The Dresden Files - s1e4.
And now, your weekly fan's writeup of The Dresden Files. Those who aren't fans, don't want spoilers, or plain just don't care can skip this entry.
Last night's episode was called Hair of the Dog... ..and it used a lot of plot elements of the novel Fool Moon. The episode starts off with Harry being called in to investigate a number of murders in which the canine teeth and parts of the scalps of a number of people were forcibly removed after death. The M.E. (one Waldo Butters - his t-shirt reads "I ♥ polka) reports nothing unusual about the bodies, aside from the fact that they're dead (of course), but found inside the respiratory systems of the bodies is aerosolised silver nitrate... the plot coagulates when the FBI moves in and takes things out of the hands of Murphy, who's been assigned to the case.
This was, I think, probably the best-done episode shown thus far. It gets off to a rough start in that he has to rely upon Bob once again for information - many fans complain that Bob does more to advance the plot than Harry does, and they're right - but soon enough Bob drops out of the picture and the other characters have to take the front. Interestingly, we see things happening in other places with other characters, a narrative technique which hasn't been used very much in the show (much like the books).
This episode also has noticably more action - the FBI agents know what they're after and have no problems bowling over anyone in their way to get it, another nod to Fool Moon. This was also a more mojo-heavy episode. To be honest, I'm not sure of what to make of the CG wolves they used in the episode - they're post-shift werewolves, so it stands to reason that they wouldn't look like real wolves, nor would they look much like people, but there was something in how their pelts shined that screams 'unfinished computer generated critters!' to me. I didn't watch the re-run of the show after Battlestar Galactica so I haven't seen enough to make up my mind quite yet.
My complements to the set designers - Raven was over last night, along with Hasufin and Mika, and we picked up a couple of things in the background that show that the production team has someone doing research on various traditions, and using the symbols in an understandable way. She and I got a good laugh out of what we saw.
We finally get to see the drumstick/wand and hockey stick/staff in action.
Quote of the night: "I'm turning my sense of smell up to eleven."
Overall, I give this episode four blasting rods out of five.