The Dresden Files “Birds of a Feather”
First Aired: 1/21/07
Meet Harry Dresden. He’s a scruffy, scrappy, wisecracking Chicago detective. He loves women, and on this day, he’s been loving perky blonde diner waitress Laura. (A lot, as a matter of fact.)
Your average, everyday sort of guy, right? No… Harry’s got secrets. For starters, he’s really a wizard. He also has a disembodied sorcerer trapped in a flaming skull living downstairs. The biggest of his secrets, however, might just be that Paul Blackthorne, the actor breathing life into Harry’s All-American he-man swagger, is in fact a very polished, polite, and proper Brit.
Setting the table for the returning Battlestar Galactica, this new series (based on the hugely popular books by Jim Butcher) opens with a convoluted — and at times, disjointed — episode. Ironically, Executive Producer Robert Hewitt Wolfe stated at the recent TCA Upfronts that this was not the series’ intended pilot episode.
We flash back to Atlantic City, New Jersey, circa 1981. A young Harry Dresden thinks ther’s a monster living in his closet. His dad, a struggling stage magician, gives Harry a magical bracelet that once belonged to his recently deceased mother, who was also a wizard. These flashbacks continue throughout the episode, showing us that Harry’s powers are steadily building — to his dad’s dismay and his sinister Uncle Justin’s delight. These glimpses also tie in with several threads that are revealed as the drama unfolds.
In the present, Police Detective Connie Murphy (Valerie Cruz, late of Invasion) investigates the case of a woman who was skinned alive. She calls Drez, who tells her that the filleting points to an ancient Aztec horror known as a “skinwalker” — a creature that can take the form of the victims it flays. Drez and Bob (former One Life to Liveer Terrence Mann) discuss a high-yield magic bomb that Bob’s been developing since the days when he had a physical body.
Soon after, Drez bumps into waifish Scott Sharpe, a young boy who”s convinced there are monsters stalking him. You just know something is up with Scott, who conjures visions of creepy little Danny Torrance from The Shining, because he’s constantly being followed by ravens. Like Drez, the boy’s got magical powers. Drez scoffs and sends the boy away. Mistake number one. Number two comes when Harry enlists a bitchy secretary from the Council of Wizards to do some checking around on the lad.
The flayed woman, it turns out, is Scott’s teacher, Ms. Timmons. The skinwalker decked out in her epidermis is waiting to pluck little Scott the moment his powers fully manifest. She’s already worked her Ginsu knife on Melissa, the CoW secretary. Melissa rolls Drez over to the skinwalker, who’s working for Drez’s sinister, walking-stick-carrying Uncle. More flashbacks, as Drez hangs upside down being interrogated by the skinwalker, show us that his dad and uncle almost came to blows in the past. Uncle Justin, Drez’s dad reveals, is more concerned about the Council’s “ridiculous shadow wars” and how he can utilize Harry’s building powers than about Harry’s well-being.
Scott is snatched from his bedroom by what we at first are led to believe is a black-caped menace. Turns out, all those ravens are avatars of the Raven Clan, a group that is pledged to protect the boy. Scott was one of their own, but like the famous cuckoo bird that lays its eggs in nests for other avian parents to raise, the RAven Clan has allowed the lad to be reared by normal human parents as part of his grooming for greatness. "Birds of a Feather" concludes with Drez tricking the skinwalker into opening Bob’s boom-box weapon, thus ensuring Scott’s safety.
This early, the magic seems more like a parlor trick. The Dresden Files has the potential to become the next Kolchak: The Night Stalker or The X-Files (it even occupies the former time slot once held by that creepy cult classic turned franchise cash cow), but it had better dazzle us. And soon.
Next up, Drez crosses paths with a cursed Egyptian artifact.
Magess says
Meh.
I really wanted to like this show, but the best I can muster is an annoyed Meh. I can deal with all the changes details… even Bob being a ghostly butler. But the episode itself was drivel. And Harry got his ass kicked a lot. Some wizard. He does get beat up in the books, but usually in the process of at least trying to fight back.
There are so many things to complain about… I put most of them on scifi’s forum in case TPTB are reading.
Maybe they should have gone with a miniseries first, since SciFi seems to do well with those.
Thomas says
It didn’t wow me, but I am willing to give the series a little time to grow on me. I didn’t mind the change in Bob, it worked as a character. Karen to Connie’s character I’ll agree on the Meh, it felt more like the generic police detective model and didn’t have Karen’s flare of personality. The tone of the theme music and autro music didn’t match the style of the character that well. I just got to book 5 in the series and really like the character in the book, but I am waiting to be sold on the tv series.
mikeRabil says
DECENT FIRST EPISODE. IS HE A SORCERER? ONLY WAY I COULD TELL IS CAUSE HE TOLD ME. JOE MURPHY RULES
David says
I didn’t mind the changes much (except for that shot of the uncle at the end…WTF?), and I actually liked the story – the raven clan and the skinwalker would fit fine in Butcher’s world. The main problem was the directing – not much atmosphere, and some of the supporting cast, especially the police, seemed to just be going through the motions. Definitely needs more spellcasting from Dresden – he couldn’t even grab for the blasting rod when what’s-her-name attacked?