The Dresden Files: Storm Front

technomancer writes, Finally, it airs.

Someone is using black magic to cause peoples’ hearts to explode
from their chests, and our friendly neighborhood wizard PI has to
investigate.

I think this suffered from being cut down to fit in the shorter one hour
time slot from a plot standpoint, and there are some potential
continuity issues depending on what follows, but hot damn Harry was a
Wizard with a capital W and the power that implies. I would personally
love it if future episodes took their queues from this one in that
department.

10 replies on “The Dresden Files: Storm Front”

  1. Good Episode, but…
    I know this was supposed to be the first episode and the series is showing out of order, but there really needs to be some sort of story arc for this series if it is to continue to be interesting.

    • Re: Good Episode, but…

      I know this was supposed to be the first episode and the series is showing out of order, but there really needs to be some sort of story arc for this series if it is to continue to be interesting.

      I’ve got to disagree, at least in the short-term and maybe longer. This is the kind of show that would do well to stick with "one-off" episodes, maybe two-parters, until it [hopefully] gets a head of steam. Buffy the Vampire Slayer would be a good model to follow, where they had mostly one-offs in seasons 1 and 2, and then the full-season arcs started in season 3. Even then, not every full-season arc was good (the ones ruling seasons 4 and 6 outright stunk IMO) with the one-offs still outclassing the rest of the shows (Hush and Once More With Feeling being the eps I’d classify as "awesome" of those two seasons).

  2. Say It Twice
    While I find the more subtle magicks employed by Harry in previous episodes entertaining, and often more appropriate to the setting (he was a bit too open to civilians in this ep, IMHO), it was nice seeing him show he’s got "skillz" that may or may not pay his "billz."

    Having read the novel of the same title, I can [obviously] say that the book is better and that the plot and characters were more interesting. But, given the time constraints they did a pretty good job.

    I will say that I understand why they moved this away from being the first episode. As I note above, he showed off quite a bit, being too open with civilians about magic, which goes against the rest of the episodes we’ve seen so far. His relationship with Bianca was also quite different. In fact, given the direction they went with the other episodes, I’m sure the producers/writers would have preferred to do away with this episode entirely and perhaps redo it again later – of course, no network bigwig would permit such a thing, so what’s done is done.

    The only big problem I had with the episode was that there was no Bob. Since he’s an integral part of the other episodes, his absence was conspicuous.

    • Re: Say It Twice


      The only big problem I had with the episode was that there was no Bob. Since he’s an integral part of the other episodes, his absence was conspicuous.

      yeah,
      I knew that the eppisodes were out of order, and that "Storm Front" was first. So when everything didn’t quite line up I was able to look past it. But the total absence of Bob WAS the only thing that really interrupted my suspension of disbelief. Even when his secret room moved within his house,
      I was OK (which supprised me… but since I don’t know if he has more than one, I let it go).

    • Re: Say It Twice
      It seemed to me this was the pilot. Which makes sense if this was the first story in the book series. It did a lot more explaining than other episodes. It established more definitively the role of the High Council, his relationship to them, and how his Uncle died. Anyway he did seem more like a first rate wizard, than an also ran. I was begining to think he was a punk :)

      • Re: Say It Twice

        It seemed to me this was the pilot.[\quote]
        And just barely, at that. I read somewhere that this episode was a cut-up version of a 2-hour pilot that we’ll probably never see. I’m guessing that missing hour has a lot to do with the way I feel about this episode. That is, something’s missing.

        • Re: Say It Twice

          It seemed to me this was the pilot.[\quote]
          And just barely, at that. I read somewhere that this episode was a cut-up version of a 2-hour pilot that we’ll probably never see. I’m guessing that missing hour has a lot to do with the way I feel about this episode. That is, something’s missing.

          You mean, like 3 brutally murdered people and Dresden as the only suspect?

    • Re: Say It Twice

      The only big problem I had with the episode was that there was no Bob. Since he’s an integral part of the other episodes, his absence was conspicuous.

      The missing Bob was a solution to a huge problem in this episode without having to refilm anything. In the two hour pilot Bob was a fire spirit who manifested as flames in a fireplace. This obviously REALLY didn’t line up with what they did later, so it was cut. Though I do agree, the in apartment scenes would have probably benefited from Bob, though it was obviously a different set so I imagine reshooting would have been difficult if not impossible.

      A lot of this got discussed over at the Jim Butcher forums http://www.jim-butcher.com/bb/index.php

  3. Bug
    Well, we all were discussing teh change from the books that Harry was driving a jeep and not a bug. Even in the cut-up version, we saw a bug up on a lift and Harry looking at it dissappointed. I’m guessing that is one of the things that we will never see from the "Missing Dresden Hour"

    • Re: Bug

      Well, we all were discussing teh change from the books that Harry was driving a jeep and not a bug. Even in the cut-up version, we saw a bug up on a lift and Harry looking at it dissappointed. I’m guessing that is one of the things that we will never see from the "Missing Dresden Hour"

      Probably the best way to look at this episode is that it was pretty cool but not part of the "true canon" of the TV series, and leave it at that. When Dresden comes to TV, maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll include the original 2-hour pilot as an "extra." :)

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