that much hotter.

In any case, our present day story starts with Harry in bed with some slinky brunette woman we don't know. Her name's Tara and she wears teeny black underpants. And she steals Bob's skull. We don't like her. But honestly we don't like anybody who wears teeny black underpants, even if they don't steal Bob.

Elsewhere, Murphy is brought in on a case--Justin Morningway, Harry's uncle. An anonymous caller has accused Harry of his murder. In the meantime, Murphy's suffering from headaches brought on by her possession.

Tara is in cahoots with Harry's Uncle Justin. Except isn't Uncle Justin dead? Cause he's awfully lively for a dead guy. But wait--he's a copy of Uncle Justin, created as a falesafe to bring him back from the dead. He's the anonymous caller, and is using Murphy to get Morningway's body exhumed so his body can be magically reanimated. He also has control of Bob, and offers Bob his mortality back in exchange for assistance with the resurrection. Of course, Harry has to die to make it work, but that's the way it goes.

I liked this episode quite a lot. It's good to see repercussions from earlier episodes--namely Murphy's possession in "The Boone Identity". Her flashbacks and nightmares from the incident lead to a well-played confrontation between her and Harry, in which Harry is willing to tell her the truth but she is unwilling to accept it. I liked the explanation of Justin's "murder"--Harry used black magic, and did things he shouldn't have, but in the end the actual murder wasn't entirely on purpose. I also liked that Bob is just edgy enough that I believed his acceptance of Morningway's deal, and wasn't entirely sure he was going to come through in the end, but of course he did, sacrificing his newfound mortality to save Harry.

Dresden on iTunes:

The Dresden Files—The Other Dick

Kind of an abbreviated post, as my spring break company is keeping me busy. :-)

Harry has to apply for a PI license. He's doing well, but Liz, a gum-chewing, American-accented Claudia Black throws him out for non-payment. Murphy offers to help, but only partially. When he goes back to talk to Brennan, the PI who runs the class, Dresden finds him dead and is nearly electrocuted trying to work out what killed him. Liz walks in on them and of course assumes Dresden killed Brennan. Dresden, however, is certain Brennan died of supernatural causes. He and Liz form an uneasy alliance to find the killer. Their investigation leads them to a fertility clinic, where mystical forces are being employed as "alternative therapy." It proves to be a haven for an Incubus, who's using the fertility clinic to incubate its own offspring.

Claudia Black was great, as usual, and the interaction between her and Harry made me wish she could be a Dresden Files regular. Chris Owens also makes an appearance in this episode. I haven't seen him since he played Jeffrey Spender, aka the Cigarette Smoking Man's kid and possibly Mulder's half-brother, back in the X-Files days. Overall, an enjoyable episode with a not-so-predictable premise.

Dresden Files on iTunes:

The Dresden Files—Storm Front

A couple of people we don't know die horribly while making out. There's a lot of blood. Eww. Harry is summoned to the case. Our couple have had their hearts ripped out of their chests. The man is a local crime boss. Harry doesn't want to get involved--the only way to solve the case is to recreate the magic that caused the deaths, and that would get Harry into deep doo doo with the High Council. Except he's already in deep doo doo with the High Council, because Morgan and the other High Council folk have jumped to conclusions and assume he committed the murders. Apparently he killed his uncle Justin with black magic, so he has a record, but he says it was self-defense. He has to prove somebody else did it to get out of trouble.

Pursuing the case, he's attacked by a fire-throwing demon, reunites briefly with Bianca the vampire, and uses some pretty flashy magic, including channeling lightning.

This episode had a lot of exposition, almost as if it were a pilot. Which of course it was, originally, until they decided to use "Birds of a Feather" instead, and move this one farther back in the schedule. Harry seems to be spilling a lot of information about magic to Murphy, which seems contradictory to his attitude toward her previous to this. He also uses a lot more magic, which I liked. I especially liked his use of the shield bracelet--I thought they did some nice effects there. Susan is dropped in with no introduction at all, which I suppose would have worked if this had been left as the first episode. Overall, though, considering this was an hour-long adaptation of a full-length novel (cut down from a longer version used as the pilot, I'm told), the story held together surprisingly well, although a heck of a lot of stuff was left out from the book. While it was a fairly satisfactory episode, I wish they'd done two-parters for the stories that are drawn directly from the book plots, like this one and "Hair of the Dog." They could have done a much fuller treatment of the books that way.

Dresden Files on iTunes:

The Dresden Files—Walls

A woman, Raychelle, comes to Harry's office and is run down by a car right in front of him. Investigating in Raychelle's apartment, he's attacked. His attacker disappears right into a broom closet. Hm. Wonder if he has that key from The Lost Room.

