Why You’re Not Watching Orange is the New Black (But You Should Be!)

If you know me, you know I’m a fan of all things orange, so it might surprise you that I’ve only just now started watching Orange is the New Black.  I’m not sure what exactly triggered it, but something about a commercial or teaser drew me in.  I partially blame the direction the world is going in, not as a bad thing, but with people being more open with different types of people in every way possible, a show that displays that should be lauded and not shunned.

Netflix Subscription

This was the first turnoff for me.  I pay way too much to DirecTV right now and I couldn’t begin to wrap my mind around the idea of paying for more TV.  I mean, how much TV can one person watch?  But let’s be honest, how many of those additional channels do I even watch?  Since I’m not an HBO junkie, I can clear that off my list and the rest of the movie channels really just regurgitate the same movies over and over again.  With Netflix, you get a wider variety of movies to choose from.  I already saw The Babadook (a horror movie) that hasn’t been on any of the movie channels and added a few more items to my Watch List.  For $9 a month (for the middle tier), that’s $108 a year for a few more channels and I can cut about $90 per month when I get rid of the movie channels.  Yes, that math computes.

Gratuitous Scenes

Once you’ve gotten past the cost (and you can free trial the first month), the next thing I feel like people get turned off by certain types of scenes.  I’m not going to sugar coat this in anyway, because I never would, there are a fair amount of Lebanese scenes (my Golden Girls code word).  The main storyline, for the first season centers around protagonist Piper(Taylor Schilling) going back to jail because her ex-girlfriend Alex (Laura Prepon) was a drug dealer that got caught and may have fingered her as an accomplice.  At the same time, Piper is engaged to Larry (Jason Biggs).  There is a bit of both straight and not-straight storylines and characters and if that’s something that makes you uncomfortable, I can understand your reluctance.  At the same time, I feel like opening your mind to new ideas isn’t a bad thing.  I challenge anyone who watches the show not to root for, to some degree, the rekindling of the relationship between Piper and Alex.

Depressing

Let’s face it, the show is set in prison.  But it isn’t Oz.  I feel like Mean Girls is kind of a good reference point for the concept.  Even the characters cite how prison is a lot like high school with cliques and gossip.  Everyone knows everyone else’s business.  There are no secrets because everyone is living on top of each other (not literally).  There are both uplifting and devastating moments throughout the three seasons.  The show is seen, at first, through Piper’s eyes and as an upper-class, affluent person, the challenges she faces are very realistic.  The fact that she insults the cook on the very first day and has to find a way out of it or she won’t get fed is a situation that is both dire and still somehow amusing at the same time.

There are so many instances where we are reminded how bad choices lead to consequences.  The backstories for each character are fleshed out, some more than others, and there is a character for everyone.
The reason you should be watching:

Cast

This is where diversity really hits a stride for OITNB.  I have yet to see a group not well represented, except perhaps for men, who are really painted one-dimensionally for large chunks of the story.  The main story, and the first season, serve mostly to introduce the audience to the prison and go through the ups and downs with Piper.  Throughout the course of the first season, there are a variety of characters introduced and over time, more is revealed.  No matter what race you are (save Indian, like me, no Indians in jail), there seems to be some general representation. The show even pokes fun at this through an appointed council that is basically populated by a representative from each group: White, Black, Latino, Golden Girls and Other.  If you look past the main white cast, the talent spills over with everyone else.  Uzo Aduba won an Emmy for her performance from the first season, and there were a lot of other nominees besides her.

Story

I wish I could put into words what kept me coming back, but I can’t.  At the same time, I’m already re-watching the entire series, trying to pick up on things I might have missed.  The show is rife full of pop culture references, mostly though Tastee and her love for Harry Potter and reading.  If that doesn’t do it for you, there is a story with a Latino family and an impregnated inmate, something straight out of a soap opera.  The overarching villains for seasons one and two are memorable, but more so as we watch the evolution of season one’s Pennsatucky grow increasingly sympathetic as the seasons wear on.  Her character evolution is one of the starker ones, next to Piper’s fall into darkness.

Relationships

The idea of prison is terrifying, at least to me, you might not be phased by it.  The fact that every single person incarcerated in the show, at one point or another, admits to doing something wrong to end up there, but at the same time finds solace from others there as well is what is fascinating.  Even if the groups seem separated (white, black, other, old), the groups are still mixed and the mixing creates for some very compelling viewing.  When Red loses the kitchen in season 2 and is forced to join the old people table, the viewer sees people who might be forgotten by most, but can still contribute.

