Review: The Cursed Child

[author_by_night]

So no HUGE spoilers (except what I've spoiled tagged), but there is some commentary. (And there may be spoilers in the comments.) This is actually more positive than the brief review I gave the first few scenes.

Believe it or not, based on my initial assessment earlier, and the spoilers if you've read them, it's actually good.  Not the first part so much; in all honesty, I think it should've been one part. Then again, maybe it's different on stage than when you sit down and read it. Because TCC isn't a book, it's a play, and the rules are very different.

The plotline is most definitely crackalicious, and I'm leery about considering it canon. Maybe it's a different timeline. We'll go with that. But once you accept that it's... out there, it's enjoyable. Also, an aspect that made NO sense in the beginning

Amos asking Harry to bring back Cedric

is made clearer later on.

I do have quibbles, beyond the crackaliciousness.

- First, again, the first part was... really not that good, even allowing for a certain level of weirdness. But it wasn't even weird, that's the thing. The play actually got better when it got weird.

- I got the sense Albus was even a bit of an outcast to his siblings (or at least James) and defintely to his cousin Rose, which I had... trouble buying that Harry and Ginny would allow, as I said before. Or Ron and Hermione allowing Rose to judge Scorpius. Fighting, I can see, but making fun of him and shunning him for his House?  But then again,  the play wasn't really about the other Potter/Weasley kids. Honestly, very few canon characters show up, let alone next gen ones.

- Ginny really didn't feel like Ginny until towards the end. That was odd. I guess she's older now, but still.

- As much as the play focused on Albus, I found Scorpius's storyline more intriguing, as well as Scorpius as a character.

- So, Delphi.

Or, Voldemort's  daughter. That's... just a little overdone, Jo. I actually thought for a minute she was Bellatrix, who was calling Voldie her father because Bellatrix was delusional. I think that would've been better.  I wouldn't say Delphi was a Mary Sue, but...

Albus kissing Hermione while pretending to be Ron. Um. Okay.

- Totally biased, but... when they were talking about people beiing lost, I wanted a mention of Remus and Sirius. Sirius at the very least - Remus I can understand, but Sirius's death was the biggest failing on Harry's part, something that should still haunt him.  Not that it was really his fault, but Harry should feel that way. Yet IIRC he wasn't mentioned once.

- Some of the scriptwriting itself made me cringe. "This is a Spartacus moment." Are you kiddng me?!

- Oh, and

"Voldemort Day." That's a thing in one of the timelines. Meh.

So, the good stuff:

- I really did like Scorpius and Albus, and I'm glad JKR/John Tiffany/Jack Thorne didn't fall into the trap of repeating history, where Scorpius was sort of the Snape to Albus's Lily (oddly, Albus was closer to being the Snape in that equation if I were to insist on drawing a parallel), or worse, the Gellert to Albus II's Albus I. But the play avoiids that very well.

- Harry's character is good. He's an asshole at times, but let's face it, Harry's got issues.The "all was well" ending of DH really isn't refuted. I had a feeling that it would be more that dark things would creep up on everyone, and that's pretty much how it went down. There were times it didn't really feel like the Harry I'd followed before, but I've always found Harry a hard character to read anyway.

- For anyone worried about Ron/Hermione drama, there really isn't any. There's a tiny hint at a hiccup if you read it that way, but in the present,

and all alternate timelines,

they're very much in love. Although actually, going back to quibbles, one thing didn't work for me:Hermione being stoic and cold in one timeline because she and Ron never dated. Maybe I missed something, but that didn't make ANY sense to me whatsoever, especially as it had to do with the Yule Ball, which was way back in book four. (Actually, the idea that so much depended on Ron and Hermione's love made me wonder if the writers of the play weren't huge R/Hr shippers back in the day. There's NO question they ship it, that's for sure.)

- Rose's character being a little mean was a hard pill to swallow - until you consider that as kids, both Ron and Hermione could be very cruel. So it makes sense that Rose was flawed. I do still think it would've been better if we'd seen more layers of that, but again, you're more limited in a play, and the play wasn't really about the Next Gen kids except for Albus and Scorpius.

As far as the actual spoilers go... they're accurate to a point, but there were a lot of inaccuracies.  The spoilers I read, at least, really don't do much service to the play. Let's leave it at that.


Overall consensus: It's different than most Harry Potter works, and gets off to a bumpy start, but I enjoyed it.

Comments

[lyssa027.livejournal.com]

I read it, but I just didn't really enjoy it :/ It wasn't Harry Potter to me maybe because it was a play and not a novel

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Well, it's definitely very different from the books. It wasn't really canon for me.

Also, not everyone likes play format, so there is that.

[belleweather.livejournal.com]

I LOVED it. But a) I adore Draco and b) I saw the play, so I had the benefit of great acting as well as some amazing stagecraft to tell the story for me.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

I meant to add that it's a GREAT play for Draco fans. I'm not as big a Draco fan as you, but I appreciated seeing a different side of him. (I can imagine it resonates even more on stage.)

