2. Fleshed Out Characters
Other than the main plot, what really makes a story is that what grows from its foundations, namely its supporting characters and their individual stories. For the purpose of this article, I take supporting character to mean any individual in the story who is not Harry Potter as, lets face it, the films became incredibly one-sided as the series grew, to the point that even Ron and Hermione seemed surprisingly absent. Again, this isnt an outright criticism of the film franchise. I understand this was necessary evil, within the time constraints but, unfortunately, for me, the last two films, particularly, although excellent, felt a bit of a scramble in terms of plot. It suddenly felt that the producers were trying their hardest to suddenly explain everything theyd missed out and, subsequently, important, even crucial, plotlines were minimised, particularly Dumbledores relationship with his family and Grindelvald. The measure of any adequate tv series, especially fantasy-led ones, is that which can maintain equilibrium between its genres. No fantasy-based series can be entirely one-genre and expect longevity. Often critcs of Harry Potter are those who have actually never read the series and, thus, do not realise just how multi-faceted its story really is. Basically, from my point of view, a television series would offer the series all that the movie franchise just did not have: time. It would have the time to address the heavy, complicated main plot as well as the soap opera-like, dramedy sub-plots (Hermione and S.P.E.W, Ron and Quidditch) and, also, the character driven stories (Dumbledores past, Tonks and Lupins relationship, Nevilles past, Lunas past).