Its greatest flaw is that it's not the books.
Jim Butcher's series of novels entitled "The Dresden Files" is clever, fast-paced, intense, and imaginative. Harry Dresden is a professional Wizard--The only one in the Chicago phone book--Who narrates his adventures in the form of detective novels. Dresden himself is a Private Investigator who consults for the Chicago Police Department, who consults on their stranger cases.And that is just about where the similarities between the book series and the TV show end.
The TV series features a Wizard named Harry Dresden, who is more of a Private Eye with a magic hockey stick. He still works with CPD's Karren Murphy, lives with a ghost named Bob, and Morgan, Warden for the White Council is still breathing down Dresden's neck. All these characters are changed, often down to their basic characters.
And if you can get past all that, this series is still pretty great.
Jim Butcher wrote amazing novels, and this series will never stack up to it, but it's a fun series which is written intelligently and contains a portion of the charm of the series.
"The Dresden Files" takes place in a sort of "World of Darkness" Style Chicago--Everything is similar to the world we know, but not quite. There are Vampires and Werewolves and ghosts and Dragons lurking outside our perception. Dresden is sort of an intermediary between the mundane and the Supernatural. He's not particularly adept with magic (This element of the Dresden Files may simply have been changed for budget reasons), but he's more knowledgeable than the average Joe.
Dresden's clients range from the clueless to those who are, themselves, Supernatural. More often than not, he finds himself in the thick of things the hard way. Bob, arguably his closest friend, a is ghost who lives in a skull, and is a constant source of information. Murphy relies on him to solve the unexplainable, but firmly refuses to believe Dresden when he talks about magic. Morgan is a Warden, similar to the police, and serves as a sometime ally, sometime thorn in the side.
Dresden relies on some tools of his trade fairly often, namely his hockey stick Which replaces the "Wizard's Staff") and his shield bracelet, but primarily, he relies on his wits to get him through. Dresden comes off as incredibly limited compared to both his enemies and his allies.
While the show has some good visuals and nice action, the best element of the show is the interaction between the characters. Harry is a sort of tarnished White Knight, a do-gooder who is frowned upon for his actions and decisions. Morgan is the straight-and-narrow type who plays off Dresden well, as does Bob, whose morals are often questionable at best. Lecherous, snide, and often "cranky," Bob cares for Harry, and looks out for his best interests more often than not. In fact, Bob may well be the most compelling of the supporting cast; though he's morally ambiguous at points, he takes actions that it's likely he wouldn't consider, were Dresden not in the equation.
All in all, the biggest flaw of the series is simply that it's not the book series. It's a solid TV show which still shows depth and character.
score 7/10
kaneknight 26 April 2008
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1864256/15140
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