Dresden Files Defiled

I’m a big fan of the Dresden Files universe.  I’ll be honest, I haven’t read many of the books, but I’ve read a few, played the tabletop RPG, recently did a Fiasco game that will be going up on Red Shirt Crew soon.  I also love television, particularly investigation or supernatural themed shows like NCIS or Supernatural (or Grimm which does both).  So when I found out that there was a Dresden Files television series I was rather intrigued.  Sure, it only had one season, 12 episodes, but Firefly only had 11, so that’s not necessarily a sign it’s a bad show.  I should have just watched something else.

Little background on the setting for those unfamiliar: Harry Dresden is a wizard living in modern day Chicago, where he acts as a private detective, and occasionally a consultant with the Chicago police, on “the weird cases”.  He deals with werewolves, vampires, outsiders (think demons), and faeries (in the larger sense: pixies, centaur, goblins…) as well has having to worry about the wizard’s white council and their wardens.  I don’t know about you, but to me, that sounds like a good starting point for building a show.

Of course, no show can be carried entirely by it’s concept.  It needs good acting, strong writing, decent special effects (if you’ve ever seen bad CGI on a show… *shudder*), and so on.  I can give Dresden Files a pass on special effects because they weren’t painful to watch and obviously some random show isn’t going to have the special effects budget of a Hollywood sequel to the latest mega-hit.  The acting, in general, isn’t that bad.  But the show just collapses in every other respect.

But of all the problems the show had the biggest and the most demonstrative of the problems with this show is the writing.  I just couldn’t understand what they were thinking.  Anyone who has discussed more than about three movies with me knows that I am terrible at spotting plot holes.  So when, in the course of 12 episodes, I can find multiple glaring plot holes, there’s something terribly terribly wrong.  There’s an episode where the bad guys literally seem to do something just for the hell of it, because the writers needed a reason for Harry to get involved in the case.  Or characters that conveniently (or inconveniently) show up at random times, for no good reason.  Just “because”.  Oh, and they happen to have useful information for Dresden.  Not that they knew this when they arrived, he just mentions something that he hasn’t figured out and “poof!” a clue from the dumb-luck gods.

Sometimes people have bad days or a team that doesn’t work together.  Other people just shouldn’t make shows.  Especially when they have so much potential, and just turn out sad.  Or we can just clone Joss Whedon and put him in charge of his own tv network.  I’d be okay with that.  We could call it the BAF channel (Buffy, Avengers, Firefly).  I’d tune in and then put my remote in the microwave.

Matthew Bryant, aka Baker Street Holmes, is an editor for the Red Shirt Crew and deeply saddened by this attempt at murdering a beloved character.  How would you like it if Holmes tried to strangle your favorite fictional character?  Because he’d do it.  For a klondike bar.  You can follow him (and call in literary hits) on Twitter at @BStreetHolmes or e-mail him at HMCrazySS@gmail.com.

From the Bookshelf: Sixty-One Nails

Awhile back I was browsing through the bookstore and I spotted this book called Sixty-One Nails. I was intrigued by the unusual title, picked it up, and fell in love. Fans of urban fantasy series such as The Dresden Files will love this.

Find out more, after the break.

I have been a long-time Jim Butcher fan. So when I say that this guy Mike Shevdon is on his level, you know it’s awesome.

Sixty-One Nails follows a guy named Niall Peterson, who dies one morning on the Subway – but not completely. He is saved by a mysterious woman named Blackbird and launched into a strange and often dangerous new world where he learns about the courts of the Fey. Through the course of the book, he learns he has to fix an ancient ritual to stop an unthinkable war.

It’s not often that I fall for a book as hard as I did for this one. The language is excellently crafted and lends itself to enjoyable, swift reading. It doesn’t get in the way of the story is what I’m trying to say, but it’s still above par.

The story itself is compelling and enjoyable. We say it all the time, but I actually had difficulty putting it down and doing basic things like eating meals.

The book has a nice mystical spin on it, with some classical Fey influence that fans of the genre will recognize, but it also stays set in modern London. The urban fantasy aspect of it is very well-woven because the themes are all about how the Feyre tie in with modern human culture. The ritual the book is centered around is in fact real, and it was very interesting to see British history mixed in with everything else. But not too much, just enough.

I never got bored reading it. There were some turns in there I definitely didn’t see coming. I would say it’s not as gritty as the Dresden Files (yet – this is the first of a trilogy), but it has the potential. As it is, I don’t think it needs to be any darker. It was well-balanced.

Overall: A+

READ IT.

– JV out.