Consensus

I probably have a lot more blogs in me on this subject, but this is really scratching the surface.  A lot of fans have mixed feelings about season three being slightly aimless, as opposed to the conventional narrative in the first two seasons, but I’d argue the third season ties it all together, especially if you’re just now watching the show.  A lot of loose ends are tied together and while some parts were slower than others, I still watched it without stop and could keep watching it.

Is like: Lost, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

On: Whenever you feel like watching – no waiting!

Pop Culture and Philosophy: Ultimate HP

I still remember the first pop culture and philosophy book I picked up, the Simpsons one.  To this day, almost without exception, if I’m familiar with the pop culture, I pick the book up if it is made.  In some cases, the books are exceptional, in other cases, less so.  The first Harry Potter themed book was published before the final Harry Potter novels were released, and I felt it was incomplete and lacked punch, much like the Twilight book (though, in fairness…look at the source material).  This Ultimate Harry Potter book makes up for any shortcomings from the first edition, providing fresh takes on the same theories.

If you’ve never read any of these novels, there is a certain cadence that they all carry.  Most essays, and each book is broken up into twelve or more essays that range from any and all topics that are considered in any one series.  In the Harry Potter series, as with the novels, there are a myriad of topics that can be broached.  The editors tried to separate them based on similar subjects with mixed results.  In each book, there are always essays that are far superior to others.  In this novel, I found one out of every two or three essays were outstanding, while a few were uninspired.

The most compelling essays in the novel dealt with Harry’s brush with death and his moral character, citing his flaws and abilities to learn from them.  With this edition covering all seven Harry Potter books, it became clear that all most all the essays ultimately ended up spending great amounts of time on the sacrifices of characters like Snape, Dumbledore and Harry, spending far less time on any other characters.

I feel like I can never do an adequate job of summarising why the overall book is good or bad, relying on the feeling I got once I was done.  For the most part, the essays made me think, and that is what any good philosophy will do.  It isn’t about convincing you to change how you think, but to make you think at all.  This novel makes you think, and if you’re a fan of Harry Potter, then you will find the examples compelling enough to hear out, but may get stuck when some essays drone on about the same thing.

Bella Has Nothing on Harry, Frodo and Katniss

It took me a few hours to process The Hunger Games, and when I did finally see it for what it was, it made me realise, again, how terrible Twilight is.  I’ll fully admit that Twilight is my guilty pleasure.  When it is on TV, be it FX or Showtime, and I see it, I stop and watch it.  It isn’t quite a train wreck, but it comes pretty close.  I’ve blogged about this countless times and will probably do so every time I come across any Young Adult literature that surpasses Twilight in every way. 

In Twilight, we have a girl, Bella Swan, who doesn’t feel like she fits in anywhere.  The beginning of the book places her more as the parent than the child in her relationship with her mother, and this forces her to move so her mother can live a carefree life without her.  This isn’t to say that her mother doesn’t care, but it is clear from the very beginning that the self interests of the characters will always overshadow their concern for one another.  The growing trend of this is made more real by the relationship that Bella and Edward share as the story progresses.  In even the simplest of terms, Edward is controlling and manipulative, to the point that if he weren’t super-human and good looking, any self-respecting girl would file a restraining order and have nothing to do with him.  But not Bella, no, Ms. Swan internalises this and decides that she can’t do better than Edward because he is ‘perfect’ for her and his lifestyle of eternal life is just right for her.

I could deride this story for poor writing, but that would be unfair of me, until I myself publish a novel, I have no stones with which to throw.  However, I would be overlooking the obvious by not pointing out how terrible a role model Bella and Edward both are for young kids, though Jacob is actually, for the most part, a respectable, ‘good’ kid.  He is loyal to a fault and places Bella’s needs over his own in what can only be seen as a true act of kindness and friendship, something neither Bella nor Edward ever exhibit in the entire Twilight Series.

Why this came to my mind I blame on a friend asking me to see The Hunger Games at midnight on Thursday night.  I haven’t read the books, I think I’ve said that enough, but the movie was surprisingly good, like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe surprisingly good.  And while I have a lot of issues with the Chronicles of Narnia series, it too shares the same overall theme with the yet to be named books I’m referencing in the title.

One theme that I found in Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and the Hunger Games that is missing from Twilight, but is an important one for kids to learn is sacrifice.  It wasn’t until I watched yet another trailer for the movie when I realised that was the piece that made Hunger Games stand out to me, more than Twilight ever will.  In the first twenty minutes of the movie, Katniss sacrifices her own life for her sister’s, knowing that by making the decision she makes, she has a very strong likelihood, if not absolute certainty, that she will die.  It is in this act that Katniss, and Suzanne Collins, brings her book to another level.  One that is built to slowly in Potter, but is alluded to just as quickly in Rings.

