The Harry Potter TV Show is a Logical Morass
There are real problems that will arise from adapting material that's already been adapted, but they're canceled out by the positives.
It’s happening!
As we all thought it would, but also thought we might be crazy for thinking that it would, even though we knew deep down that it probably made sense to think it would – ah, forget it. The Harry Potter TV show is on its way.
Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw reports:
HBO is close to a deal for a Harry Potter TV series based on the best-selling young adult books for both cable and streaming, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
Each season of the series will be based on one of JK Rowling’s seven books, said the person, who asked not to be identified since the deal hasn’t been announced, suggesting years of fresh TV fare from the popular series.
…
The series would allow the writers to delve further into the world of Rowling’s books, many of which are longer than 500 pages.
Basically, it’s what (some) people have been wanting for years: Harry Potter is getting the Game of Thrones treatment. Each book a season; each episode a chapter or two (or three, once the books get longer).
It’s exciting. Obviously. I won’t lie; it’s absolutely ridiculous. It’s the kind of news that changes your whole day. The eight original movies were as good as they possibly could have been – but being movies, their ceiling was itself lower than it could have been. A TV series raises that ceiling. It gives the material room to breathe, and makes space for all the moments the movies had to leave out. It’ll be absolutely packed with Potter gold, which we’ll discuss at length.
But the whole project, as announced, is also fraught with potential complications, and it’s not exactly clear how they’ll be resolved. Remaking the original series, as opposed to starting out on a new story, has its benefits – but it also introduces some tough, strange issues to work out.
How does any of this work?
Remember the weird, wacky sequence near the end of Deathly Hallows: Part 2, when Harry and Voldemort fly around Hogwarts and morph into one and just generally make weird noises at each other?
Of course you do. Everyone remembers it; I’m pretty sure it’s universally disliked, mostly because the book did it so much better than the movie, and just by doing exactly what the book did and putting it on the screen, the movie could have improved immensely.
So let’s say this new series starts, and is a wild success, and it keeps going, and it eventually gets to season seven, and in the second-to-last episode, they cover this same territory, except they do it way better. Hooray!
Except, what happens now? Do we pretend the strange movie version never happened? Do we watch the 8th movie and skip over that part? When we think about the Potter universe as a whole, did that sequence happen?
It’s not exactly a high-impact real world question; frankly, it’s the kind of question my mother is going to make fun of me for asking. Hi mom! But if you’re a Harry Potter fan who cares about this sort of thing, it’s a question that’s going to become unavoidable: what happens when two different, canonically-equal versions of the same story exist on screen?
Right now, canon is fairly simple. The books are the bedrock; the movies are below that; everything else is lower, to a point where it basically doesn’t count. But when you add in a TV show, you get something new. The books are still at the top of the hierarchy, but then you have two different pieces slightly below them that are, for the first time, equivalent.
On some level, this isn’t unprecedented; there are lots of stories that have been adapted multiple times in the same medium. There are multiple Murder on the Orient Express movies and TV episodes, and they all coexist perfectly harmoniously. This upcoming Potter show, though, is something different, and I’m not aware of anything analogous: a series that is basically an expanded version of another series. Disney is remaking a bunch of its animated movies in live action, but this isn’t like that. It’s as if Disney remade The Lion King as a ten-episode HBO show.
So here’s the question: is that okay? Can you stomach it? So far, my impression is that it will be fine. It’s like the Designated Hitter: it’s the kind of thing that might be logically iffy, but in practice just isn’t much of a problem. But it’s certainly something to consider as we prepare to watch what will basically amount to an alternate version of the original series.
The Harry Potter movies are really good
Here’s another element that will complicate the new show: a fair amount of the show should be a copy of what already exists.
Obviously, the point of the show will be to expand on the movies, devoting more time to key elements and bringing previously text-only elements to the screen for the first time. But a lot of what the movies have already done is perfect. Ten out of ten, no notes. That’s an exaggeration, of course; obviously there are some notes. But equally obvious is the fact that there are plenty of movie scenes that no one wants to change.
