Let's bitch about Harry

[pjthompson]

Against my instincts, I watched The Dresden Files on SciFi last night. The books have been a fun series to read—not books I've been desperately in-love with, but good characters and a good read.

Let me say this first: I'm happy for Jim Butcher and his agent for making this deal. Always like to see the writers making the moolah and making a name for themselves. And let me also say that even though I am someone who reads and likes the Dresden series, I do not feel any ownership towards Mr. Butcher's character. They are his to do with as he pleases! I do understand that when they adapt things for TV and the movies, they can't be utterly faithful to the book. Compromises must be made because of the differences in the media. All I ask is that the producers remain faithful to the spirit of the literary work they are adapting. Interpret away, just retain the essence of what's good about the work. Alas...



the Dresden on SciFi was not my Harry Dresden, not even close. The producers of that showed stripped away the spirit of the series, homogenizing Harry (because homogenization is what TV does best). They stripped away his sarcasm, his noir essence, his moral indignation, and turned him into a kind of touchy-feely Nightstalker with magic tricks. Making him a chick magnet was a complete violation of the character as I have come to know him and like him, and turning Murphy into a divorced mother of a nine-year-old daughter was not my idea of fun, either. No career woman who has ever been married is allowed on homogenized TV without a child floating off somewhere in the distance, it seems, just as no mystery-solving man is allowed to have trouble getting a date. Or drive a beat up Volkswagen. Because it's all about the cool cars and bagging the hot chicks, right?

Coming up in future episodes? Harry's smart, savvy, Latina girlfriend, Susan, has been turned into a blonde. I suppose mystery-solving heroes on TV aren't allowed to have ethnic girlfriends, either. That's not homogenized enough.

Don't even get me started on what they did to Bob. But since you asked! A fully-embodied Englishman dispensing cheap wisdom and noble concern for Harry?? Every mystery-solving man needs a sidekick, I guess. In the books, it's Karrin Murphy, but on homogenized TV, mystery-solving men are not allowed to have women as sidekicks, it seems. Especially not female sidekicks.

So, no. I won't be watching future episodes. Why do you ask?


I had been considering signing up for Showtime because they were going to do Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series. Then I read a blurb where the producer said it was only going to be loosely based on the books, and I thought, "I'd rather keep my good memories, thanks." Because I really love those books, and I just don't need the aggravation.


Random quote of the day:

"Love is the pain of being true to your life."

—Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

Comments

[makoiyi.livejournal.com]

Well, I didn't read the books. But I liked the ravens. :)

[pjthompson]

They were the best part of the show, I thought.

[merebrillante.livejournal.com]

I caught the last half hour on TV this afternoon before heading out to meet my knittas. I've never read the books. What I saw of the show left me with a "meh" reaction. I'll watch a couple more episodes to see if it improves, but it's no Heroes, nor even as good as Medium.

BTW, I finally saw that BBC series you were talking about. Not knocked out by it, but not nauseated by it either.

[pjthompson]

I'm not willing to cut TV shows slack anymore.

BTW, I finally saw that BBC series you were talking about.

The Robson Green one? He's the main appeal there, I think.

[merebrillante.livejournal.com]

Oh, no no! The other one, about the medium. Does Robson Green have a show other than Wire in the Blood?

[pjthompson]

Touching Evil. In which he plays a cop who got shot in the head and now has "impulse control" issues, but he's brilliant when it comes to investigating serial killers, so...

Our Robson specializes in serial killers. ;-)

[pjthompson]

P.S. Touching Evil is quite good. I think I like it better than Wire.

[pjthompson]

P.P.S. The Mermaids Singing got caught up in my great non-reading funk at the end of the year. I will finish it one day. I liked it, I just went off reading for a couple of months.

[pjthompson]

P.P.P.S. Afterlife is finished for the season. I liked it quite a lot, and it had a big cliffhanger finish, so I'll probably watch it again.

[kmkibble75.livejournal.com]

I was bummed that I missed this...but now I'm not.

[pjthompson]

The consensus among the non-book readers seems to be that it was okay, but I'm pretty much done with episodic TV these days, so I won't watch again.

[java-fiend.livejournal.com]

I haven't read the books, but I've head a lot of good things about them. And after this glowing review, I'm not so sad about missing the show.

[pjthompson]

The non-book readers seem to have liked it okay, but meh.

[java-fiend.livejournal.com]

It always seems to be that way for the most part, doesn't it? If you've read a book, the films or television spin-offs always seem to be lacking. The only exception I've found were the Lord of the Ring movies. Loved the books, loved the movies.

[mrngglry98.livejournal.com]

I have the first of the Sookie Stackhouse series, but I can't for the life of me get into it. I've read and re-read the first few pages several times, and I can't get beyond that. It didn't reel me in like Anita Blake's or Betsy Taylor's stories (though, Betsy Taylor being from the city I currently live in gives her a plus ;).

You're saying the Sookie books are worth it!?

[jdparadise.livejournal.com]

FWIW, I kinda liked it. Not loved it, but liked it.

First episodes are almost always pipe-laying. Gotta set up who's who. The fact that there was minimal story didn't bother me. If there's still minimal story in 3 weeks, it'll bug me.

Bob - I was disappointed, too, but:

a) Budget. Non-cheesy effects are expensive.
b) Terrence Stamp! Dude's a good actor, and reputable. Might be that they had to give him more face time to sign him.
c) Setup. If you show Bob in the skull, you have to explain -why- Bob is in the skull, as Butcher did. It's a paragraph in prose; it's a whole scene, more than likely, in TV. I expect that we'll see more Skull-Bob in future eps.

Ethnicity stuff: Yeah. Also, a hockey stick?

VW: I'm guessing they got flack from VW for implying their cars are always falling apart (even if it's a wizard). Jeeps are lo-tech enough that I don't mind the substitution, though I -was- disappointed.

Verdict:

Decent stuff. Not the book, but decent in its own right. Of course, Eureka was also decent in its first episode, fun in its second . . . and then they kept filming the same show, over and over again. If Dresden Files ends up that way, I'll be unhappy, but if, now that the necessary foundations are laid, they go on to get more into his character while bringing along the sort of troubles that Harry gets into in the books, I'll forgive the rest. Right now, I'd give it 2.5 stars out of 4, but I can see how it might get better...

[pjthompson]

First episodes are almost always pipe-laying.

I'm not willing to give episodic TV any breaks these days. They've got to grab me first thing and show me they're going to make an effort with their imaginations and writing, or they don't get a second shot. I thought, overall, this was a lazy assed production that went for safe and homogenized at every turn. I probably wouldn't have watched it again even if I hadn't read the books. It just wasn't special and imaginative and creative enough for me to put the energy into it.

[pjthompson]

Sookie covers some of the same territory as Anita but does it in a much different way. For one thing, Harris writes fully-rounded characters and has a keen sense of the foibles of human nature, especially small town human nature. For another, they're ironic and humorous, but also touching. And they're *very* Southern. I love them, so much so that I buy them in hardback as soon as they're out (and I *never* by hardcover). But everybody's taste is different, ya know? The first two books were great, she drifted a bit in 3 or 4, but the last two have seemed to be back on track. Sookie goes through some heavy shit along the way. I might suggest trying to at least get through the first chapter and if it doesn't catch you, it doesn't.