Nostalgia is often seen as a positive emotion, but the word\u00a0actually derives\u00a0from the Greek\u00a0nostos, meaning \u2018homecoming\u2019,\u00a0and\u00a0algos, meaning \u2018pain\u2019.\u00a0Nostalgia is really a type of homesickness, an ache for something lost. As audiences watch the new trailer for the HBO\u00a0Harry Potter\u00a0television series, the\u00a0algos\u00a0may hit\u00a0pretty hard: those\u00a0tantalising\u00a0two minutes are the\u00a0reminder\u00a0we need that you\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0catch lightning in a bottle twice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The first thing you notice is simply how bad everything\u00a0looks.\u00a0Shows seem to have an obsession nowadays with making everything as dark as possible, so that you are constantly trying to adjust the light settings of your screen to see what\u2019s actually happening.\u00a0Even the\u00a0colours\u00a0of the recent\u00a0Wicked\u00a0films \u2013\u00a0an\u00a0emerald-saturated dreamland that changed the possibilities of film forever\u00a0\u2013 are as dull and dreary as dishwater.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a0colour\u00a0grading of Harry Potter the television series looks similarly awful. Everything looks sterile, washed-out, muted, as if we are watching a depressing crime documentary. Where is the\u00a0colour, the whimsy, the mischief? Where is, well, the magic?\u00a0<\/p>\n
What made the original films so special was how each one matured cinematically,\u00a0virtually in\u00a0rhythm with the performers and the audience: the films looked\u00a0more gloomy\u00a0as the material became more serious. There is no potential for development here: Harry already looks like he could be on the set of an anti-drug advert or a new series of\u00a0Adolescence. The darkness of it all \u2013 both literally and metaphorically \u2013 proves that the show is really for\u00a0infantilised\u00a0adults who\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0move on (sorry, magic-loving millennials) rather than actual children. And if it is not trying to appeal to a new audience, then what really is the point?\u00a0<\/p>\n
The show is also clearly caught in a creative chokehold. The series\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0deviate from the original film\u2019s aesthetics or details because they are so deeply embedded into the Harry Potter merchandising machine: even the set designs are shackled to the look of the Harry Potter theme parks. The whole thing therefore becomes\u00a0very\u00a0uncanny valley:\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0like watching a shot-for-shot video game remake where where they\u00a0couldn\u2019t\u00a0get the rights to the original actors\u2019 likenesses.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0weirdly unsettling \u2013 why does\u00a0Mr\u00a0Dursley look like Gary Oldman\u2019s Commissioner Gordon?\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0also deeply depressing because it hammers\u00a0home just how unoriginal\u00a0everything\u00a0we watch in Hollywood\u00a0(or at home)\u00a0really is.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Risk-averse studios assume that familiarity breeds anything but contempt and so we are now force-fed\u00a0a comfort-food diet of reboots, remakes, sequels,\u00a0spin-offs\u00a0and live-action adaptations. Studios are not just mining existing intellectual property but scraping the bottom of the barrel: this year alone we can expect 60 new additions to existing franchises, including a live-action\u00a0Moana\u00a0(there was a sequel only two years ago),\u00a0Toy Story 5, a remake of\u00a0The Mummy, another\u00a0Scary Movie and a new\u00a0Hunger Games\u00a0prequel.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Harry already looks like he could be on the set of an anti-drug advert or a new series of\u00a0Adolescence<\/p>\n
Of course, there is a financial logic in recycling already successful products, stories, and styles: in the 15 top-grossing films of all time, only two non-sequels make the list (Titanic\u00a0and\u00a0Avatar). Disney\u2019s sludgy,\u00a0creatively-lazy\u00a0\u2018live action\u2019 remakes of animated classics are both shockingly expensive and shockingly profitable:\u00a0The Lion King\u00a0(2019) cost more than $250 million to\u00a0make but\u00a0has since made more than\u00a0$1.6 billion\u00a0at the Box Office.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Harry Potter\u00a0television series will\u00a0probably follow\u00a0a similar trajectory. It may set a new record for being the most expensive television production ever (it is\u00a0rumoured\u00a0to be spending more than $100 million per episode, so you would think they could afford some better lighting) but I am sure it will make billions, no matter how creatively bereft it is. After all, the teaser racked up over 32 million views on Instagram within four hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The question is why this continuous (re)manufacture of memory works so well. Is it because audiences are desperate for escape,\u00a0comfort\u00a0and familiarity because of the dire state of the world beyond the cinema? Would a therapist say that in our anxious times, people are looking for a sense of control and emotional regulation? Is it because we want to try and recapture what it felt like to live in a more innocent, pre-smartphone era \u2013 as well as introduce that to our children?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Whatever the reason, the brand is so strong, and the Harry Potter following so devout, that the show could be AI\u00a0slop\u00a0and it would still go viral. The teaser tells you everything that is wrong about our current cultural moment, but also why it will still be a\u00a0stonking\u00a0success anyway \u2013 after all, who cares if\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0good, as long as\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0familiar?\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nostalgia is often seen as a positive emotion, but the word\u00a0actually derives\u00a0from the Greek\u00a0nostos, meaning \u2018homecoming\u2019,\u00a0and\u00a0algos, meaning \u2018pain\u2019.\u00a0Nostalgia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[93,61,60,270],"class_list":{"0":"post-374651","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}