The Dresden Files? More like The Dresden FAILS, am I right?

[seriousfic]

So I got the first two discs of The Dresden Files from Netflix. There's the potential in the books for it to be the kind of lighthearted, fast-paced action show that we've been missing since Hercules and Xena went off the air, but the show is pretty lame. They've made a lot of Van Damme Changes. As you may know if you watched the mediocre Fantastic Four movie, for some reason the filmmakers decided to make the villainous Dr. Doom more "realistic" (read: dumbing him down and making him totally generic), to the point where he was basically a carbon copy of the Green Goblin except with an admittedly better costume. Just like how in Ultimate Fantastic Four, Von Doom became Van Damme and for some reason gained goat's legs. No, really.

EVERYTHING ABOUT THE DRESDEN FILES IS LIKE THAT. Well, okay, not quite everything... he uses a drumstick as a wand and a hockey stick as a staff so he can blend in (so instead of people thinking "there goes a guy with a wand and a staff, what a freak," they can think "there goes a guy carrying one drumstick and a hockey stick for no reason, what a freak"), which is a nice touch, but then you realize this is because of one of the, bar none, stupidest change I've ever seen in an adaptation.

Now, the premise of the Dresden Files, show and book, is that Harry Dresden is a wizard-for-hire. In the books, the wizarding world doesn't advertise itself and the rest of the human usually dismisses them because... oh, you've watched sci-fi, you know this one. But in the show, it's much more generic, with the wizards being forbidden from saying they're wizards. So it works like this.

Morgan: DON'T TELL ANYONE YOU'RE A WIZARD, HARRY!

Harry: KAY. *advertises himself as a wizard*

Morgan: LA LA LA LA!

Harry: *does magic in front of people*

Morgan: LA LA LA LA!

Murphy: So, Harry, what kind of magic killed this guy?

Morgan: OMG!

Harry: Uh, magic? What magic? No such thing.

Murphy: Then... why the fuck do I hire you?

Harry: ...LOL MAGIC!

Also, they changed Bob. No. Just... no.

Comments

[sinanju.livejournal.com]

Well, I enjoyed the show but tastes vary.

As for Bob--I objected to the change at first too. But then I saw the pilot, where Bob was just a voice in a skull with flames for eyes. (The same actor who plays Bob did the voice.)

It didn't work. That change, at least, was a good call.

[severedscythe.livejournal.com]

adsfl;aksjdfl;kjadsf if I hadn't read the books, I would enjoy the show, but what's with the ethnic murphy? And the hockey stick and BOB what did they DO? D: