I read it was because of his frame a beetle made no sense to squeeze him into.

 

Lawl, I heard it was because of the camera angles. The could only get one in the Beetle, so they went for the jeep. The idea still works, and it was better for filming.

Edit: What Rehio said. >_<

 

Gods... the TV show was hoooorrrriible. Kind of like the new Ninja Turtle cartoons.

and for the record, while Bob was decent in the show, too much of him was changed to be anything better than decent. Had the same actor played him, and he been compliant with canon, I'd have liked him.

Bianca.... fail.

Mai... I liked Mai because she wasnt as fucking weird as the books make her out. Old, but not old looking, with grey hair, watery eyes, and a creaky voice..

I liked Dresden's casting, actually. He was pretty good.

 

Where the hell did you get that pic of the blond?

 

Unnnn.....Paimon actually. He found it on 4chan, surprisingly.The Original if you're interested.

 

Sauce on that girl!? Damn.

A major problem the series would have run into is the number of 'ethereal beauties' they'd have to cast.

 

Well I downloaded the TV series and just watched the first episode, "Birds of a Feather." It's good thing I read the books before checking this out, because the TV series is seriously fucked up:

• Bob's an actual ghost instead of a trapped spirit.
• Justin Du Morne is now Justin Morningway and is Harry's Uncle. So much for Butcher's back story.
• I could understand them casting someone that doesn't look like Murphy. So she's now a brunette and looks to be average height. But they gave her a kid?!? WTF? And the kid lives with daddy - so much for Murphy's ex being FBI, more back story killed for TV.
• Harry is dating some waitress at a diner! I can't believe they just dropped Mac's bar!
• Harry lives in a loft instead of a basement apartment. Nice double doors with big windows. And they seemed to have made it his office as well.

Seriously I can see why the series was canceled. It's like the producers and Sci-Fi sat down and came up with ways to sabotage it. "Let's make a bunch of changes for no reason whatsoever! And instead of airing the Pilot (Storm Front) as the first episode, we won't show it until Episode 8!"

 

I actually really liked TV Bob. He was fantastic, if I hadn't already read the books, I think I would have loved his character. Even with all the changes, he was one of my favourites.

"Oh, I sense another quixotic crusade looming on the horizon."

Also, What About Bob? would have been impossible with air spirit Bob, with the whole Winnifred back story.

I just treated him as a whole other character, and a likeable one at that.

Murphy annoyed me. What was the point of changing her name from Karrin to Connie anyway? And the change in hair colour, appearance etc. Buffy taught us that fighting blonde girls can work, why make her a brunette?

I quite liked Bianca, I thought she was a pretty convincing bloodsucker, I'd be kind of sad if she were set on fire.

Harry was good, not how I ever pictured him, but good.

Kirmani was absolutely fucking perfect. Spot on.

Mai was pretty cool, although the constant face slipping got pretty old pretty fast.

Morgan was great, and he handled that sword like he actually knew what he was doing which was a plus; I hate it when actors treat weapons like they're dead rats or something to be held as far away from them as possible.

 

Apparently there was already a policewoman in Chicago called Karrin Murphy and they had to change it to keep everyone happy.

I didn't mind the TV show since I saw it as an AU version. The changes annoyed me but didn't ruin it completely for me. I found the whole program kind of average, interesting but nothing special in the end.

 

The real life policewoman's name is Karyn Murphy, which isn't really the same. Meh.

 

I liked the series and could live with the changes because I saw the necessity for most of them.

The casting was great. And, yes, that includes Bob.
It's a pity they canceled it. Butcher said that they wanted to introduce some other Characters like Michael, Thomas and one of the Fallen in the second season. Crap.

It's far better than the watered down version.
I have it. Don't have enough webspace though. P2P would be possible, but 700 mb will take some time.

 

Originally Posted by Midknight
The short version that aired normally, there's a longer version?!? Link me if you find it.

I downloaded it awhile ago and it is a lot better than the 1 hour version.

Edit: WTF happened to that quote, lol.

Edit by Mid, I found it thanks, I meant PM me, don't post open torrent links on the site please.

 

The show was terrible, because it seems that everyone involved in making it completely misunderstood the elements that make the books great.

The first episode was rubbish, and seemed to highlight everything wrong with the show. First problem, Harry IS a wuss. Its not just that he's obviously not as skilled a fighter in the latest books, its that he doesn't even seem to even try to fight back when directly threatened. I can't see Books!Harry not grabbing his staff the very second he felt he was under attack and not preparing to blast whatever beastie was about to come through his door. But TV Harry just stands there like a lemming, not even trying to put up a fight.

