The Dresden Files
Title: “The Boone Identity”
First Aired: 1/28/07
Harry Dresden, Chicago’s most famous supernatural crime investigator since Carl Kolchak, gets mixed up with an ancient Egyptian artifact that allows a vicious killer to jump from one host body to another. The biggest felon in this convoluted mess of an episode, however, isn’t Gus Boone, the monster-du-jour Drez faces off against. It’s whatever producer forgot to check with the show’s Continuity Department and turned characters we’ve barely come to know into completely different entities since last week’s premiere.
SPOILERS AHEAD
The shame of it is that this second installment of The Dresden Files starts out promisingly enough. Drez is summoned to a high-end antique shop by Harding, a dealer whose daughter Lisa was murdered during the theft of an object called The Lock of Anubis. (As any fan of Stargate SG-1 can tell you, the mere mention of that jackal-headed horror’s name is reason to fear that trouble awaits.) Lisa’s spirit refuses to move on from the shop. At first, Drez does a doubting Dana Scully on Harding. That is, until he gets whapped upside the head by a vision of the girl’s murder at the hands of bad guy Gus Boone. Drez does some digging and discovers that the police consider this case as dead as Boone himself, who sucked down a face full of lead soon after the theft while attempting to carjack millionaire businessman Edward Miller. Miller is a collector of ancient Egyptian artifacts. Hmmm… coincidence? Even more curious is the tattoo Drez spies on Miller’s neck, a collection of glyphs identical to those on Boone. Through a series of deductions, Drez concludes that the Lock of Anubis allowed Boone to body-hop into Miller.
Last week when we met law-lady Connie Murphy, she was all too happy to have Drez’s help solving the case of that skinned-alive corpse. This week, Connie’s meds must be off. She swings into bitch-on-wheels territory when Drez seeks her help in the Harding murder case. Halfway through, the action ramps with Miller blowing his brains out and Boone hopping into Connie’s body. While Drez manages to drive Boone out through the use of black magic and a voodoo doll, Boone-Connie was almost nicer than the shrewish Connie-Connie we are forced to endure this time around.
And what’s up with Drez himself? Forget that this swarthy All-American Joe is being portrayed by a very proper Brit, and that sometimes as a result of the switch in accents, it sounds like Harry Dresden is talking through a mouth of wet cotton after chugging down a twelve-pack. Drez’s passivity around Connie may be the biggest mystery of the entire episode.
Next up: A serial killer is preying on werewolves in the cheekily-titled “Hair of the Dog.”
I thought this episode was better than the first one. The script made more sense. Harry actually did things, figured things out, tried to be a detective.
There were still idiotic moments, like his Wonder Woman use of the shield bracelet. But if they keep improving at this rate, it’ll be a good show.
Keep in mind that the first 5 episodes are being shown out of the originally intended order. This might explain some of the continuity errors.
I hate hate hate that they do that.
They’re not so much continuity errors as things that don’t make sense. The shield bracelet makes a force field. It’s not an impenetrable vambrace.
Him not actually doing magic is going to piss off fans.
Confusion with Harry Potter… why must executives be idiots. I totally can’t tell the different between a 16 year old British kid and a 40 year old guy in Chicago. It’s like I’m seeing double.
I’m not giving up on the show yet but if I were in the producers’ shoes I’d find some way to get Joss Whendon to write for this show. The dialog and character development still has a long way to go.
A good episode I thought. I’m really not sure about the decision to make each episode stand alone rather than have a continuing arc. It’s those continuing arcs that keep me going back to a series. One-of stories have a kind of pointlessness to them. They are never going to change the shape of the show. Down that road leads formulaic stories and an audience that doesn’t care if they miss an episode. Nothing important could have happened.
Arcs are what keep me coming back, and back, and back to a show.
Which is a big disappointment given the potential that is in there. Jim Butcher surely uses events in one novel that have an impact on subsequent ones. (Note to self: read more than just the free chapter on Jim’s site)
Tristan,
my minor nit was that the bullets were stuck to the bracelet and his arm was physically wounded. We didn’t see it generate a shield, not even a shimmer that only we would notice.
I’m glad we saw him do more magic in this most recent episode, “Walls”.
“There were still idiotic moments, like his Wonder Woman use of the shield bracelet. But if they keep improving at this rate, it’ll be a good show.”
if you read the books, it’s not so idiotic. he uses the bracelet (that is a chain of protection sheilds) as a focus:
“”Get back!” I shouted. With my right hand, I grabbed at Billy and shoved him behind me. With my left, I shook out the bracelet on my wrist, hung with a row of tiny, medieval-style shields. I lifted my left hand towards the truck and drew in my will, focusing it with the bracelet into a sudden, transparent shimmering half-globe that spread out between me and the oncoming truck.” from summer knight text.
of course, to a newbie (like me – still waiting for my books) it CAN look silly at times. but, folks, it’s science fiction, not science.