I do wish that we had met Astoria, though!

[ani-bester.livejournal.com]

i feel a bit more optomistic based in your review.
Voldie's daughter never worried me as much as the dynamics of the characters.

Maybe it has an unreliable narrator and so adults are oerhals a bit more standoff from.a child's POV than they really would be.

I still don't even have the book. We are waiting in it from amazon. As much fun as my husband and I had at the release party, we did not want to be obligated to being up till midnight with tiny Thomas.

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Yeah, be optimistic. :)

Cursed Child - Spoilers

[(Anonymous)]

Here from the SQ LJ.

The nostalgia, it kills me. Ten years later, and here I am, reading and writing about Harry Potter on LiveJournal again.

Anyway, I enjoyed your review.

I haven't read the play yet, but I have been obsessively reading spoilers here there and everywhere.

The plot, as you say, sounds cracktastic. But the bits of the banter that I've heard quoted have been pretty amusing. I wish that I could go and see it in London, since I'm sure it would be hugely entertaining on stage. And the actor who plays Ron is hot, which not a word I thought I'd ever associate with Ron Weasley.

I like the idea of an angry, troubled Harry, learning that "All Was Well" on the outside doesn't mean the inside has to fall in to line with it. The Dursley dreams/flashbacks sound rather OTT though. Very *Very* Fanfic. Ditto Delphi. I wrote a one page fanfic about her when I was thirteen. Then I got bored and stopped. She wasn't called Delphi then though!

I am also just waiting now for someone to write a fanfic in which Rodolphus suggests that Voldemort should sleep with his wife. Then I can die happy, or, at least, laughing.

Fenny/greenwoodside

Re: Cursed Child - Spoilers

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Oh, hi! *Waves* Long time, no see/post.


The nostalgia, it kills me. Ten years later, and here I am, reading and writing about Harry Potter on LiveJournal again.

I know, right?

Yeah, Delphi was a little bit fanficcy. I can forgive JKR (and the other guys) not realizing they'd invoked the biggest fanfic cliche of all Harry Potter history, but still. The delivery isn't so bad, though. Same with the Dursley flashbacks.

Re: Cursed Child - Spoilers

[(Anonymous)]

I'll just have to stop being a cheapskate and buy it. :)

Thanks again for the review. Now I just need to persuade some people to have a flame war about Scor/Albus vs Scor/Rose and I'll feel I never left the three year summer.

[iulia_linnea.livejournal.com]

If you enjoyed the play in spite of your reservations, it makes me think that I might be able to, as well. So far, all the other readers whose reviews I've read just flat out despise it, and I'd been thinking, well, perhaps I don't want to buy the book. Now, I think I might give it a go. :)

[eir-de-scania.livejournal.com]

I'm a bad person: I googled for spoilers some week ago and again a couple of days ago...

I don't want to read a theatre manuscript, but I still wanted to know what happened. ;-) Not that it is anything close to watching the play, of course!

Oh yes, the Three-Year-Summer anb the happy timea at SugarQuill... sweet memories!

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Hi! How are you doing?

Yup, lots of sweet memories. Except when it comes to the Snape Thread. ;)

[jobey-in-error.livejournal.com]

Oh, you did read the book. Sorry. Catching up on feed. :/

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

Not a problem!

[digthewriter]

Voldemort Day is totally going to be a theme* in some dark-fic fest and it would be interesting and twisted to see how it's celebrated with torture and stuff.... random.

Sorry to totally just jump in and say something random.


*eta

[flyingharmony.livejournal.com]

I agree with you on so many things there! Even though I didn't read all too much crack into it (mostly because I just see all those things that happened during time travel as the absurd consequences of the forbidden playing with time, aka one of the reasons WHY it's forbidden - because it just messes everything up entirely), but there was certain some of it xD.

I kind of believe that Amos was under a spell already when he asked Harry to bring back Cedric - no doubt, he is incredibly bitter and still grieving Cedric whether or not he's under magical influence, but why would he ask Harry that right in this moment and not way, way earlier? Pretty sure Delphi has her fingers in the game there - somehow.

Agreed that Ginny and Harry wouldn't allow the whole outcast thing to happen, but then I think that kids are pretty good at pretending - Rose said it herself, they're talking to each other just for the adults, so maybe they've found their tricks to actually hide what's going on and pretend it's nothing but sibling fighting? That's the impression I kind of got there...

Scorpius DEFINITELY was way more intriguing than Albus tbh. I would have loved to know more about him!