If you’re unfamiliar, for some odd reason, and if you’re reading this blog, you should know better than to come here without this knowledge, but both Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter embrace any number of admirable qualities, including willing to sacrifice yourself for the greater good.  In Lord of the Rings, Frodo Baggins is given the most powerful weapon ever forged, and is tasked by men (and others) much smarter and stronger than he, but he freely and willingly takes on the task of destroying the ring.  Ultimately, his sacrifice comes full circle and he does give up his mortal life, going to the Undying Lands with what is left of Elf-kind.  Frodo is forced to make a sudden decision, like Katniss, and while we come to realise that part of his sacrifice is the hold of the ring already taking effect, much of it is also a wish to save those he cares about most, as we see in his vision in Galadriel’s mirror.

In Harry Potter, a similar fate is bestowed upon the main protagonist, Harry Potter.  In the first few books, Harry doesn’t always come face to face with the sacrifice, so much as impossible situations he can’t possibly survive, as in the first two books.  But it is in the fifth book, Order of the Phoenix, where Harry fully realises that either he or Lord Voldemort will have to kill the other, because both can’t live while the other is alive.  The weight of the novels increase both in pages as well as tone once this realisation is made.  Potter goes so far as to try and elude his long-time friends Ron and Hermione in an effort to save them, but they stay with him almost until the end.  As the story draw to its close and Harry is faced with the choice to live, and be on the run for the rest of his life, endangering everyone he cares about, or sacrifice himself for everyone else to live, the choice seems easy.  He goes into the Forbidden Forest to meet his death.

In all three cases, though less so for Frodo, the characters that sacrifice themselves for the greater good are saved, in some form or fashion.  I’m basing The Hunger Games on the first movie only and not the books at all.  They all realise that while they value their own lives, there is something greater to be had if they do what is right.  And then there’s Bella.  The entire goal of Twilight seems simply to have a boyfriend/husband.  And I can certainly admit to wanting one or the other at some point, but to base an entire novel on it, that isn’t a Harlequin romance, and is geared towards kids, seems uninspired.  I think we all want to have a storybook romance, but to have no substance in that romance makes for a hard novel to stand behind.  I am happy to say that the staying power of Twilight isn’t strong, but as a guilty pleasure, I’ll continue watching it for that dream that can’t possibly be real, and puts foolish ideas in my head that are utterly unrealistic, such as men actually being chivalrous or liking you for something that isn’t shallow and derisive.  Twilight is many things, but none of it good.  Hunger Games may fill the void that Potter has left behind.  I often worried that Twilight would fill that gap, but am glad to see that isn’t the case.  I’ve resisted the urge to read The Hunger Games, but will be less able to do so as time goes on.  For those of you familiar with all four series, I am curious what your take on each is, in comparison to one another, but expect no disagreement with respect to the lack of credibility in Twilight as a redeeming novel.

Best Harry Potter Movie: Prisoner of Azkaban

As I make my way through my DVD queue, I got a real treat last night, finally getting to see the Ultimate Edition of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.  I know, let the debate begin.  I just discovered that, of all the Potters, Prisoner of Azkaban is the lowest grossing of all eight movies, so far.  That is a dubious honour indeed, but to me doesn’t tell the whole story.

If you’re not familiar with the Harry Potter series at all, for whatever reason, then this blog may bore you.  But I’m a convert to the Harry Potter way of life.  Perhaps in a situation of sharing too much information, years ago, my sister and I had a bet as to who could finish the others’ favourite series first.  I had Lord of the Rings, this should come as no surprise to you, and she was a huge Harry Potter fan.  We set of before the Deathly Hallows came out.  I finished all six books with a week to spare.  She still has my copy of Lord of the Rings under her bed.  I won, but sadly didn’t wager anything, so the jerk that she is, won’t let me ‘win’ in reality.  This is actually very telling about our relationship, but that’s a blog for another day.  The point is, in a little less than a month I read the entire series and for those of you that have never read the books, JK Rowling is masterful.

JK Rowling creates a world within our own world, one that is believable and yet mysterious.  Kids around the globe want to go to Hogwarts, they want to learn magic.  Some ultra-religious types think that the books teach black magic, which is absurd for those of us that have taken the time to read the novels.  Harry Potter teaches being loyal, doing the right thing and having integrity.  I always love the comparison to Twilight, where it is said, Potter is about being a better person and doing the right thing and Twilight is about finding a boyfriend.  I thought that gem is always worth sharing.