Secondly, the baddies. A skinwalker?!? Dresden's supposed to be going up against malicious murdering demons or Faye, instead here we have a body-snatchers reject. Oh, but its a super-strong body-snatchers reject, so there’s no point in him actually trying to fight it eh? In the books Harry is always going up against cool, often quite intimidating foes. Instead of a warlock harnessing Storms to make people’s chests explode for Harry's televised debut, we have a lame unoriginal monster. Well whoopdedoo. Its not like we haven't seen body-snatchers at least a hundred times before. One of the most refreshing things about The Dresden Files (books) is its imaginative take on Harry's foes. Evil Wizards are Warlocks who have been corrupted by dark power and use their magic to kill in spectacularly inventive ways (the entropy curse anyone?), the most recognisably Diabolic enemies are fallen angels trapped inside 30 pieces of silver who possess their hosts etc. What do we get throughout the TV series? A whole slew of body-snatching or body-jumping baddies. Did Sci-Fi honestly search for the most dull and thoughtless writers on the planet?

Thirdly and finally, the episode's culmination. Dresden kills the baddy with an exploding box. It was the equivalent of passing someone a grenade with the pin pulled and running away. What more proof could you need that the writers Truly didn’t understand Dresden’s character? For one of the defining “Harry Dresden” moments is in White Knight where he arrives at the White’s meeting, tooled up for a major scrap and announces that he’s planning to beat ten tons of shit out of the murdering vamps. That was an awesome moment, one that makes you rub your hands together with glee as Harry goes on to prove what a baddass wizard he is in one of the series coolest fights. Fuego’s and Forzare’s are flying everywhere… Well you’ve read the books. Even in the Storm Front book, Harry knows he’s in for a fight against the Shadowman. But apparently the prospect of a fight makes piss run down TV-Harry’s trousers. Admittedly I got bored and stopped watching by episode 6, but in those 5 episodes I watched not once do I remember Harry whipping out his Staff and Blasting rod and having a no holds barred duel. Nope, he just gets beaten up or tortured, escapes and then finds an incredibly lame way to take out the bad guys (voodoo dolls etc). In the books Dresden’s been described (not very respectfully admittedly) as being something of a magical thug. Lots of power, can throw it into simple evocations but not great otherwise. But here it takes fucking forever for him to find the stones to cast a bloody Fuego!

So, to conclude, Harry’s a beating prone wuss, the baddies are unimaginative and lame and there are no cool fight scenes. This alone means its nothing like its literary progenitor, and don’t even get me started on the supporting cast.

Dresden Files tv series = -5/5

 

Iunno Magus. I LIKE the Doom Box. Only good thing I saw in the show. But the Ravens or the crows or whatever... :/ Lame.

 

Just out of curiosity, Magus: if you don't like TV-Harry, why do you have an Avatar of Blackthorne?

Skinwalker = Corpsetaker.

Admittedly, the first aired episode was bullshit, but look at the full length version of Storm Front - it was pretty good.
And I liked the episode with Ancient May and the wardens seeking shelter at Harry's. That was a cool one.

Duels are hard to implement, because of the expensive CG's.

And IMHO it was not Harry blowing everything up that made the books special. For me, it was the classical detective story with magical elements and the cool ideas that drew me in. And the characters - and acting and casting in the TV-Series was very good.
I'd have liked it if they had given them a bit more time.

 

@Vash
The doom box certainly was one of the better things in that episode. But considering what it’s being compared with, that’s not saying much. It’s such a... cowardly way for Harry to off someone that I can't help be irritated by it. Fundamentally it just ends up as being a quick get out for the producers so they don't have to show even a hint of a fight.

@ The Sour Kraut
Yeah, I made that avatar before I started (read: tried) to watch the show. I wanted to do something with some of the cool preview images out for the DF comic, but seeing as I'm somewhat artistically challenged (and don't have any picture editing software) it’s a bit meh, as you can see. Oh well. I’ll try to get one of my artistic friends to design one for me. Anywho,

I know the TV Series didn't have a huge budget, but that doesn't excuse it from failing so epically at being, well, generally any good. Sure, CGs for a Wizards duel might have been pricy, but why not have Harry get into a shootout then? Or a sword fight, or something... Of any substantial coolness whatsoever. Making colourful light effects wouldn't be so hard for god's sake! Maybe instead of spending cash for CG effects of Bob writing in thin air, they could have had a Wizard actually pulling his weight in the first episode. Then perhaps more people would have watched it, and it could have got renewed (with a slightly bigger budget).
Look at the first season of Buffy, they had to make do with a number of crappy special effects (remember the season finale with the people in the rubber tentacle costumes?) but it was still great television, and had all the elements DF was so lacking in.

I agree, the various detective tales in the books are brilliant, which is why its even more disappointing that the TV “mysteries” are so rubbish. I’ve often found myself unable to predict the various ingenious twists and cunning turns Jim Butcher takes with the plot in the books, but the TV series attempts at plot twists seemed painfully obvious most of the time. The one with the bodyjumping murderer/ex-prisoner dude was a perfect example, and it was just lame.

