And Harry Potter isn't children's books. The first two, maybe, but once you get past those you're into very adult themes, just using children as the characters to tell the stories. Besides, I don't think describing something as for children has to mean it has less intrinsic worth - there are good children's books and telly which are far higher quality than some adult's stuff.
Oh please, Harry Potter isn't
just just for kids, it's almost entirely "borrowed" (I want to say "stolen") from other kids books. I think it's great that it's got millions of children reading books again but, if it were actually targetted at adults, it would be considered dross.
Same for Dr Who. It's kids TV with a few adult references but it's kids TV . If it were targetted primarily at adults then it would be, quite rightly, panned, but, because it's a kids TV show (with a few adult references), adult critics cut it, quite rightly, some slack.
Dr Who is a kids TV show, it was in the 60's (when I first watched it), it was in the 70's (when the
REAL Dr Who, Tom Baker, starred) and it always has been. Nothing wrong with that but let's not confuse it with grown-up TV. The Daleks, the Cybermen, et al, should be scary. I'd understand a 9 year old being scared by the "Smiley Booth people" but surely no adult is scared by Dr Who "monsters".
Note. I actually did hide behind the sofa from the Daleks when I was 8 (literally, behind the sofa).
Next week, 39 years on, I'll probably just need a cushion, I've grown up you see.
Note. I live in Andover, home of "Stannah Stair Lifts", a division of "Dalek Invasion Solutions Corp."