I like work-related dramas, so Jim rented The Dresden Files for me, which is basically a short-running series about a wizard who is a private investigator. And because I tend to be socially unaware of the sci-fi/fantasy world, I have a few questions for readers who are more familiar with TV than I am:
Is this the dumbest show ever? Again, my sci-fi/fantasy prejudice may be coming out here.
Is it in fact a copy of Magnum P.I. complete with a “bachelor” private investigator and an ancillary guy with a British accent who hangs around and gives out clues?
Why would you name a wizard Harry if you didn’t mean to make reference to Harry Potter?
Comments please. I’ve only seen two episodes, so I’m willing to be convinced it is not the dumbest show ever, but you’ll need to suggest a dumber show.
October 11th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
I am a bigger fan of the books than the TV show, but the TV show wasn’t terrible.
It’s not a copy of Magnum PI. In the books, Harry is a bachelor, yes, but hardly a swinging bachelor- he went through a span of more than four years without getting laid. The “British guy” is, in the books, a skull that serves as the home of a spirit. The spirit uses American slang, and no mention in a dozen books of a British accent. I guess the TV producers thought a skull whose eyes light up when it speaks wpould have looked cheesey on film, so they changed it.
He’s named for Harry Houdini. His father was a stage magician, not a wizard, and he named his son for his heroes: Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden.
Dumber? Except for Star Trek, every scifi/fantasy show ever made for television prior to 1989.
October 11th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
You’re pretty funny….
I plan to compare Magnum PI and The Dresden Files side by side later.
October 11th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
And I am a bigger fan of the TV show than the books. I found the books too masculine for my taste. I quit halfway through book 3 (actually I threw it against a wall). I just thought the guy who played Harry is cute… I’m so lame.
Not the best show on the planet, but we enjoyed it.
Then again, my taste runs heavily to the fantasy/SF side (Dresden is what they call “urban fantasy.”)
I enjoyed the fact that he’s not the most perfect kickass dude on the planet, he screws up, and I’ve always liked the whole “magical world under the surface that people don’t know about” thing–Neil Gaiman does it better.
October 12th, 2008 at 8:54 am
So Joel liked the books better, GhostGirl liked the show better, and I’m still convinced it’s produced like Magnum PI, who I note also screwed up regularly.
October 12th, 2008 at 11:41 am
All science-fiction/fantasy based shows and/or movies are legally required to be awful. Or at least most of them, I think.
October 12th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
GhostGirl does have a good point about Neil Gaiman though, Comrade Kevin. He’s quite good, imho. Though does he have anything that’s based on his work on TV? Perhaps not.
October 12th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
He wrote an episode of Babylon 5. Neverwhere was a BBC TV series before it was a book. Movies: Stardust was based on his book, as will the upcoming Coraline by Henry Selick. He also wrote Princess Mononoke, Mirrormask, and Beowulf. Many of his scripts are in development limbo.
As for GOOD sci fi or fantasy TV shows: Battlestar Galactica (the 2004 version) Seasons 1-3 are amazing. Heroes season 1. Lost. Firefly. Jericho. Buffy the Vampire Slayer before Spike turned nice. XFiles. ALF (HAHAHAH Just kidding…)
I SWEAR the good stuff is out there. It’s just hard to find and usually ends up with a cult following and canceled.
Oh god am I a geek or what? (sob)