Author Topic: The Dresden Files  (Read 12739 times)

SFEley

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on: January 25, 2007, 06:09:33 AM
Anna and I watched the Sci-Fi Channel premiere tonight.  (You can download this first episode for free from iTunes, or watch it on their Web site.)

Is it just me, or was this a textbook example of how to take a really fun concept and make it Not Much Fun?

I can't even say anything in particular was bad.  It was just...plodding.  The acting was mediocre, the effects were pretty much exactly what you'd expect, the dialogue had no flair.  Anna's been reading the books and she says they're witty and whimsical.  None of that came through in the show here.  There wasn't any humor at all.  (Well, with the exception of the Cheese Whiz.  And even that fell flat.)

It's a universal law of SF television that All Pilots Suck, so we'll probably stick it through a few more episodes to see if it gets better.  But I'm pretty disappointed.  I was expecting "The Rockford Files with magic," or possibly "Buffy with a pulp detective," and instead got generic phoned-in urban fantasy.

Anyone disagree?

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dreamingmind

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Reply #1 on: January 25, 2007, 10:50:23 PM
Free iTunes download! I love the modern world! ...sometimes

I wasn't really disappointed. It was a little stiff but there seems to be plenty of reason for optimism. Granted, I've never read the books so I don't have a basis for comparison there.

In my ideal future, the actors will start to develop a richer feel for their characters and will learn how to better interact with each other. As an example of this process I'm thinking about the very early Star Trek NG episodes compared to the later seasons. At the beginning, Picard was stiff and pedantic, Riker seemed like he just wandered into a party where he didn't know anyone and Data was... well, artificial. And not in a good way. Later, the actors developed some rapport with their characters and each other. Then the show could deliver good and bad episodes (instead of turgid flops and turgid missed opportunities).

The female characters in Dresden Files seem a bit flat at this point but there seemed to be enough room for some good work to be done. I'm hopeful.

Don



Shade53

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Reply #2 on: January 26, 2007, 04:25:09 PM
I watched a bit of it last night on Sci/fi... I went in with no expectations at all (and a teething baby in my lap so perhaps I missed stuff) and so - was mildly pleasantly surprised. When it comes to specfic on TV, I tend to have very low expectations. They always screw it up in the end - (ie xfiles, twinpeaks, etc). That and it really doesn't take much to please me - where they are lacking, my imagination tends to fill in the blanks. On the upside, this is one of the first episodes of a tv show that I didn't know exactly what would happen by the first commercial. I'll be watching it again... and probably until they screw it up... which they will.

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Jim

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Reply #3 on: January 26, 2007, 09:15:21 PM
I thought it was okay. It reminded me of Buffy or X-Files in the way that the twist would be revealed and I would gasp, "Ah-HA! Just as I suspected, what seemed obviously evil was actually not, and the obvious helper was actually the villain!"

People are saying it took until the third episode of Heroes for the show to hit its stride, and I bet it will take a few episodes for Dresden Files to find its rhythm.

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Bdoomed

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Reply #4 on: January 27, 2007, 04:31:47 AM
People are saying it took until the third episode of Heroes for the show to hit its stride
maybe, but i loved Heroes from the start... :P
im downloadin the premiere as i type this, i'll see what its like soon and maybe formulate a hypothesis for it!

I'd like to hear my options, so I could weigh them, what do you say?
Five pounds?  Six pounds? Seven pounds?


Vanamonde

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Reply #5 on: January 28, 2007, 10:30:10 AM
I found it rather cheesey and reminded me more of Charmed (ugh) than Buffy.

As other people have said, it's early days yet, will see how enjoyable the next few episodes are.



Bdoomed

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Reply #6 on: January 28, 2007, 08:08:18 PM
awww i liked it! incredibly cheezy, and i HATE child actors... but its a good idea, it was fun, and i think its got potential! (yea the cheese whiz part was great)

I'd like to hear my options, so I could weigh them, what do you say?
Five pounds?  Six pounds? Seven pounds?


