The actor who now plays Dumbledore has NONE of Richard Harris' kindness, thoughtfulness, or puckishness. He is completely without charm.
She also killed Sirius, and that was a blow.
Hey, ping to some HP news!
A couple interesting things that Rowling has done has been to teach a generation of children that there is evil (not just bad choices) in the world and that newspapers and politicians cannot be trusted to tell the truth, that they may have a personal agenda that distorts their perception.
And that some teachers cannot be trusted either and may be aligned with evil.
I never really cared for Sirius, and his character was never fully fleshed out. In fact I got annoyed with the way Harry got obsessed with him after his "death" (lamest killing of all time).
I think the series is great, but I wholly expect there to be some deaths. Somehow Snape is going to be the hero in the end.
When Michael Gambon replaced Harris, I liked him better. He was more animated, more emotional, more interesting. But then I hadn't read much. Now that I've read the 6, I am forced to agree. He's not a good Dumbledore. Rowling stresses over and over how calm and tranquil and almost unearthly Dumbledore is; Gambon doesn't get any of that.