Harry finds a stolen bracelet at Raychelle's place and discovers a pattern of thefts across the area. He calls in Morgan, who isn't happy to be dragged into what he sees as a minor situation. The thefts are masterminded by Raychelle's boyfriend and a couple of sorority kids who have happened into some magic that allows them to move through walls. One of them dies trying to get into a bank vault--half of him inside and half of him outside. That used to happen to me all the time back in the day when I played Avatar. The autopsy shows he's been decomposing on the inside. The kids have been using a Glory Hand. It's not just helping them steal things, but it's possessing and slowly killing them, as well, as the spirit that gives it its power drains them to increase its own strength. Harry pursues, determined to save at least one of them. His efforts lead to a showdown with the hand's original possessor.

This episode was darker and creepier than previous episodes. I actually liked that change of pace. Although we've seen that using bad magic has serious consequences, this episode really brought that point home, and I liked that they were willing to wander into more intense, gorier territory. Harry also got to use a bit more and flashier spells, which is always fun, although the magical bugs were kinda freaky. Overall, I found this to be a solid installment, and another indication of the show's gradual improvement.

The Dresden Files—Soul Beneficiary

As the episode begins, Harry wakes up married to a woman who calls him Jerry and brings him breakfast in bed complete with really big knife.

Then we back up a day. A man with the unlikely name of Kelten has come to talk to Harry because he's having visions of himself dying. He wants Harry to hypnotize him or something to stop the visions--and then he drops dead in Harry's office. It proves to be a garden variety heart attack. His wife, though, is suspicious, and comes to Harry's office to get more information--then she drops dead, as well.

It seems like a horrible no good very bad coincidence, until Kelten's body disappears. Using a tracking spell on the money paid to the mortuary attendant to give up the body, Harry is led to the suburbs, where he finds Kelten, alive and kicking and using another name.

The string of deaths and apparent resurrections is finally traced to the coroner's assistant, Sharon, who's apparently running an insurance scam by killing the same man over and over, magically restructuring his memories each time, and collecting on the life insurance. Bob is deeply distressed by this, and we discover that he himself used this black magic centuries ago. His punishment was to be doomed to live out eternity as a spirit residing in his own skull.

This episode had a good premise and some nice twists, but the final reveal of why Sharon was involved in an apparently very dark, very dangerous black magic scheme seemed anticlimactic to me. She told Harry that it wasn't always about the money, but that was all we really saw as far as her motive. While it's a realistic motive, it just felt too mundane for this show. Bob's reveal seemed a little out of place, as well--it seemed like something that disturbing to him should have gotten more attention than to just be tacked onto this episode. Maybe it'll be revisited later. I hope so, as I think Bob is worth a bit more than a denouement.

This Week's TV Guide

The new TV Guide (for March 5-11, with the cast of House on the cover), has several articles of interest.

First, the cover story with the cast of House is an interesting read with some great pictures.

A couple of small bits on Lost, with fans responding to Charlie's apparent impending death, and an article about the falling ratings, and another short article addressing some of the boys' apparent need for sugar mamas (I volunteer--wait, I don't have enough money. Pout).

A short Q&A with Zachary Quinto of Heroes (Sylar).

A review of The Black Donnellys by Matt Roush. (He didn't like it. I think he was unnecessarily harsh.)

An interview with Ali Larter of Heroes (Niki/Jessica).

An interview with Nicolas Cage (yes, that Nicolas Cage), regarding The Dresden Files, which he executive produces.

The Dresden Files—Bad Blood

While Harry is entertaining a woman at his place (everybody's crying at the French movie but him, including Bob), Bianca (Joanne Kelly, who intermittently looks and acts weirdly like Morena Baccarin [Firefly]) shows up asking for help. Harry is reluctant. The date ends badly. Poor Harry. Bianca wants to hire him--apparently he owes her a favor. Oh, and she's a vampire.

In flashback, we discover Bianca and Harry shared a bit of nakedness back in the day, and she helped him out once when the High Council was pursuing him after the death of his uncle. Someone's trying to kill her, and she wants Harry to find out who.

As the plot unwinds, we discover more about the High Council as well as the organization of the vampire underworld in Chicago. A few hints are also dropped about Harry's past, during the flashbacks with Bianca. Although it appears Bianca might be the target of the High Council, in the end it turns out she's been set up by her protege/lover Natalie, who's trying to corner the local market of Third Eye, an undead-specific rage enhancing drug favored by portions of the vampire community.