ClintMemo

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Reply #7 on: January 29, 2007, 02:35:08 PM
I thought it was "OK."  But I think the second episode was a bit better than the first.

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Brian Reilly

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Reply #8 on: February 14, 2007, 07:29:09 PM
For UK forum members- The Dresden Files appears on Sky One at 9pm tonight, after Stargate Atlantis (the Sci-Fi channel over here is pretty superfluous, all the new SF is either on Sky One if American or the BBC if British)

i think I'll check it out.

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Heradel

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Reply #9 on: February 14, 2007, 10:56:52 PM
For the UK forum members, does anyone actually know when Doctor Who will finally start again?

I'm liking Dresden, it seems to be getting better. And it's on before Galactica, so it's not that hard to watch as a warm-up.

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Brian Reilly

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Reply #10 on: February 15, 2007, 06:18:57 PM
Doctor Who series seem to start in the Easter holidays, so March for the start of the next one, I imagine.

I watched the first episode. It was O.K. Nothing special, really, but I'll watch a few more to give it a chance to get going. I liked the basic concept, and hope the uninspiring tone is due to too much exposition (they should have left revealing his past until later on) or the network bosses playing it too safe and wanting to avoid anything in the premiere episode that was a risk. Sometimes this can happen- case in point: Firefly's dull The Train Job., which replaced the real pilot. Maybe there's something good waiting for us down the line.

The Deus ex machina ending really bothered me, though. You have a character who has been trying to create a device all his life, seems to still be working on the basic theory after he is dead, and suddenly he can build it just when it is needed.

The 21st Century is when it all changes, and you’ve gotta be ready- Captain Jack, Torchwood.


ClintMemo

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Reply #11 on: February 15, 2007, 06:25:05 PM

I watched the first episode. It was O.K. Nothing special, really, but I'll watch a few more to give it a chance to get going.

I liked the second episode better than the first and the third episode better than the second.  So far, that's a good trend.

Life is a multiple choice test. Unfortunately, the answers are not provided.  You have to go and find them before picking the best one.


SFEley

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Reply #12 on: February 15, 2007, 06:33:12 PM
I liked the second episode better than the first and the third episode better than the second.  So far, that's a good trend.

I'm with you on that -- but the show's still not really fun to me.  It doesn't suck, and the degree to which it doesn't suck is improving, but it's still just a generic detective show.  I'd still like to see some wit, some edge, some sparkle.

I didn't watch Buffy because she fought monsters.  Fighting monsters was just the framing.  I watched it because the characters were really fun to watch.

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Brian Reilly

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Reply #13 on: February 15, 2007, 07:05:56 PM
What was the Cheese Whiz part? I must've been distracted when it came up (or missed it due to having no idea what cheese whiz is).

The 21st Century is when it all changes, and you’ve gotta be ready- Captain Jack, Torchwood.


Heradel

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Reply #14 on: February 15, 2007, 07:09:23 PM
What was the Cheese Whiz part? I must've been distracted when it came up (or missed it due to having no idea what cheese whiz is).
Really bad cheese that comes out of a can like whipped cream. It's one of those americana things that became kitsch about .091 seconds after invention.

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ClintMemo

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Reply #15 on: February 21, 2007, 04:30:23 PM
What was the Cheese Whiz part? I must've been distracted when it came up (or missed it due to having no idea what cheese whiz is).
Really bad cheese that comes out of a can like whipped cream. It's one of those americana things that became kitsch about .091 seconds after invention.

Just to clarify, the can is like a whip cream can - tall with a spout at the top that you bend. The cheese that comes out has a consistency not as thick as regular cheese, but not fluffy like whipped cream.  It looks a lot like silly string.  I suspect it also tastes a lot like it, but I've never eaten silly string.
The preferred way to eat it is to put it on a Ritz cracker with a slice of summer sausage.
"Now that there's some good eatin' !"

