Fearless on my breath...

So I've seen the first two eps of Dr. Who and overall I'm kinda "Eh" about them. The new companion strikes me as a little too Rose Mark II, I'd have preferred if they'd created a character a little more unique and dynamic but maybe they'll stop writing her as Rose in the not too distant future. Also disappointing was that the second ep was basically "Tooth and Claw" set in 1599 and kind of ignored all of the previous mentions of the Doctor having met Shakespeare. However, it did include two fabulous mentions of the Harry Potter series that made me squee like a little girl so that's something.

Made it as far as the beginning of Book 4 of the Dresden Files and I had to stop, put the book down, and walk away. First the entire series seems to be summed up in the following formula:

1. Harry is contacted about a case
2. Harry is warned not to take said case (by another character, fate in general, his own common sense, etc.) but ignores said warning
3. Harry gets the living snot beaten out of him.
4. Harry comes to the wrong conclusion about the bad guy and gets the snot beaten out of him again.
5. Harry makes a spectacularly bad decision and gets a friend/acquaintance/cop killed/maimed/injured giving him a chance to ANGST.
6. Harry gets captured and once again, has the living snot beaten out of him.
7. At the very last second all of the pieces fit into place and he manages to scrounge up some up til now unknown reserve of magical power and destroy the bad guys just in the nick of time.
8. The end.

It doesn't help that the author seems to find the "throw everything and the kitchen sink at the hero" approach too irresistible in every single book. But I was ok with that, it was when Harry was quite rightly dragged in front of the White Council and he, swear to god, Godwined the proceedings by comparing them all to Neville Chamberlain, that I had to put the book down. My gut said quite clearly, "This is wingnuttia for the fantasy crowd...don't you have better things to do with your time?" And my brain replied, "Why yes, yes I do."

I wish Harry was as interesting as, say Sam Spade, 'cause I might be inclined to stick around despite my gut reaction. But he's more like Dirty Harry with a wand, all catchphrases, tough guy attitude and black and white concepts of reality. I have no empathy for the character whatsoever, he's annoying, rash, and worst of all a complete boob. He's constantly telling others to think before acting and then completely ignores his own advice and throws magic at his problems until they go away...or until he gets the snot beaten out of him.

If I liked Harry I might be inclined to see the whole beaten up thing as a plus, I mean I like hurt/comfort as much as the next gal. But I don't like Harry so I'm generally rather happy he's getting his ass kicked. I do find the changes in the character Bob fascinating, though, and I can see why the tv writers went the direction that they did. In the books Bob is basically a snarky plot device, which is fine given how damn much else is going on in each of them. But for the tv series Harry did need a "sidekick" and that companion had to be an actual character. I'll be interested to see if they develop him any further, I hope so 'cause as I've said many times, lord do I love me some Terrence Mann and I do think his character has potential. I just wish they'd used a little more time in the last episode to do that, what a waste...

Oh and before I forget, episode 7 of the second season of Life on Mars, wow. The show has actually gotten better with each one, I honestly don't know how they do it. I get the feeling episode 8 is actually going to break me utterly and henceforth comparing all shows I see to its brilliance.