The first two books are tame, while Harry is in great danger in both, the writing doesn’t make you feel the enormity of those situations.  It is later, in books three and four, that you begin to see Rowling evolve the writing to make each decision that much more meaningful.  In the third book, the only really self-contained story exists.  In Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry is confronted with a very real threat of a man who betrayed his parents and they died because of this betrayal.  While there are small side-stories to the main story, my favourite being Ron thinking Hermione’s cat ate his rat and Ron once again showing he’s a hate-filled brat (I know, I hate Ron), but it shows a great subplot that is furthered by the outcome of the book.

In the first two movies, the director Chris Columbus filmed the movies back-to-back, creating a seamless aging for the actors and also went easy on them acting-wise.  In the third movie, a new director, Alfonso Cuarón, comes aboard, who has an impressive resume.  When he joined, he changed the way the movies were made and how the actors portrayed their roles.  It is here that I think the audience truly gets to see Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint come into their own, not to mention excellent work by Tom Felton as everyone’s favourite bad boy Draco Malfoy.  It is an interesting side-note that Rowling feels uncomfortable with girls loving Malfoy, as he is a very troubled, spiteful character.  But Felton’s humanising performance makes him likable and to some women, fixable.

Secretly, before the bet my sister and I made, it was this movie that I used to watch on ABC Family on one of their many Harry Potter weekends.  It was only this one that I could watch from beginning to end, fascinated by the story and the cinematography.  What always caught my eye were the kids having grown up from the earlier movies.  Daniel Radcliffe really became Harry Potter.  He carried himself in a way that made the character come to life, unlike the earlier two iterations.  Rupert Grint was decent, his role muted, as in most of the other movies and I’m thankful for that.  It was really Emma Watson who transformed herself into the insufferable know-it-all that is Hermione Granger.  By far one of my favourite characters, Hermione is thoughtful and smart, but also cares a great deal about her friends, Harry and for some reason Ron.  Watson really shined in this movie and it brought the others’ acting levels up as well.  I won’t comment on any further Potter movies and those performances, for any of the kids, but for this one, Prisoner of Azkaban was owned by Emma Watson.

Acting aside, the story is actually rather compelling.  Harry is able to confront, in theory, the man who led his parents to their death.  As the story progresses, the reader discovers that it is not the supposed criminal Sirius Black, but Ron’s rat, Peter Pettigrew, who betrayed the Potters.  What I always found confusing is why would Black go to jail for something he didn’t do?  Some may argue that he was devastated by the loss of his friends, but he knew he was Harry’s godfather, and we see the repercussions of that with young Teddy Lupin.  I suppose Rowling knew Black’s fate from the beginning, but I think any Potter fans would have preferred to not have Harry live with his cousins, but with Black.  In some ways, I think Black was being selfish by not defending himself.  But as the story goes, there was no way for Black to prove his innocence.

I may have expounded too much on things that don’t matter, but the point of this blog was to go back down memory lane (or Privet Drive) and reminisce about the best Potter movie.  While the books tell an amazing story, the movies pale in comparison in almost every way, except Prisoner of Azkaban.  Each book grew in length as they were published and despite Warner Brothers’ need to bilk the fans, I often wonder if, after Prisoner of Azkaban, why they didn’t break the movies up to cover more of the lore from the books.  It is only Prisoner of Azkaban that melds the book and the movie with deliberate strokes to make the two into a one piece of media that truly captures the depth and breadth of what Rowling set out to accomplish.

Let the debate begin!

Adventures in Non-Wonderland

This blog is a long time overdue, and I chock it up to being pulled in too many directions and being distracted.  So, let’s time travel a bit, to the beginning of December.  I get a phone call from my sister, who normally never calls me when I’m at work, or when she’s at work, so I figured it was something important.  She told me about a great opportunity with one of our friends who’s a screen-writer.  She had an offer I basically couldn’t refuse.  My sister works for US Scareways, so she has the ability to put me on a plane for less than $700, and with last minute fares that is what it would have cost.  This conversation took place on December 1^st.

The following Monday, the 5^th, I was pretty much all set.  I had packed a bag for overnight, told my boss I’d be MIA for the rest of the day and part of the following morning, and at about mid-day, I booked it out of my office.  I am not as familiar with National Airport (I know the real name is Ronald Reagan International Airport, but I’ve lived here too long to call it anything other than National).  Flying standby has a certain air to it.  There’s that feeling that you may not make the flight, but that you’re also going to jet off to someplace exciting, hopefully, and pay far less than most people.  Thankfully, my destination has an hourly shuttle, so I was never in any danger of missing the flight.

