Television: Dresden Files (season 1)
I finished watching season one of the Dresden Files (12 episodes) which was very entertaining. My favourite series is still Bones, but Dresden Files is definitely up there.
Based on the novels of the same name by Jim Butcher, The Dresden Files is about Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden (named by his father after Harry Houdini, Harry Blackstone, Sr., and David Copperfield). Dresden is a private detective who happens to be a wizard, a wizard listed in the Chicago phone directory who consults for the police.
This is Harry, played by Paul Blackthorne. He has a kind of vaguely James Bond-esque look about him.
Dresden has a sort of anti-hero quality about him. His mother died when he was young and he was raised by his father who was a stage magician. When his powers started to emerge, his uncle Justin Morningway took him in ... but the magic practised by Morningway was of the black variety ...
This is Lieutenant Connie Murphy (Valerie Cruz), the tough no-nonsense police detective who doesn't believe in magic - but believes in Harry. She looks a wee bit like Minnie Driver.
Murphy seeks out Harry's help with cases that are hard to solve and may be supernaturally related. She's a sceptic but is slowly coming to believe.
This is Bob (Hrothbert of Bainbridge) (Terrence Mann). He's a ghost owned by Dresden. Bob's current state of existence is a punishment. He was executed, his soul sealed into his own skull for all eternity, for using black magic to bring a sorceress he had loved back from the dead several hundred years ago.
This is Morgan. He's a Warden of the High Council, the governing body of the wizarding community and is assigned to the Chicago area. He also has rather perfect bone structure.
I love the dynamic between Harry and Murphy. The season finale was a teeny little nod to shippy people like me :)
Dresden loses the trail of someone he and Murphy were hunting.
Murphy's annoyed.
Harry asks Murphy to slap him because he needs an 'emotional jolt'. She refuses.
So Harry takes matters into his own hands ... in a very delightful way :)
The kiss lingered too long to be fake and Murphy's clearly dazed ...
Then she slaps him :)
Although at the end of the episode she does apologise for slapping him and says she won't do it again .... :D