Fun blurb about THE DRESDEN FILES from Harperbruce.net

New Harper’s MewsCentrist-to-moderate political commentary; personal thoughts; humor, ramblings and foolishness.Feb 02 2007 Visions — The Dresden FilesPosted by: harperbruce, in Movies / television / radio, Visions television reviews

The Dresden Files. Starring Paul Blackthorne, Valerie Cruz, Terence Mann, Conrad Coates, Raoul Bhaneja. Executive Producers: Hans Beimler (”Storm Front”), David Simkins, Robert Hewitt Wolfe, Nicolas Cage, Norm Golightly. Based on the book series The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. SciFi Channel, Sunday evening.

You need help? 2 and 2 adding up to 3.14159, and you think the only explanation is, something spooky is happening? Call Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden; he’s a wizard. Indeed, he’s the only wizard in the Chicago Yellow Pages — listed under “Wizards”:

Harry Dresden — Wizard
Lost Items found. Paranormal Investigations.
Consulting. Advice. Reasonable Rates.
No Love Potions, Endless Purses, or
Other Entertainment.

It’s not an incredibly lucrative profession, apparently; Harry’s constantly poorer than a churchmouse. But he does have one semi-steady gig that keeps him in bread and cheese — he consults with Lt. Murphy of the Chicago Police Department’s Special Investigations Division, which takes on the cases inexplicable by normal police techniques. And it has its occasional compensations.

The Dresden Files is based semi-loosely on the popular series of hard-boiled magical mysteries written by Jim Butcher, featuring Harry, Lt. Karrin Murphy, Bob the spirit, and Harry’s travails with the White Council of Wizards and their dour, suspicious Warden, Morgan. Butcher’s books started off in paperback; beginning two years ago, with Dead Beat, the popularity of the character sent Harry into hardcover. (Another book is slated for this year. If the television series does well, we could be seeing a symbiotic relationship forming here.)

Paul Blackthorne stars as Dresden, the wizard with a mind and talking style like Robert B. Parker’s Spenser, mixed up with the power of Merlin. Interestingly, Blackthorne is English; however, he does a good job of suppressing his British accent. (Although I really think that what he has come up with sounds like it belongs on the streets of Queens, rather than Chicago. But then again, I’m not from Chicago, and not everyone in Illinois speaks Midwestern flat.) As for the acting, Blackthorne brings a definite dynamism and passion to Harry’s character; when he takes on a case, he cares for the people he’s trying to help, whether it be Murphy or a private client. He is not above bending the rules if he thinks it’s needed to save someone; though voodoo is apparently forbidden by the High Council [1], he uses it to get the attention of a “body-stealer” who has grabbed Murphy’s body as a means of escaping. Harry is firmly on the side of the angels, but that doesn’t stop him from doing what it takes.

Valerie Cruz takes on the role of Lt. Connie Murphy (renamed from the books), a cop who has risen through the ranks of the Chicago Police the hardest way — against a system that resists both female cops and the explanations she provides for the cases she’s handed. Cruz gives an accurate portrayal here; her Murphy doesn’t entirely understand, much less accept, the logic of a metaphysical explanation for a murder or kidnapping. Harry often has to force her to see the facts that he perceives and reasons out with his better understanding of the sorcerous. However, when she faces the situation, she rides with it; and you would be hard put to find a better backup for your six o’clock.

Terrence Mann portrays Bob. Yes, that’s his name, or at least all that anyone ever gives us, including Butcher in the books. But Bob was once pretty powerful, and abused that power. Now he is reduced to an air elemental, a spirit with drastically curtailed powers as a punishment, and lives in a skull owned by Harry, and before that by Harry’s uncle Justin — who Harry “self-defensed” to death some years before. Bob serves as a sort of non-corporeal magical library and advisor to Harry, devising tricks at times that Harry uses in the fight for good. This is the character we have seen so far that many hard-core Dresden fans may resist the most; in the books, Bob never had an actual body besides that skull. Mann, however, is a lot more interesting than a skull with glowing eye sockets, and his voice is lovely to listen to.

There are two characters we have yet to meet in the course of the show: Morgan (played by Conrad Coates) and someone named Kirmani (Raoul Bhaneja), who I do not recall from any of the books. As unknown quantities, they could affect the storyline in ways that might change the quality of the series. (I’ll consider an update to this when I learn more.)

Through the first two episodes, though, that level of quality is high indeed, and I would suggest dropping in on the Sci Fi Channel some Sunday night and checking The Dresden Files out. The series might be appreciated most by fans of hard-boiled mysteries in the tradition of Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer, who are willing to entertain a level above the normal evidence of eyes and ears. (Indeed, Harry uses his eyes and ears as much as anything; he just processes the information with a twist.) Fans of the books, of course, will find something to appreciate here — though the more determined will pick nits in comparing the series to the established canon. Jim Butcher himself, though, has encouraged his fans (with whom he shares an extremely active mailing list) to keep an open mind toward the changes made, and doing so in this writer’s opinion will reward. Someone looking for duels arcane won’t find a lot of levinbolts flying around yet; though he hasn’t to date, Harry probably isn’t adverse to using a gat as well as a blasting rod [2]. Something may happen yet, though, for the last listed episode in the show’s Wikipedia entry is an adaptation of the first Dresden book, Storm Front. Keep your eyes on this show.