Harry Potter & FRIENDS Reunions Prove New-Age Series Lack Quality To Stay Relevant For Decades

As the buzz around Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: The Return To Hogwarts lingers, it won¡¯t be wrong to say that the power of nostalgia remains unbeatable.

Come to think of it, be it the people of the wizarding world or our ¡®FRIENDS¡¯ from the late 90s -00s, these reunions weren¡¯t over-the-top or trying-too-hard-to-look-cool walk down memory lane. In fact, they were a simple sit across the table and reminisce about the golden moments kind.

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Series/shows are dime a dozen these days but have there been any that could skyrocket and become a phenomena like a Harry Potter or FRIENDS? Of course, the answer is subjective but we all know that none of the recent ones could even reach halfway. ( I would have included the beloved Game Of Thrones but after the finale hoopla most of us gave up!)

On one hand, we had a series like Harry Potter which had a humongous visual appeal along with fantabulous plotlines and on the other, we had a simple yet entertaining sitcom like FRIENDS which braved the storm for 10 long years and still left the audiences yearning for more for decades that followed.

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Was there a hit formula that the makers complied to? Well, it¡¯s difficult to say but what we do know is that it was a sort of an extraordinary connect that kept us hooked for life.

Taking a deeper dive into it, Harry Potter came into our lives in the year 1997 when author JK Rowling introduced us to the wizarding world with her first book 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'. It was much later in 2001, when we could visualise the story in the form of a movie that was the beginning of it all.

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20 years later, Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) and Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) sat down to talk about how it wasn¡¯t just the fans but even their life changed with this film series. The two-hour special showed us many facets and never-heard-before details, that most of us absorbed with disbelief and awe! Just when we thought there couldn¡¯t be any more detail that could take us by surprise, we were hit with several intricate ones.

Be it Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) and Emma Watson¡¯s cute crush-turned-friendship, Daniel Radcliffe¡¯s harmless inclination towards much-older Helena Bonham Carter aka Bellatrix Lestrange or behind-the-scenes bits of iconic moments, this ride was worth every penny. In fact, the reunion was so mind-boggling that it definitely warranted for a 70MM screening (Screw you, COVID).

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If you rewind a bit, the FRIENDS era was something that indulged everyone. Despite all its flaws, it made for good TV that helped in de-stressing and taking off our load. The entertainment that this show provided couldn¡¯t be contested.

Ross, Rachel, Monica, Chandler, Phoebe and Joey became an integral part of our lives and remained so even after the show ended. I can guarantee that anyone who has watched the show couldn¡¯t help but re-watch it over and over again. Many experts even concluded that this is one show that helped boost mental health and helped with anxiety. As revealed in the reunion, FRIENDS has been watched over 100 billion times across all platforms.

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The reunion special of our favourite sitcom was a grand celebration. From big names paying their tributes to the cast - David Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and Matthew Perry, Gunther¡¯s video call appearance (Who knew it would be his last! RIP) to revelations like Jen and David¡¯s off-screen attraction and LeBlanc dislocating his shoulder for real while filming, it was something that fans couldn¡¯t help but discuss for months.

If we were to derive a formula or state reasons for why these series will remain popular till eternity, it would have to be - cast, script and direction. Despite them being like chalk and cheese, the commonalities between these two super hit series have to be a good mix of the above three.

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In no way are we saying that the shows of the present lack in the above fields but the re-watchability factor is missing from most of them. While series like Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai (First season of course), Big Bang Theory, Sex And The City or How I Met Your Mother did come close, these two still couldn¡¯t be dethroned.

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While it could be blamed on the ¡®excess of everything is bad¡¯ logic thanks to a vast variety that OTTs have to offer nowadays and the diminishing attention spans of the audiences, the fact remains that we need the new-age makers to really step up their game and create stories that can be revisited over and over again.

(To read more such stories related to movies and shows releasing on OTTs, keep reading Indiatimes BINGE)