1.08: Storm Front

[Highlander II]

episode description borrowed from TV.com:

We are introduced to Harry Dresden, private detective and practicing wizard. When he tries to help the Chicago Police Department solve a grisly murder, he finds himself the target of a homicidal magician. And as if that isn't bad enough, the High Council of wizards begins to think that he is falling to the dark side, so he must elude them as well. Now he must stop the murderer and clear his name before his time runs out.


THERE WILL BE SPOILERS IN THIS THREAD

** btw - I don't like this description of Storm Front - I think it's been altered a little since this was written. **

 

[Highlander II]

Ok - yeah - not loving this episode.

This is a cut of the original pilot w/ some reshoots and stuff, but it's still not good.

The sets don't match, there's a huge hole of 'where did Victor get a piece of Harry for use w/ his Voodoo doll', and Susan is still a whiny snot. Ugh. Lame.

And, btw, I do NOT like Ancient Mai. Who is she supposed to be? She doesn't make much sense. She's like a weird, nastier version of book!Morgan and she doesn't 'fit' very well.

Also - this episode seriously lacked Bob. This... is bad. And the appearance of the Blue Beetle and Mister is NOT enough. Blegh.

 

[Carolyn Hill]

Harry uses more kick-butt magic in this episode than in the others. I wonder if they deliberately toned it down after the pilot (or should I say "non-pilot"?).

 

[dwndrgn]

I agree. There was lots wrong with this episode. To begin with, if Harry could do all of these cool things with magic (and doesn't hesitate to use them) why doesn't he do them in all the other episodes instead of getting beat up all the time? Sure there should be limitations, but it didn't seem like there were any in this episode. Yes, Bob was missing. Mister wasn't even close. He's not a loving lazy cat, he's a stalking, big, full of attitude cat. Ancient Mai is definitely something created wholly out of the scriptwriter's mind, not out of the books. In the books (correct me if I'm wrong) Ancient Mai is first, a man, and second, one of the few White Council bigcheeses who actually likes Harry. So where did this evil witchy woman come from? Anyway, I've sort of gotten over that after seeing her in earlier episodes.

 

[Highlander II]

No Acient Mai is a woman, but she's not a freaky uber-witch and she does like Harry. I'm thinking Mai is a weird version of book!Morgan - which is why she doesn't show up much.

I dunno what they're doing.

Mostly - the continuity is just off and it made the episode seem out of place.

 

[Rothgar]

If they wanted to do Storm Front justice it should have been a two part episode.

I think one of the things that makes the show a little dissapointing is the lack of explanation for how Dresden's world works. A little description of the world's order would go a long way. No one that hasn't read the books realizes that the drumstick is his blasting rod. They probably all think it's a magic wand. He hasn't blasted anything with it yet either.

 

[Lucien21]

It wasn't a great episode and felt out of place.

It certainly had the aroma of a pilot episode that was cobbled to fit the rest of the series.

However, I think (from what remained of the pilot) that it would have made a better first episode than the one they used.

 

[Highlander II]

Don't get me started on the drumstick-of-stupid - I hate that thing and I'm thinking that the PTB at the show figured out that it's really lame too, thus it may be going away. I'm not sure - I can only hope. If it was a bass drum mallet - that would make a little more sense, but right now, he looks like a retarded Harry Potter with that thing. It looks so small in Paul's hand - I hate it. And it's about the only thing on the show that I *really* don't like.

I'm good on the hockey stick since I found out *why* he uses the hockey stick (and I'm hoping they include this bit in a show soon).

I agree that "Storm Front" should've been a 2-part episode; I also think it would've made a kick-ass season finale! I mean, what better way to close out the opening season, than with a big bad magic battle between Chicago good-guy wizard-detective Harry Dresden and bad-guy dark wizard seeking revenge Victor [whatever name they give him]?

Not only that, but pushing it to be the last ep of the season would've given them time to reshoot it, include Bob, re-work the script and make it make sense.

Personally, I kept getting pulled out of the story by things that were irking me - the changes to the apartment; the fact that Susan was dumber than a toaster; Morgan getting locked in a magic circle; Mai being uber!badass (like, to the extreme); the not-at-all-scary demon that blew fire at Harry.

I've seen a rough cut of the 67 minute version of the pilot episode and there are some things that were cut that I'm glad they cut - like the scene in the diner where Harry was being all 'cliche ladies man' to pick up Susan (it was a TERRIBLE scene and had Harry very O.O.C.); and all of the scenes with 'wood-stove Bob' - b/c the pilot was shot back when Bob-the-skull was going to be Bob-the-fire and he looked like a woodstove - v. lame.

The story was weak in the 42 minute version - which is a lot of why I didn't like it. That and it didn't fit well with the rest of what they've established the series to be. I like my tv shows to be consistant.

 

[Rothgar]

I wish they had shown a real toad deamon. I'd be very dissapointed in sci-fi if they turned Dresden into another version of Charmed. Show us the real monsters. Let's see Murphy attacking a plant monster with a chainsaw!

You would think with Sci-fi's saturday night original movie featuring gargoyles in WW2 it wouldn't be a big leap to put some real monsters in a tv show.

 

[Highlander II]

Mostly - I'm hoping they get a budget increase in S2 so they can MAKE demons n' stuff.

 

[Rane Longfox]

The sets don't match, there's a huge hole of 'where did Victor get a piece of Harry for use w/ his Voodoo doll'

I've only read the book, not watched any of the episodes, but thats a very lazy plot hole to leave. It would take all of ten seconds of film to show his hair being cut.

 

[Highlander II]

I've only read the book, not watched any of the episodes, but thats a very lazy plot hole to leave. It would take all of ten seconds of film to show his hair being cut.

Yes. Moreso since they actually FILMED a scene where "Gimpy" cut his hair - it was just edited from the 67 min version and not used in the 42 min version. Even Harry w/ a voice-over of 'Man, that guy got some of my hair!' would've been good enough.

I think what makes this episode so disappointing is that there was so much anticipation for it, then when it didn't 'match' or 'fit', it's a bigger let-down.

 

[Rane Longfox]

Does that mean they didn't have the scene in the club where he blows the doors down either, and makes peace with Marcone?

Dear oh dear

 

[Rothgar]

Marcone wasn't even in the episode. Just Tommy Tomm was.

 

[Talysia]

Watching the re-run of this one at the moment, and I have to say it's not one of my favourites. Bob doesn't seem to be featuring much, and the storyline seems somehow condensed more than usual from the book.

 

[Highlander II]

Bob's not in SF at all - all of his parts were edited out b/c he wasn't a ghost - he was a woodstove. (supposed to be a flame, but he looked like a woodstove)