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By Jonathan Klotz
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The hottest genre in literature right now is dark romantic fantasy, or romantasy as fans have called it, and often it can combine with another genre, urban fantasy. When you take the witches and werewolves out of the forest and out of the middle ages, put them in the heart of a city, you get urban fantasy. As popular as it is, urban fantasy television shows have fallen out of favor, and even one of the most successful book series of all time, The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, was unable to get a decent adaptation. It’s so different in fact, that even Butcher told fans to treat it as an alternate reality.
Who You Gonna Call?
The Dresden Files aired a grand total of 12 episodes on The Sci-Fi Channel in 2007. Starring Paul Blackthorne (Known now as Quentin Lance from Arrow) as Occult Detective Harry Dresden. Based out of Chicago, in the novels, Harry often finds himself at the center of supernatural power struggles. They could be economic, political, or over an ancient relic, the point is, the world of The Dresden Files novels is dense with layer upon layer of intrigue and hundreds of characters to keep track of.
That’s not the case for the television series, which adapts a case of the week format, and never even skims the surface of the real appeal of Butcher’s novels. Another change is Bob, an intelligent spirit, manifests as Terrence Mann, while in the novels, he’s an invisible spirit who enjoys working through Dresden’s cat (Terrence made it work, but that was the only star tof the character’s changes!). Book plots sort of appear, if you squint and tilt your head, you’ll see “Storm Front” and “Fool Moon” in two episodes. Why The Sci-Fi Channel decided to option the novels and then throw them out is a complete mystery. Fans knew the series was in trouble even before the pilot ever aired.
The Dresden Files Aired Out Of Order
The pilot, “Storm Front,” was developed as a two-hour movie of the week to serve as a backdoor pilot into launching the series. That never happened. Instead, the third episode aired as the first episode of the series, and the pilot was butchered to one-hour and aired as Episode 8. Studios airing shows out of order used to be a common occurrence, notably with Fox messing around with Dollhouse and Enlistedbut this was a whole new level of interference.
Paul Blackthrone at least fit the mold of Harry Dresden and gave it his all. If anyone were to adapt the current novels, the older, wiser version of Harry would perfectly fit Blackthorne’s performance. The problem is that he started out as younger, a little bolder, little more daring, and not quite as beaten down by the politics of the supernatural world. As a case of the week urban fantasy, The Dresden Files is fun, as The Dresden Files brought to life, it’s one of the worst adaptations of all time.
Urban Fantasy Needs To Be Saved
Jim Butcher, author of The Dresden Files, warned fans that the series would be different and to not treat it as a direct adaptation of his novels. Even with that warning, fans were upset that Bob was a literal ghost, Officer Karrin Murphy was now Connie Murphy and a completely different character, and they decided to not tune in. With low-ratings, The Dresden Files was mercifully canceled months after airing.
In the last decade, urban fantasy is in the same neglected place as it was back in 2007. A resurgence thanks to What We Do In The Shadows and Luciferproved to be short-lived, with only Supernatural truly catching on. The Buffy revival was canceled in pre-production, Carnival Row would come back if we lived in a just world, and The Winchesters could have been something great if given time to grow. At any moment, The Dresden Files could be attempted again, especially with the continued popularity of the novels, which will, supposedly, come to an end with the 25th book.
In the meantime, you can watch The Dresden Files series for free on Pluto TV, Tubi, Plex, and The Roku Channel.