Once the one o’clock flight boarded, they gave my boarding pass and off I went.  This was also the point where I was reading the final Eragon book, and was surprisingly interested in the outcome (I was still early on, later I realised the let down).  The flight was less than an hour away and once I arrived at my destination, I was surprised by the warm weather. 

After I dropped my bag off at the hotel, I grabbed a car and went into town.  Now this is the part where I unfortunately have to give up my secret location, but it is half the fun.  I am not the most knowledgeable traveller, so I often entrust my trip planning to others, but since I was flying solo, quite literally, I had to plan for myself.  I’ve been to New York City many times, but mostly my sister has us running at a marathon pace, never really enjoying anything.  Lucky for me I got a great driver who took me right next to my first destination, the Nintendo World Store.

There is only one Nintendo World store in the world, so it was pretty cool.  Truth be told, it wasn’t the first time I’d been there, but as a proud new owner of a 3DS, I thought I had to go.  I mostly got things for my niece, a cutie onsie with a Koopa Troopa on it and a plush Koopa Troopa that she could play with (read put in her mouth, but she’s not yet one, so can you blame her?).  I also bought myself a cute Nintendo World t-shirt.  More importantly, for those of you who are fans, I took pics of the Zelda display that was there.

After that, I met up with my and my sister’s high school friend, Kelly Jean, who writes screenplays and is a member of a group that allows her access to what I’d say are hard to get into events.  We had dinner and then headed to the Time Warner building to the event being held by the BAFTA’s.  It was interesting to see so many people queued up on a Monday night in downtown New York, but given the person appearing, it wasn’t all that surprising.

We sat down in a modest auditorium; I’d say maybe two to three hundred people might have been able to fit.  Before the presentation began, there was a brief video trailer, one I’d actually seen before; you could call it a ‘mega’-trailer, one that’s made for a feature that has many instalments.  Being the fan that I am, most of you reading should be able to guess which few fandoms this might be.

Once the trailer stopped and the lights came back up, the guest of honour was announced in the building and this being the second time I’ve seen him in person, it was exciting to watch Daniel Radcliffe bound down the stairs and up onto the low stage to thunderous applause.  What followed was somewhat of a whirlwind, in all honesty.  The interviewer was utter rubbish.  He asked the same questions any die-hard Harry Potter fan knows the answers to.  It was beyond annoying to listen to Radcliffe answer the same tried and tired questions about how he felt being a star, what was it like growing up in Potter and the like.  But despite that, there was a freshness to the answers.  Radcliffe showed no signs of every having heard the questions before and answered them easily and with a good bit of humour injected.

I think the parts that stuck out for me were the moment he double-checked with his father on an answer, his parents were both in attendance, and his candour about his latest project on stage, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. I haven’t seen a ton of footage on that, so seeing it finally was interesting.  I also had seen Equus, so getting to hear his thoughts on that project was interesting.  I was really hoping for some of his other friends to show up, but that didn’t happen.

Also, sadly, there was no chance for any kind of photo op or autograph session.  Though truth be told, I already have Mr. Radcliffe’s autograph thanks to Artbox.  Google it and you’ll understand what I mean.

I do apologise for the lack of timeliness on this blog post.  I have been agonising writing it since I got back, but thanks to a quick and rather debilitating cold, I was unable to collect my thoughts.  Even now I’m sure I’ve forgotten something of note.  Needless to say, one night in New York, alone or with friends, is always memorable.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2 Review

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2

I was in the AMC Theatre before 6 last night, though my movie didn’t start until 9.  When I got to the theatre, one of the workers was dressed as Bellatrix Lestrange, I knew at that moment that the evening would be eventful and that the Harry Potter series was truly coming to the end.  As with Return of the King, the final chapter in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, I found myself growing more and more apprehensive as July 15^th came closer.  I knew the expectations I had couldn’t be met, nothing I’d seen from director David Yates had ever been top-notch, so why would that change now, at the end of an era?  It wouldn’t, and it didn’t, but it didn’t have to, I think I changed, or at least changed my perspective.

I don’t think I have to tell any of you what happens in this movie.  If you haven’t read the books, you’ve certainly heard the pop-culture references or heard bits and pieces to know that Harry, the protagonist, finally confronts Voldemort, the antagonist, and they fight each other to the death, while bystanders get in the way.  In some sense, this story isn’t new, good vs. evil, good triumphs, but at a cost, always at a cost.  That was no different here.

