Just finished the series

I'm an author currently about two-thirds of the way through my seventh novel, which--in a way--is urban fantasy. The thing is, I've never actually read much urban fantasy, so I decided to get a sample of the landscape.

Aware that The Dresden Files has been a long-running series of books, I decided to try them out. I read the first four. I probably need to try more, because even Butcher admits that this was his first attempt at writing, and feels he could have done better. I could point out a few of those things, but I don't intend this as a critique of the novels.

Having read the first four books, I was also aware of the attempt at a TV series, so my wife and I just streamed the series over the last few days.

I liked it better than the first four novels. I found a few parallels with "The Night Stalker" series from the 70s, but this series isn't derivative of "The Night Stalker". There just have to be some similarities when you sometimes have a "monster of the week".

The implementation of Bob in the TV series was extremely well done, especially the acting, and I thought the role of Dresden was a solid job of portraying the character from the novels. The changes for the series were the normal types of changes you get from novel to filmed media, and anyone who doesn't expect those types of changes is delusional.

We wound up being sorry the series only had ten episodes, and I'd predicted that early on. All the actors--regulars, guest, and bit parts--took their roles seriously, and they delivered. "Bob's" reactions before walking into the "other side" in the next to last episode was theatrical release quality stuff.

The stories improved as the series progressed. I don't know how long they could have gone and kept the stories fresh, but I know I'd have liked to see at least double the number of episodes. There were always some clever lines and a few chuckles.