And I’m sorry, the acting and casting was “very good?” Maybe a few actors in the show, Blackthorne was okay and the guy who played Morgan was alright, but the majority of the cast seemed to be heavily afflicted with Wooden Acting Syndrome. Murphy was a good example; she wasn’t so much a bad actress as simply incapable of conveying any believable emotion. Karrin Murphy, for all her strengths and flaws, is a human being (if an uptight vindictive bitchy one; especially in the beginning of the series), not Connie Robocop Murphy. And as for Bianca, Vash said it best. Fail.

I’ll have a look for the full length Storm Front episode, and hope to be pleasantly surprised. But then again, if it’s any good, then I might actually be irritated that the show was cancelled when it actually had some potential. Ah dilemmas, dilemmas.

 

Bah. You can never compare the baddies, the monsters, the duels, and the "coolness" of the books with what you can do on a cable tv show budget. This isn't even network tv. This is Sci-Fi. Take a look at the quality of most shows operating on cable tv budgets.

Especially when you're thinking of Harry Dresden after having read 10 books, versus a tv series that's roughly one book an episode. He has time to grow, his character to mature. The TV Dresden doesn't. The big baddies in book one and two will most likely seem rather commonplace by the latest books.

And you're overlooking the most basic truth here: the books are for a literate crowd. The TV show is built for those who sit on their ass watching the Sci-Fi channel (often the not quite so literate crowd). If they can appeal to those who read the book too, they will, but aiming to please the Dresden diehards is simply not a nearly big enough audience. Particularly when you think of how hard it would be to please even just the whiny pissants around here.

I liked the TV show for what it was: an introduction to the Dresden-verse. I know it's nowhere near as good as the books, but I can visualize everything in the TV show. Half of the demons, faeries, and crap in just fanfic all blur together for me. Or bore the shit out of me in excessive description. TV shows are meant to evolve from the original source into a format that can appeal as weekly syndicated show. Dresden Files tv show never had a chance to find its legs and I'm not sure if it could have even with more time. There's just too much fantasy and magic requiring stunt doubles, action sequences, ridiculously complex makeup, animatronic creatures, and special effects.

 

By the way: Jim Butcher said that he is waiting to get the licences back in about four years and wants to push for a Dresen Files Movie.
That could be pretty cool.
They (obviously) won't base it on the TV series, but I hope they get Blackthorne again.


As for the acting: Okay, we disagree. Let's keep it at that.
Only one more thing: I know I'm one of very few, but I really liked Terrence Mann (Bob).

 

I just finished the series, and finally have something to say about it.

I actually liked the TV series a great deal, but only if completely and totally keeping it apart from the books. On it's own it's an entertaining TV series that the creators, actors, and writers did the best they could with such a limited time and small budget. Any book is hard to sum up into a TV show, with the Dresden Files it's even worse, it's a 10 book series with a very complicated overall arcing story line. (Set for 20 books in the end I think too.) Imagine how long it would take to explain the faeries, the vampires, the white council, the black council, and every other thing that appears in a good way for the series instead of just throwing facts straight at you.

Overall it was an excellent series, you're not getting the books, but it would be impossible to actually make the series even closely resemble the books without a "charmed" like series with a big budget.

9/10.

 

I've gotta say that I liked the TV series a lot. I know that not much of it follows the Dresden storyline....but it's a TV show. I'm comfortable allowing them to make some changes for the sake of simplicity (Imagine how much time it would have taken to explain everything--there wouldn't have been time for the TV show...). I actually came across the TV series first, and that put me onto reading the books, which are much, much better, but I still kind of like the old TV show. It was going nowhere ratings-wise, so I can understand why it was cancelled, but I was kind of disappointed to see it go, to be honest. It was fun.

A lot of people complain about Murphy's casting in the series, and I've gotta say that she seemed fine to me. She's steely, very cop-like, and just seems...Murphy-ish, regardless of some changes to the back story and maybe a few physical characteristics being a bit off. Imagine how more sucky it could have been if they picked someone who looked like the Murphy in the books, and followed the back story, but seemed to girlyish and wasn't able to bring along the personality of Murphy. It could have been worse, people...

As for Bob, I thought he was infinitely better in the TV show than in the books. In the books, he's merely a 'spirit of knowledge' and seems almost personality-less until he goes kind of crazy with the necromancers...but that's about all you see. In the TV show he just seems to have more substance. And a real history that fits with his personality, and whatever personal demons would been his to hide when said necromancers brought them to the fore. I liked the fact that he actually has a reason to want trashy romance novels and porn all the time....cuz he's a man trapped in a skull for who-knows-how-long and he can't get any. A random knowledge spirit's obsession with sex just comes across as flimsy without some sort of background to support it.

I agree with Pyro, here. 9/10