I meant to comment on this earlier. I agree that dialogue felt out of place. Not getting into college because you’re the wrong class or lack the right connections might make sense if this was 1900, but not 2000.
Most of my copies of the books are currently on loan to a friend, so I can’t check it, but I think at some point (maybe in Storm Front, at Morgan’s first appearance) Morgan was described as having brown hair with some gray in it. That’s the only clue I recall, and I’m not sure about even that much. If it’s correct, it suggests that book-Morgan isn’t black.
As for the college bit…I took it as Harry being flip. Still, depending on how far TV-Harry’s background deviates from book-Harry’s, he may not have had the resources or location people following the show might think. Book-Harry basically went straight from a crash course in How to Be an Evil Wizard to living on a farm way out in the sticks with his wizardly probation officer. Also, he was an orphan from a family with no money, and I haven’t seen any indication that he inherited anything from Justin (even if he had been willing to take it). So, he probably never has had the money for college, and he wasn’t in a position to get people to help him apply for scholarships, or to take advantage of community college options.
“Storm Front”, the episode originally intended to be the pilot, will be the next episode aired (3/18). It was supposed to be a two-hour show, but (IIRC from what I read on the Butcher forum) during or after filming Sci-Fi Channel decided to show another episode first. “Storm Front” was re-edited into a one-hour episode and bumped down the schedule. If (When, please!!) The Dresden Files is released on DVD, I hope they include the edited footage as an extra.
Morgan is definitely not black in the books; my recollection of his description matches Balance’s. My copies of the early books are still boxed up, but I was just introduced to the Dresden books less than two years ago, so my memories are fairly recent.
I found this episode to be trite and predictable. The teen who is pushed into bad behavior by his friends because his family is needy, who then gets redeemed… I mean, that’s been done a hundred times, and I didn’t see any of the interesting slants that the books take.
I agree **C K **, I thought the teen redemption and recruitment story was done much better in Proven Guilty. Made a lot more sense, and seemed much more…real. If you can say that about a story about magic.
I’m still on the fence with the series…and this episode didn’t help. The Hand of Glory is a staple in a lot of fantasy work…and I don’t recall it ever giving someone the ability to walk through walls…or there ever being a danger of the original person regenerating somehow. I can understand why Jim Butcher went with this of course…money is money and as another poster said in a previouse thread, if the money from the show allows him to write more books, I’m all for it. I just think they’re trying to stay too middle of the road-ish. A show about a wizard, but without the level of magic that is in the books. More like supernatural drama than urban fantasy.