One that comes to mind is the time travel sequence from Prisoner of Azkaban, when Harry and Hermione travel back in time, rescue Buckbeak, save Sirius from the dementors … you remember. When they write that sequence for the show, they’ll have to reckon heavily with the fact that it’s already been done really well. Not ALL of it – there are some changes that they should absolutely make, having experimented with them in the movies – but some things just don’t need to be done any differently.
This is absolutely not an argument against the show’s existence. What I’m saying, rather, is that the show will need to be careful not to make changes just for the sake of making changes. The expansions – new scenes, previously unseen moments, expanded character development, improved effects, etc. – are the whole point, and what makes the show incredibly exciting. But the show will also need to make sure that it’s not accidentally making things worse.
Some things have become canon
Here is, I think, the most important example of what I mean: Hogwarts and the Wizarding World should look exactly the same.
Exactly, down to the bricks and the fonts. No changes. Same sets, same storefronts, same windows, same thing. Same shot from Sorcerer’s Stone of the first-years seeing Hogwarts for the first time. The precise descriptions that became the movie sets aren’t in the books, but at this point, they might as well be. Hogsmeade and Hogwarts look the way they look, and there’s absolutely nothing to be gained by changing them. They now exist not only on screen, but at theme parks and the studio tour; the sets, designs, and locations, I’m comfortable saying, are official canon, and should not change. Maybe No. 4 Privet Drive looks slightly different, or the inside of The Burrow gets a slight redesign, but the consequential, memorable sets need to stay the same.
That part is easy; they can just use the same sets. The more difficult part, though, will be casting the show’s characters.
I’ve heard some murmurs about casting a black actress as Hermione. That sounds fantastic; they absolutely should. Cast a gay actor as Dumbledore; same thing. Build a cast that’s inclusive while also capturing the essence of the characters in the series. Absolutely ideal.
The way the cast looks isn’t the problem. It’s can’t be that hard to find actors who look roughly like the parts they’re playing. The issue, rather, is how the actors act.
Say you find a 10-year-old kid who looks just like Harry Potter. He gets the role. He shows up to the set on day one of filming and lies down in the cupboard under the stairs for his first scene. The director gets the camera rolling. The actor sits up in bed and opens his eyes.
What does he do? Does he play the character like Daniel Radcliffe did? Or is he doing his own thing?
More than anything else, the answer to that question will also be the answer to the defining question behind the show itself. Is it an expansion of the movies? Or is it its own thing?
And more importantly: which should it be? The answer – as with most of life’s questions – is both. A balance. Combine them in the best way possible. But it’s a difficult balance to strike.
The show’s weaknesses are actually strengths
The biggest complaint about the Fantastic Beasts movies is something I don’t agree with and don’t even really understand, but I hear it all the time.
“What’s going on? Who are all these people? What are they doing? I don’t understand any of this!”
Well, can I interest you in the original story, which you definitely understand?
“This completely messes with canon, it doesn’t fit in with the original story at all!”
Can I interest you in something that definitely fits in with the original story?
This whole time, we’ve been dealing with the struggle to adapt a story that’s already been adapted, to differentiate between what’s canon and what isn’t, to know what should be new and what should stay the same. Those are all difficulties inherent in doing the show the way that’s being reported. But adapting the core seven books, while it has the drawbacks we’ve covered, also has an overarching positive that probably cancels those out: the core seven books are really good!
Doing the show the way that’s been reported — focused on the original story — immediately obviates a major issue that might show up: we don’t have to worry that maybe the show will have a bad storyline. The story is already established and universally beloved. Unless they radically change the plot for some reason — and why would they? — there’s no possibility of any of those Fantastic Beasts-style complaints. We know the story will hold up, because it already has.
Yes, adapting the original books – as opposed to a show on the Marauders, the Founders, etc. – is the safe route. But what’s important to remember is that being safe is itself a positive. Sometimes it’s outweighed by other negatives; often, it doesn’t make sense to play it safe, because the potential reward isn’t enough. But in this case, the potential reward – an incredible series that builds on the established movies and shows fans new depictions of scenes never seen on the screen before (try saying that five times fast) – is a great potential reward, and also a pretty safe one.
For every weird moment when the show differs from the movies, we’ll have a moment that’s also concordant with the books. All the canonical and logical problems that the show might have will be backstopped by the fundamental fact that at its core, the story is the seven Harry Potter books, which are a winning formula.