What I see differently now is due to an article I read on the Washington Post.  In the article, the reviewer doesn’t highlight the specific movie, despite giving it three out of four stars, but talks about the Potter series starting, on film, in 2001, the same year of the 9/11 tragedy.  And it dawned on me, ten years, I’ve been following, actively or not, this series, books and these actors for 10 years, almost three times what I did with the Lord of the Rings series.  And in all that time, we didn’t have any Lindsay Lohan moments; any prima-Donna moments; we didn’t have any of the core cast leave mid-way through.  What we saw from Warner Brothers is something you really only see on select TV shows anymore, a series and a story that was bigger than the players in it, and the players knew it.

Harry Potter is a story about a boy who goes through a major transformation after already being short-handed in life.  We watch as he makes mistakes, some costly, and learns from them and realises that he isn’t alone, but takes responsibility for what he needs to do.  In many ways, he is Frodo.  He takes on this great task, sacrifices himself in the end, for the betterment of all.  And the story pulls it off with great flourish.

I won’t presume to tell any of you how great this film is, as a stand-alone, it is good at best.  This story can’t be told in one go, but required two films, so you cant just pick up this movie off-the-cuff.  I had the luxury of seeing both Deathly Hallows movies back-to-back and recommend it, if you have that option.  The story is jarring at times, the characters change from the book, ever so slightly, as do many mainstay scenes.  Why the directors and producers moved and changed things, we’ll never know?  I don’t want to spoil the movie for those that are off to see it, but towards the end, you’ll wonder why some characters are paired together, when you know JK Rowling never intended that.  Some of the death sequences were so detached they took away from the effect they had in the book.  But where the movie erred, it also succeeded, the sequence with Harry going into the Forbidden Forest brought tears to my eyes, not an uncommon practice, but I cried more for what I remembered than what I was seeing at the time.

The Harry Potter movies are great, on the whole, but they will never be the books.  JK Rowling wrote something that is indelible and will be irreplaceable in our minds, and it must stay that way.  When I look back at the Potter movies, I’ll remember the midnight releases, the costumes, the friends I made, the friendships that grew stronger, these are the things Potter should be remembered for, not 2 hours of celluloid that will always pale in comparison to the source material.  If you get the chance to see the movie this weekend, take a moment to notice the people there, and what the Potter world brought into your world.

Harry Potter Top Ten List Part 9 & 10

I run out of time, I think, leaving for the movie soon, just need to find my wand...I've merged the final two spots on each list - enjoy!!

#2 Least Favourite Character: Lucious Malfoy

He really was the epitome of bad parenting and a bad person. Lucious put his family in danger, himself in danger and all for what? So he could then betray the person he was betraying everyone else to? I would give him half points if he didn't waffle so much, but the fact of the matter is, Lucious Malfoy is a selfish cad and deserved his time in prison. My only regret is that JK Rowling let him live.

Draco deserved a better father, and if Lucious had seen beyond his own petty needs, he might have been able to do that. Too much of his time was spent trying to do some mischief that seemed to go awry, like the second book with Tom Riddle's diary. He was hardly a competent malcontent at that. Overall, Lucious Malfoy deserved worse than what he got, but was still just plain awful.

#1 Least Favourite Character: Ron Weasley

This one might seem surprising, but it shouldn't be. Let's go back to the third book, Prisoner of Azkaban, to site our first backslide by this worthless character. Ron gets into a major fight with Hermione over Crookshanks purportedly eating Scabbers. Now, we later find out that this never occurred, and granted an apology gets lost in the shuffle, but what is more bothersome is the divisive nature with which Ron conducts himself.

Let's move on to the next book, Goblet of Fire, there are so many things to point to in this one, like, Ron being jealous of Harry being entered in the tournament; Ron making Hermione be the go-between for him and Harry; Hermione having to sneak around to help Harry in the tournament; the list goes on and on. Ron gets so involved in his own simple little existence that he too often puts his own feelings before anyone else's.

Oh, I have more, we can skip the fifth book, that one Harry was a jerk in and go on to Half-Blood Prince, where Ron makes a fool of himself with Lavender, and does so deliberately to hurt Hermione in some respects, thus creating yet another scenario where he acts to divide the group instead of uniting it.

In the final book, who can forget Ron leaving Hermione and Harry in the forest because he didn't like how the search was going? That was just childish. In almost any sequence, I can think of more harm than good that Ron does in the series. I don't know that I will ever forgive JK Rowling for letting him live. If anything, he should have kep the Weasley twins alive and killed this idiot off.

