as a TV series?

[caliburncy at yahoo.com]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at y..., frantyck at y... wrote:
> Since the film seems to have fallen short in its attempt to present 
> the book, do you think a more efficient way of filming the story 
> would be to make this into a TV series? The books are episodic, and 
> they seem to be more fitted to the cadences of a set of hourly 
> chunks. What do you think?

Though several people have mused on this, I think I find the 
prospects somewhat doubtful.  Why?  Because unlike what you said, the 
books *aren't* truly episodic.  A truly episodic work is one in which 
every event stands to more or less on its own--meaning it has its 
very own conflict and resolution that is completely seperate from any 
larger plot.  You could do just one scene and have it make a 
*rounded* story by itself.  In episodic works, the overall continuity 
is not one of plot, but of theme.  Beyond theme, the tie between the 
individual episodes is so loose its virtually non-existant.  Take for 
example, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, where every place they 
stop along the Mississippi River is a little story in and of itself.  
The tying thread plotwise is that they are part of the same trip down 
the river--in other words, it's more of a "framework" than a true 
overall plot.  So the true tie between them all comes in the books 
themes, specifically Huck's relationship with Jim.

Other examples of episodically-plotted books that people here may be 
familiar with (under the perhaps false assumption that you read other 
children's fantasy) are Taran Wanderer (Book four of The Prydain 
Chronicles) and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (from The Chronicles 
of Narnia--It's book three in the original production order, but book 
five in the needlessly-revamped chronological order).  Perhaps a 
comparison of the plotting style of these books to the other books in 
the same series will better explain my point than my half-baked 
explanations.

But anyway, the reason the HP books aren't episodic by this 
assessment is that the individual conflicts (i.e. arriving at 
Hogwarts, or the Harry-Draco rivalry, or the searching through the 
library) do not function well on their own--they function as part of 
a grander scheme.  The "one chapter per episode" kind of thing will 
make some episodes vastly more watchable than others, because some 
episodes (such as introductions to the various classes) will appear 
to lack drive and internal relevancy.

Granted, there are some T.V. shows that have a high degree of 
continuity (X-Files, for a quick example).  But in X-Files, the 
grander scheme does not *overshadow* the relevancy of the immediate 
plot in the way that it does in HP.  It would be much more difficult 
to create well-rounded episodes with HP, because each HP book has one 
strongly overriding plot to which everything else is simply auxillary.

Still, it could be done, but only in a way that is very 
unconventional for television.  In fact, the mold that fits HP best 
if you want a "complete" adaptation is, believe it or not, probably 
the miniseries, which (for whatever reason I have never been able to 
understand) is often a less individually-rounded medium, though this 
of course depends on the miniseries at hand.  But I am not 
recommending HP be made into a miniseries.  Not at all.  I personally 
believe it can work just fine and dandy as a standalone film, if 
edited properly.

-Luke