Sure, fans have been clamoring for prequels and spinoffs. Founders and Marauders are two common ones; there are also others, things like an Auror procedural or a Quidditch show. But remember the other thing that people demanded for years? A Dumbledore/Grindelwald prequel. Then one came along, and it turned out people weren’t quite so sure what they wanted after all.
That’s the thing about any potential spinoff show: it’s not just going to be the familiar stuff that fans seem to like. If they did a show on The Founders, it wouldn’t just be the four founders; there would be all kinds of supporting characters with names like Sir Bastian St. Edouard, the patriarch of some family that no one has ever heard of, but who played a key role in the early days of Hogwarts. With a prequel series on The Marauders, you’d have someone like Marvin Kiner-Greene, a fourth-year Hufflepuff struggling with the difference between good and evil. With any story that’s not the original series, there’s going to be a lot of new material to understand. People beg for new, original stories, but when those come along, they seem to realize that new stuff doesn’t always make as much sense as what was already there.
The show’s overwhelming, incredible strength
That preceding section is addressing how a negative is actually a positive; it’s basically rebutting an argument. But really, that positive pales in comparison to the main point of the show.
More or less, it seems like the entire series is going to be put to screen. The entire series. All of it. Movies are at most two and a half hours long; the Potter movies did a great job, but as everyone knows, there simply wasn’t enough time to include everything. In a (let’s say) ten-episode-per-book series, there genuinely might be.
Here are some things (among many, many others) that the show can include that the movies didn’t:
The Quidditch Final in Book 3. It’s Harry at the absolute top of his game, a moment of utter triumph, and it’s really unfortunate that we haven’t seen it on screen yet. The show, in fact, should vastly improve and expand on the movies’ portrayal of Quidditch.
As I’ve written before, the way the movies show the sport has led to misconceptions about how it would actually work in practice, and the show is the perfect chance to fix that. I want an entire episode – Season 3, Episode 8 – focused on the lead-up to the Quidditch final, then the match itself. Give us the sports we’ve been waiting for.
Peeves. Peeves! The funniest character in the books, who completely sums up the chaotic wackiness that’s at the heart of the whimsy of the series. He doesn’t appear at all in the movies, which is unfortunate, but maybe for the best given the constraints of movies. On TV, those constraints are no more. Give us hours and hours of Peeves dropping water balloons on people’s heads, singing rude songs about professors, unscrewing chandeliers, all of it. Give us the unfiltered comedy.
Dumbledore (Book 6) and the Weasleys (Book 4) visiting the Dursleys. Two more incredible moments of comedy that didn’t quite fit in the movies, but absolutely must make it to the show. There are so many tiny moments of comedy that don’t make the movies because they’re not essential to the plot, but they bring so much happiness to the story, and the show should bring them to life. Give us Dumbledore making glasses full of mead bounce off the Dursleys’ heads. Mr. Weasley getting stuck in the fireplace. The ton-tongue toffee. All of it.
Moments like these matter, but just important are the moments that aren’t even notable because they’re so fleeting. I’ve just opened Book 5 to a random page (529); Zacharias Smith is walking away from the trio, with Ron angrily threatening to jinx him from behind, then Cho walks up to them, Hermione very forcefully drags Ron away, and Harry awkwardly asks Cho to come to Hogsmeade with him on Valentine’s Day. One more: page 714. Harry is taking his Defense Against the Dark Arts OWL, and he stares at Umbridge, imagining her being sacked, as he casts a Patronus to more or less clinch an “outstanding.”
There are dozens and dozens of moments like this – probably hundreds, since there’s one on almost every page. The show can capture Harry’s sass; Ron’s irritation; Hermione’s exasperation. We can see the characters as full characters, rather than as characters developed only as much as time-constrained movies will allow.
Here’s the last thing I’ll say.
Imagine this. Season 4, Episode 3. Harry has just been chosen as a Triwizard champion. The whole school is in turmoil. Harry is waiting, confused and nervous, in the little room off the Great Hall. Dumbledore comes in with Karkaroff and Madame Maxime bickering behind him, and Ludo Bagman and Barty Crouch right on their heels.
Dumbledore comes up to Harry.
“Harry,” he asks calmly, “did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire?”