My final parting shot on Ron is this: he doesn't deserve Hermione. She deserves someone better, smarter and more selfless, and I can't understand why JK Rowling would so conveniently pair these two together, it doesn't make sense. It's like watching the King of Queens and wondering how Kevin James could ever get a woman to marry him.

#2 Favourite Character Hermione Granger

This selection may surprise some of you that know me, but I give Hermione my second favourite slot because while I love her, and she saved Harry with her smarts, her decision to be with Ron is just inexcusable. I realise that we see someone we love, and no longer see their flaws. I could digress over this, but I won't.

She was an amazing driving force in this series. It was Hermione who figured out puzzles and riddles in every book, helping Harry succeed. Without her, he would have died in his first year. If not for her, they would never have gotten past the Basalisk in the second book, or been able to save Sirius in the third book, she was the one who taught him how to win in at least one Tri-wizard challenge. If Harry had listened to her, in the fifth book, Sirius would never have died. In the sixth book, she was not as enlightening as in the previous five, but in the final book, if not for her, Harry and Ron would have died in the woods. She saved them, in every way possible, and saved Ron from himself time and time again.

I understand that the story is about Harry, but a lot can be said about Hermione, she was the best of all three of them, and deserved better than a marriage to that worthless waste Ron.

#1 Favourite Character: Draco Malfoy

This might be another confounding choice, and it isn't because I like the bad boys, I just saw in Draco, what I think JK Rowling wanted readers to see. He was the dark half of Harry. He was the end product of someone who had all the things Harry had, and still he ended up in poor shape. What makes Draco my favourite character is that he realises, before the end, that he was wrong. That he had been wrong all along. He never should have gone down the path of darkness, and if not for that admission, Harry would not be touted as highly as he is.

I think Draco turned around for me in Half-Blood Prince, when he tried to kill Harry, and instead Harry almost killed him. At that moment, I think you could see that he knew what he was doing was wrong, that he was horrified by it all, but was too afraid to stand up. I feel like he proved something when he refused to name Harry as the Harry when they were brought to Malfoy Manor. I know these are small things, but isn't that one defines each of us, the little things? In this I won't short-change Draco, he did a ton of things wrong, but he was able to be redeemed, perhaps not as much as we would all like, but he ran the gamut and realised he was wrong.

It isn't a small thing to admit fault, so I give Draco my number one spot for it.

Harry Potter Top Ten List Part 8

Tomorrow is the big day, going to see Order of the Phoenix tonight, will be skipping Half-Blood Prince though.  You can reference the rest of the list using the tags at the bottom for ‘harry potter.’

#3 Least Favourite Character: Cornelius Fudge

I suppose I should feel sorry for Fudge, he ended up getting the short end of the stick, being killed by Voldemort, but his role reversal from Prisoner of Azkaban to Order of the Phoenix was intolerable.  In the third book, he acts kindly too Harry, worrying after his safety with Sirius Black on the loose, then by the end of Goblet of Fire, he’s accusing Harry, and Dumbledore of being traitors and God knows what else.

He is such a fizzle.  He is a spineless bureaucrat and has no moral compass at all.  When you pair Umbridge with him, to some degree, you get some really hateful characters.  I also look at Fudge and think, if he had listened to Dumbledore and Harry, instead of fighting against them, perhaps Voldemort wouldn’t have gotten the strangle-hold he did on the Wizarding World after Dumbledore’s death.

#3 Favourite Character: Ginny Weasley

It’s interesting, my love for Ginny didn’t really materialise until Order of the Phoenix.  But when I look back at the series, I can’t imagine any of the books without Ginny.  However superficial it may seem, Harry needed someone like Ginny in his life, as much as he needed Ron or Hermione, though we’ll get back to Ron another day.  Ginny was always around, but as we finally saw in the fifth book, she cared about Harry and was willing to risk a great deal to help him get what he wanted.

Of course, once the romance between the two began, it wasn’t any wonder that her status as a ‘side’ character evaporated and she became a main character and a driving force for Harry to defeat Voldemort.  Who can forget the lines at the end of Half-Blood Prince where he tells her that he has to break up with her and she responds to the effect that it was probably for something noble and that was why she liked him so much.  It is a sweet thing to say and it is also an honest thing to say.  And in a much more simplistic way, her saying that is also a noble thing, because she recognises that he has bigger things to deal with than his feelings for her.

