Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two

felicisowl - "Be honest to those you love, show your pain. To suffer is as human as to breathe.” Nineteen years after the defeat of the Dark Lord, the Wizarding World still isn't perfect. But Harry Potter's middle child, Albus Severus, has bigger problems - especially after the Sorting Hat places him in the poster House for evil: Slytherin. Regarded as a disappointment by his peers and shunned unintentionally by his shell-shocked family, Albus can only find solace in his only friend, Scorpius Malfoy.. who is rumored to be the son of Voldemort, his father's greatest enemy. But Albus' frustration with his father finally boils over when he overhears Amos Diggory, now an old man, begging for him to use a Time-Turner to bring his son, Cedric, back to life - and Harry refuses. With a reluctant Scorpius and Amos' "niece", Delphi, with him every step of the way, Albus embarks on a perilous quest to reverse time and save Cedric from his undeserved death in the Triwizard Tournament.. but at what cost? Maybe "it's time that time-turning became a thing of the past." No lie - if J. K. Rowling was at the helm of this script, it would have been absolutely spectacular.. but she wasn't. Instead, she was pushed to the sidelines, with the writers of this script stringing unrelated concepts together, trying to create something vaguely resembling the wonderful "Harry Potter" series - and instead, failing miserably. It felt like a fanfiction, and while the writers were obviously trying to please dedicated fans, they ended up attracting more haters than new Potterheads. The formerly beloved characters are completely out-of-whack - they almost have no resemblance to the characters in the series, at all.. especially Harry Potter himself, now an uncaring father who has no patience for anyone even SLIGHTLY different from him, even his own son. It breaks my heart, as a Potterhead, to see bratty Harry (used affectionately, I swear!) turn into a cold, uncaring father, who, after all he's been through, can't see past Albus' differences. IT'S NOT HIM. The plot is weak, with so many plotholes I can't even cover them all - and besides, the whole premise of the script is questionable. Both the Time-Turner and the Cedric's death plotline should have been closed by the end of the seventh book, it's pretty futile to try to bring it back again, instead of opening a new, much more interesting plot. One of the only points in the script I actually appreciated was Albus and Scorpius' friendship - incredibly sweet and I'm glad that it was a powerful element in the story - and.. well, as a Potterhead, even if they're totally exaggerated and not true to themselves, I have to admit, I'm glad to see the gang back together again. Overall, 'The Cursed Child' didn't feel like a classic Rowling - and it wasn't! - and it doesn't even deserve to be marketed as the grand new addition to the Harry Potter fandom.