Overall, another strong episode. I had a few quibbles--the bit where Bianca is accidentally dosed with Third Eye seemed contrived to me. Also, I'm pretty sure I remember Third Eye being a different sort of drug in the books--one that enabled non-magical folks to experience paranormal phenomenon. It seems odd to me to just reassign the name to a completely different drug, especially since the book-type Third Eye could be a great catalyst for TV episodes in the future. It seems like they could have used a different name that fit the vampire drug a bit better.

In any case, the show seems to be falling into a good groove. And is it just me, or is Harry just getting hotter and hotter?

Jim Butcher Article

Penguin Books has a short article up about Jim Butcher, author of the Dresden Files novels.

Check it out here.

The Dresden Files—Rules of Engagement

Another enjoyable episode tonight, with some good plotting, a chance for Harry to showcase some more magical abilities, and some nice snarking from Bob. I'm liking TV-Bob more as the show progresses--of course I'm also liking the show itself more as it progresses, so I suppose the two go hand-in-hand.

Tonight's hijinks get underway when Harry's new client, Nikki, walks in the door, wanting him to help her find her aunt Frida's boyfriend, a Mr. Primko, who apparently high-tailed it with Aunt Frida's money. Searching for Primko, Harry finds a body that's been scorched to death by a hellion. Morgan, from the White Council, sticks his nose in, as he has some interest in the case, then Murphy arrives. They both seem convinced Harry had something to do with Primko's death.

Then Harry discovers that Nikki isn't Nikki at all, but a Caryn Harris, and she's being pursued by Sarota, a menacing sort who destroys Harry's wand and otherwise causes problems. We don't like him. Things gradually become clear as we discover that Primko was himself a hellion, a recruit of Sarota. Sarota makes hellions, one of whom is Caryn's boyfriend Matthew Jacobs, who's gone free agent as an unrestricted hellion. Sarota wants to get him back under control by getting hold of Jacobs' Chain of Sin, and has entered into a bargain with Morgan and the White Council in order to do so.

Then Harry finds out Jacobs isn't trying to go Hellion Free Agent to wreak destruction, but is actually trying to make himself mortal again, because he's truly in love with Caryn. Harry can't let go of the case, in spite of several opportunities to do just that (including Caryn firing him at one point), and against Bob's advice he cooks up a plan to help the starcrossed lovers. In the end all is well, but Harry has double-crossed Sarota, who seems to be a pretty powerful figure in the world of Dark Magic. He's also double-crossed Morgan, ostensibly one of the good guys. And you know one or both of those things is going to come back and bite him in the ass sooner or later.

I enjoyed this one quite a bit, and it seems to me the show is largely going in the right direction. The plot had enough twists and turns that you actually had to pay a bit of attention (I probably had to pay more attention because I have a gross head cold, but the point still stands). I liked the banter this week between Harry and Bob, and between Harry and Murphy. I didn't quite buy Harry's sudden devotion to the case, which seemed to be rooted in an attraction to Caryn that didn't quite make sense the way it was set up, and the ending was a bit pat, but overall a good installment of a show that seems to be beginning to find its footing.

The Dresden Files—Hair of the Dog

The episode opens with a man fleeing through a graveyard. He is violently attacked. Murphy calls Harry about a dead body found in the park, but it turns out not to be the man we saw in the teaser, but a woman. She's been partially scalped, and her upper canines have been extracted. Murphy connects the death to 7 similar murders, including one found in the river last week. There's no immediately cause of death, but silver iodide is found in her mouth and lungs, as if she inhaled it.

Harry, of course, is immediately clued in that the woman is a lycanthrope (werewolf in common parlance, though they never use that word in the episode and, if I recall correctly, Butcher never used that word in Fool Moon, either). The FBI moves in and takes the case over, pushing Murphy and Dresden both out of the way and threatening Dresden with jail time.

Dresden doesn't drop the case, though, because if he did we wouldn't have a show. Instead he focuses on the victim's roommate, Heather, and is able to put the pieces together as to what happened to her. But there's a twist he's not aware of--the hostile female FBI agent is also a lycanthrope, and her partner is killing lycanthropes in order to cure her of her affliction. Unfortunately, he's been bitten, too, as we saw in the teaser.

It seems like this would have been a much better pilot episode than "Birds of a Feather." Everybody has a general knowledge of werewolves, which would have made the story easily accessible to viewers unfamiliar with Dresden. In addition, this plot was largely adapted from Fool Moon, so it might have pleased established Dresden fans a bit better, as well. There's not quite as much background exposition in this episode as there was in "Birds of a Feather", but in this case I think that's a good thing, since the exposition in "Birds of a Feather" seemed to me to be more confusing than helpful.