I feel like Ginny brought out the best in Harry, and there are countless scenes in the end of Deathly Hallows that support that, like the decision Harry makes to go to Voldemort in the forest.  He passes Ginny on his way out, and almost stops to talk to her, but doesn’t, because he knows what he has to do.

In a story that is filled with such peril, it was endearing and encouraging to see something so sweet emerge from it.  It is the silver lining to a harrowing tale.

Harry Potter Top Ten List Part 7

Four days to go, I’m seeing Prisoner of Azkaban tonight, can’t wait!!  You can reference the rest of the list using the tags at the bottom for ‘harry potter.’

#4 Least Favourite Character: Vernon Dursley

I don’t think this one is much of a stretch for any fans of the Harry Potter series, JK Rowling paints Vernon, Harry’s uncle, as the most unlikeable of characters.  He hates everything about Harry you could hate, seeing only the burden Harry has put on him.  He treats Harry badly, so of course is treated badly in return.

We never know if Vernon truly knew the extent of what happened to his sister-in-law, but I can’t only assume that his wife would have told him something.  I think Vernon represents the epitome of hateful and narrow-minded people, but in some ways is benign as well.  If JK Rowling really wanted to make him evil, she could have, but Vernon is just a mean person, but not an evil one.  However, he had ample chances to help Harry, but for the sake of literature, he was painted as mean.  I think JK Rowling short-changed Vernon in many ways, but we can only wonder what it would have been like if his uncle hadn’t been such a jerk.

#4 Favourite Character: Albus Dumbledore

God, what can you say about Dumbledore?  I mean, he was the picture of goodness in this series, though we saw his flaws in public for all to see in the final book, after his death in the sixth book.  In many ways, Dumbledore played the role of parent to Harry, but in many ways did not.  In the fourth and fifth books, we see Dumbledore step back from his over-involvement in Harry’s life, and to quite a detriment, a major character dies in each book, which also promotes the belief that JR Rowling is a murderer.

In the novels, Dumbledore is the only person that seems unafraid of Voldemort, and it is only he, other than Harry, that Voldemort actually seems fearful of.  Dumbledore shows Harry that he has the power to be better than Voldemort, and for all the reasons that make Harry different and good.  In many ways, you could argue that Draco and Harry are a lot related in this respect.  If Draco had Dumbledore, instead of Snape, advising him, perhaps he would have gone down the path of light, instead of a path of darkness.

The reason I set Dumbledore in the middle of this list, almost, is because while he leads Harry to where he needs to be early in life, he seems to abandon him before the task is complete, not unlike Harry’s parents.  If Dumbledore had been more consistent, perhaps the endings in Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix could have been different.  Dumbledore does redeem himself somewhat in Half Blood Prince, but at that point it is indeed too late.

Harry Potter Top Ten List Part 6

With about 5 days to go, let’s get to the top five!  You can reference the rest of the list using the tags at the bottom for ‘harry potter.’

# 5 Least Favourite Character: Cho Chang

Cho Chang, I feel bad hating her, but much like Dean Thomas, she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  I also didn’t care for how they changed her in the movie.  In the book, she is not the one that betrays Dumbledore’s Army to Umbridge, but her friend.

In many ways, Cho was the girl Harry could never have, and ultimately wouldn’t be happy with.  I wonder if this wasn’t a commentary by JK Rowling about men going after things they think they want, and then realising that it isn’t what they thought it would be, perhaps I’m reading too much into it.

Cho is just a faceless character.  There is no meat to her, no drive to her, she’s 2-dimensional, at best.  Her purpose in the books were practically non-existent. She was just there to distract Harry?  And at that she was mediocre.  I could have done with less or no Cho Chang in the entire series.

# 5 Favourite Character: Remus Lupin

Who can’t look at David Thewlis and feel sympathy for Remus Lupin?  He is the perfect guy to garner sad looks and pity, and that is a lot of what Remus does.  But more than anything, he is the first real father-figure that Harry has, and one that knew Harry’s father well, to the very end.  Remus watches over Harry throughout Prisoner of Azkaban and supports him through the fifth book onwards, to his own death.

And it is Harry who, in some ways, makes Remus realise that he is being selfish when he wants to leave his child, making the kid the same as Harry.  Who knew that JK Rowling would end up making Teddy Lupin the same, an orphan almost as soon as he’s born?  I can’t say that I’m looking forward to seeing that this week, but I understand the importance of it.

Remus embodied the good that could be found for Harry, and he gave him hope and believed in him when most were looking at him as some sort of freak.  There are few people like Remus in the world, and for that, I give him my #5 slot on this list.