To complete the stereotype, eat lots of this as a snack while drinking a can cheap beer and watching sports on TV - preferably Nascar or (American) football.

Life is a multiple choice test. Unfortunately, the answers are not provided.  You have to go and find them before picking the best one.


ClintMemo

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Reply #16 on: February 21, 2007, 04:34:01 PM
Getting back on topic...

I thought episode 4 was the best so far, though I see a disturbing "Bob can use his powers to solve the problem" trend.

Life is a multiple choice test. Unfortunately, the answers are not provided.  You have to go and find them before picking the best one.


Mfitz

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Reply #17 on: February 21, 2007, 05:47:00 PM
I agree it's not bad, and it's getting better, but they have made all sorts of changes from the books, for no apparent reasons that seem to make the show weeker than it could be.  It  lacks the intimate feel the first person narration in the books gives the reader.  The books are both cleverer and darker than the show, but I guess that's to be expected.



ClintMemo

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Reply #18 on: March 19, 2007, 02:38:44 PM
Storm Front (minor spoilers)

Well, as far as I'm concerned, the quality level of the show fell off a cliff last night.  To me, watching "Storm Front" was like watching a video game.  It felt like a 90 minute show crammed into 60 minutes.  It had a completely different tone than the  other episodes and where the heck did all that magic come from?  In the other episodes, magic seemed special and carefully measured out.  In this episode, he was flinging spells about as often as he exhaled. 

I've never read any of the books, so I have no idea how it compares.  I just hope this was an anomaly and not the direction the show is going. If it is, then  -  ugh.

Life is a multiple choice test. Unfortunately, the answers are not provided.  You have to go and find them before picking the best one.


Leon Kensington

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Reply #19 on: March 21, 2007, 03:33:48 AM
It was first going to be the pilot but was changed to a regualar episode instead.  I think they should have made it the season finale so they could have some of the funniest parts from the book.

Like (minor spoilers):

Toad Demon
Love Potion incident (we saw a little of this in the ep.)
Scorpion fights
Third Eye
etc. etc. etc.



SFEley

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Reply #20 on: March 21, 2007, 04:34:00 AM
Anna and I stopped watching around the third episode.  It wasn't that we were hating it -- just that the Sci-Fi Channel wasn't posting any more episodes on their site, and my ethics won't let me BitTorrent shows I can easily get legally (i.e., from purchasing via iTunes).  It wasn't so good, however, that it was worth paying two bucks an episode for.  So we're going to wait until the DVDs are out and get it from Netflix.

Unless we hear from you guys that it jumped the shark very early.  >8->  So I'm still watching this thread with some interest.

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Mfitz

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Reply #21 on: March 21, 2007, 12:58:33 PM
Just say that ep. last night and it seemed much more like the books than the ones aired earlier.  I wonder why they didn't run it as the first, it had some key info that would have been nice for people who have not read the books to have all along.



Heradel

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Reply #22 on: March 22, 2007, 03:45:42 AM
I've been liking the last few episodes (I have the latest one on my laptop but haven't had a chance to watch it yet). They've had some pretty good misdirection openers and the creepy-tallow-hand episode was a pretty good take on the using-power-kills-user motif.

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ClintMemo

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Reply #23 on: April 19, 2007, 12:51:24 PM
Well...several weeks/episodes have gone by since the abysmal "Stormfront" and I'm thinking that episode was an anomaly.  Every episode since has been good. I hope it gets picked up for a second season.

Life is a multiple choice test. Unfortunately, the answers are not provided.  You have to go and find them before picking the best one.


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Reply #24 on: April 19, 2007, 02:16:29 PM
I hope it gets picked up for a second season.

If it does, I will be sure to watch it. I started watching it while ironing some dress shirts for school during the first season. Then, I was hooked.

[...] my ethics won't let me BitTorrent shows I can easily get legally [...]

I can't really download my favorite shows either. It's like... Almost disrespect. But that's just my personal opinion on the matter...