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Post by Becca Mills on Oct 8, 2018 15:16:29 GMT -5
I did watch the Dresden TV series, and thought it was okay, but I can see why it didn't stick. The main problem, IMO, was the actor they choose for Harry. He captured several key elements of the character -- the good-guy-ness, the beaten-down-by-circumstance-ness. But Harry has to also seem legit scary/dangerous to those who don't know him. The predicament he's in as the series begins doesn't make sense if he just exudes obvious niceness/harmlessness, like that actor did. I can see that criticism. Paul Blackthorne was only scary when he was pissed off, which didn't happen very often. Although his character was much nicer than the Harry in the books, I rather liked that. In the books, Harry is kind of a dick, which is often what gets him in trouble. I think my favorite casting from that show was Bob, however. I thought Terrence Mann was more hilarious than the Bob in the books. In general, I don't expect that much from the TV interpretations of books. I tend to judge them on their own merits, since the stories are often reinterpreted as well as the characters. The Legend of the Seeker took a lot of liberties with The Sword of Truth series as well, but I liked it for what it was: fantasy adventure. In that show, my favorite cast member was Bruce Spence as Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander. In fact, here's a bit of Vaetra Chronicles trivia for you: Bruce Spence was who I "cast" as wizard Ebnik Vlastorus.
That's awesome!  I haven't seen The Legend of the Seeker, but I like Bruce Spence -- good actor.  I agree with you about letting TV and movie adaptations be their own thing. That's when they actually get good, I think -- when they're free to be artworks in their own right, made according to someone's cohesive and unique vision, rather than attempts to slavishly reproduce their book source. Still, fans often want the latter, and I think the Dresden adaptation ran into that, perhaps because the character is so beloved. People just didn't accept it.  |
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Post by Daniel on Oct 8, 2018 17:28:37 GMT -5
I agree with you about letting TV and movie adaptations be their own thing. That's when they actually get good, I think -- when they're free to be artworks in their own right, made according to someone's cohesive and unique vision, rather than attempts to slavishly reproduce their book source. Still, fans often want the latter, and I think the Dresden adaptation ran into that, perhaps because the character is so beloved. People just didn't accept it. I suspect you're right about the fans not accepting Blackthorne's (or the show writers') interpretation of Dresden mainly because I think the producers did so many other things right. For example, I thought the production quality was very good, overall. I don't own very many TV shows, but I wanted that one because I really liked the feel of it. |
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Post by Miss Terri Novelle on Oct 8, 2018 20:26:16 GMT -5
I'm watching the show right now. For me, it was not Blackthorne that missed the mark but the lack of humor from anyone except Terrence Mann and damn little from him. Not enough snark.
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Post by Becca Mills on Oct 8, 2018 22:10:51 GMT -5
Yeah, I think you're right, Miss Terri Novelle. Harry is at least 23% snark, as a constitutive element.  |
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Post by Becca Mills on Oct 8, 2018 23:45:06 GMT -5
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I haven't seen The Legend of the Seeker, but I like Bruce Spence -- good actor. 