OH, DELPHI XD. I already somehow stated in my post that I have issues with Delphi, and yes she does feel a bit Mary Sue-ish, but generally... I still believe the whole Bella-Voldemort affair - Bellatrix WAS delusional, so I'm pretty sure she believed that Voldemort loved her and that she was carrying his love child, but Voldemort SURELY had other intentions there. I don't wanna clog your comment section rambling on about them, but I posted my theory about the whole thing in the comments of my own reaction post, if you're interested!

Albus kissing Hermione... Yeah, let's forget about that. OY WTF.

I WANTED MENTION OF REMUS AND SIRIUS TOO! I love Remus but am not that big of a fan of Sirius, but there NEEDED to be some mention of him... I'm surprised they didn't, especially because they brought back so many other characters...

Ughhhh, the Spartacus moment and generally other parts of the scriptwriting were the wooooorst. Threw me out of the concept SO HARD, because WTF? And let's rather not mention Voldemort day, because WTF AGAIN??

Agreed on Scorpius and Albus! It might be a bit of a cliché, but then at the same time, it would probably be more of a cliché if it weren't the case... I suppose they couldn't win with that, because people would complain either way, but I loved their friendship! It was so cute tbh.

Agreed on Harry - funny how I adore Harry Potter so beyond words but always disliked Harry, but grown-up!Harry was a LOT better. Yes, of course he has issues, but then who doesn't? I actually liked him in most parts.

Hermione being stoic and cold is what I lead back to the whole absurdity thing of the time travel consequences - she's not herself there, she's ENTIRELY DIFFERENt, because they're in a completely different universe. Funny enough, she was more of a Snape than Snape himself was lol.

TOTALLY AGREED ON ROSE TOO!

And I believe that judging the whole thing based on the spoilers alone is a mistake. I was sceptic myself and didn't even read all too many... People should only judge after actually reading the play - keeping in mind that it IS a play, of course... But yeah, judging by the spoilers is pretty much of a mistake, especially looking at WHAT leaked...

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

I kind of believe that Amos was under a spell already when he asked Harry to bring back Cedric - no doubt, he is incredibly bitter and still grieving Cedric whether or not he's under magical influence, but why would he ask Harry that right in this moment and not way, way earlier

Oh, that's what I was saying. I realize now it wasn't very clear. I was just trying to balance out the spoilery versus non-spoilery comments.


but then I think that kids are pretty good at pretending - Rose said it herself, they're talking to each other just for the adults,

That would make sense. After all, I knew kids in high school who were pros at pretending to be nice for the adults. And Rose does seem like the type of girl who both wants to be popular and wants the adults to think she's the sauce that makes everything awesome, so when their parents are around she's as sweet as pie. Which, again, seems OTT for Ron and Hermione's daughter, but then again, maybe she's turned out a bit like Percy in that way?

I actually think they were trying to make Hermione more of a McGongall. And JKR said Rose is supposed to just be a confident version of Hermione. So maybe they didn't realize how terrible their characters were acting?


As far as spoilers go, I don't blame JKR for #keepthesecrets at all, because if I'd been her, I would've been pretty pissed off, given that the spoilers seemed to want to make the play look like the worst thing ever. I mean... you can still think it IS the worst thing ever, but make that judgment based on reading the play. I avoided and even mocked so many things that I now love (including Harry Potter!) because of poor descriptions and/or because it just sounded stupid out of context to me.

I dunno, I'm actually a little disappointed by the fact that so much of the discussion (that I can find) seems based around the spoilers, not the play itself. I don't mind people not liking it, I've spoken with friends who HATED it, but they actually read the play and then decided to hate it.

[flyingharmony.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh, okay! That does make sense :D

Yeah, same here - I know those people too, and rose does seem a lot like them... I think she just went a bit wrong writing-wise (just like Snape's voice was a complete miss) and was pushed a bit too heavily into the extremes... Or she did turn out like Percy, that would make sense too!

UGH I KNOW RIGHT. I read some spoilers and I was SUPER sceptic (and partly super excited because of Bellamort), not only because I never really cared about NextGen at all, but i still was excited about the play, and I still turned out liking it a lot. I've had so many discussions with people who hate it based upon the spoilers and I've been trying to convince them to at least give the play a CHANCE (hell, you don't even have to finish it but just don't give something a stamp based upon spoilers) because it's just not fair.

I mean yes, the spoilers make it seem like the most terrible thing, but you gotta read the full thing before you can actually judge... As you said, people can dislike it all they want, I don't mind that either because of course this thing has issues, but basing their dislike upon the spoilers is not fair at all.

[lunabee34.livejournal.com]

I think I don't share most of your quibbles with it except that sometimes the stage direction did read a little weird.

I actually liked the version of Hermione that was so cold and mean. I can see that as an extrapolation of her character. She wasn't very well liked by the other students until Ron and Harry decided to defend her. She can be very strident and bossy, and I can see that if she ever got pushed out of that friend group (even just by default, by not wanting to hang around Ron all the time while he's dating someone else) that she'd be a loner and all her worst qualities would come to the fore.