In any case, this was a much stronger episode than the last two, with some genuine creepiness and strong emotion, and I hope the show continues with this trend.

Dresden Files Review Delayed

Due to my need to see the Dixie Chicks on the Grammys (even though I missed the Police and yes I am bitter about that), and an ongoing argument with my DVR, the Dresden Files review will be delayed, as my TV 2 DVR has decided to watch Masterpiece Theatre, and I don't have a TV hooked up to the TV 1 DVR, which is currently recording Dresden, but won't actually allow me to watch it.

Yes, it's all terribly complicated. My apologies.

The Dresden Files—The Boone Identity

This week's episode was a marked improvement from last week's. The storyline seemed to me to be more coherent, and we got some additional background on Harry and his apparently guilt-ridden past. The voiceovers this week sounded more like Harry's voice from the books, and Bob showed a hint of the lecherous streak I expected to see.

We start out with a father who's being tormented by the ghost of his daughter, who was murdered a year ago. Her murderer, Boone, was killed shortly afterward. Harry experiences a vision of the ghost, as well, and begins to puzzle out what the ghost is trying to tell them. As it turns out, the killer was after an ancient Egyptian artifact called the Lock of Anubis, and he's not dead after all, but used the Lock to switch to a new body. Confronted by Harry, Boone ends up possessing Murphy (Valerie Cruz). Harry is forced to use a voodoo doll--dark magic he shouldn't be messing with, says Bob, because the Council will track him down and Bad Things will happen, and if that's not foreshadowing I don't know what is--to gain control of the situation, save Murphy, and send Boone on to the afterworld where he belongs.

Overall, I found this episode much more satisfying than the premiere. The story made more sense, and the writing felt more confident. Harry's starting to show a dark, broody side, which is never a bad thing, and Cruz put in a solid performance as possessed Murphy. If the show continues along these lines, I'll count myself a regular viewer.

The Dresden Files—Premiere

On his premiere outing, Harry Dresden faces a convoluted case involving a little boy who's being pursued by strange, bird-like monsters, and a murder case where the female victim is left flayed. The two cases are connected, and the boy's dilemma echoes Harry's experiences as the magically gifted child of a stage magician.

I have to say I was a bit disappointed in this episode. The story was muddled and difficult to follow. I was left struggling to work out the mythology, even on simple levels such as how the show's magic system works, and whether other people know about the wizarding and the beasties that lurk in the night, or whether this knowledge is limited to a select few. In the books, all this was made apparent very quickly, but here it's not clear at all, and for a pilot episode that's a potentially fatal flaw.

On a positive note, Paul Blackthorne (24) works very well as Harry. Terrence Mann seems a bit overwrought as Bob--in the books he's a lecherous smartass ghost-in-a-skull, while here he's more somber and much more willing to help Harry out. Overall, I think the showrunners here dropped some elements from the books that could have worked strongly to their advantage.

With all that said, I will be tuning in again next week to see how things develop. Hopefully the show will find stronger legs with a few more episodes under its belt. In the meantime, I think I'll see about ordering some more of the books.

The Dresden Files

The Dresden Files is about to premiere on the SciFi Channel--the first episode will be airing 1-21, paired with the return of Battlestar Galactica in its new Sunday night timeslot.

Having read a few of the books in the Jim Butcher series, I'm looking forward to this show. Paul Blackthorne is surprisingly close to what I pictured for Harry when I was reading the books (although it does state he has long hair--but hey, this guy's kinda hot so let's give him a break), and it sounds like they've done a reasonably good job adapting the stories. Jim Butcher has said he's happy with what they're doing, and that's a good sign.

This week's TV Guide says of the show, "A mildly entertaining concoction of humor and horror...this supernatural procedural is an agreeably escapist hour to help launch Sci Fi's Sunday schedule." Entertainment Weekly is less generous, saying, "...it's an uneven fantasy series that's not eerie enough to be a culty favorite (The X-Files) or goofy enough to be a guilty pleasure (Sabrina the Teenage Witch)."

If you haven't read any of these books, well, why not? Check them out at amazon.com, or scour your local library. If, like me, you like audiobooks, Buzzy Multimedia offers the first four in both CD and mp3 format. The books are narrated by James Marsters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame, and he does a good job with them. They're fun books, and I hope the show proves to be equally entertaining.

For more information on The Dresden Files, check out the official homepage at Scifi.com. Or drop by the official Jim Butcher website, where there's a forum dedicated to the show.