Written by JM Strasser

Dark fantasy, Occult detective, Urban fantasy, television show on SciFi Channel

This is not technically science fiction, but for me, it is. This series was taken from a book series of 17 by Jim Butcher. The First Novel was called Storm Front. As usual, the series is in the same universe and has the same settings, but not all the same things happen. 

The story deals with a wizard, Harry Dresden, named after Harry Houdini. His father, Malcolm Dresden, was a wizard but didn’t impress anyone too much. Harry’s mother, Margaret LeFay, is a powerful witch, and Malcolm wants to protect Harry from that world of true magic and tries to hide Harry’s powers when they manifest when he turns eleven years old. Others notice, and Malcom dies. Harry’s uncle takes the boy into his household. 

Harry grows up being tutored by a ghost named Bob. Harry leaves after his uncle’s death, taking Bob with him into a poor section of his hometown of Chicago, where he becomes a supernatural private investigator, dealing with paranormal crimes and consulting for the Chicago Police Department. 

The series is perhaps predictable, but the rules and situations are certainly not. I enjoyed Paul Blackstone’s performance as Harry. He is a bit of a rascal but caring and trustworthy. Bob is funny. He is cursed to live in his own skull and serve the person who possesses that skull, like a genie. Bob is devoted to Harry and pretty much raised him from the time he was eleven. His former master, the uncle, was quite horrific, and Bob prefers to be with Harry even though his grumblings made me laugh. 

The police officer is Lt. Connie Murphy, and the two solve the ‘weird’ crimes. Valerie Cruz, who plays Lt. Murphy, is a pretty rigid character who displays cracks in her demeanor slowly but becomes indebted to Harry when he saves her from death and from some supernatural horrors that might be worse. 

Two interesting facts: Ms. Cruz is the only one of the cast who had read any of the Jim Butcher novels before the beginning of shooting. Mr. Butcher gave the cast several books in the series, though, maybe to catch up, and Nicolas Cage was one of the Executive producers. 

2007, 1 season, 12 episodes

Found on Tubi (free with ads) and Amazon (rental fee)

©JM Strasser November 6, 2023 All Rights Reserved

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dresden_Files_(TV_series)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486657/

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