FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM (Rated PG-13)

Never let an opportunity for a good franchise go to waste. That easily could be the motivation for “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling to team up with Warner Bros. for a new cinematic direction in the Wizarding World.

Unlike the “Harry Potter” films, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” takes us to 1926 New York, where British magizoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) arrives in the big city near the end of a global excursion to research and rescue magical creatures.

A magizoologist is someone who studies magical creatures, and of course, this sort of profession only exists in the fantasy world created by J.K. Rowling, and Newt is a textbook example.

In fact, Newt is readying his research for a Hogwarts textbook that shares the name of this movie, a learning tool that would prove magical for the generation of students familiar to us from “Harry Potter.”

The good thing about “Fantastic Beasts” is that knowledge of the “Harry Potter” universe, which can prove confusing to more casual viewers, is not a necessary predicate to appreciating what could be considered the prequel to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Carrying an old leather case that is the portal to a world of magical creatures, Newt finds himself in a precarious position after an encounter with Jacob the baker (Dan Fogler), an unsuspecting No-Maj (American term for Muggle).

Inadvertently setting free some of Newt’s beasts, Jacob threatens to expose the wizarding community to security officers as well as a fanatical faction bent on eliminating the wizards targeted by groups wishing to revive the Salem witch trials.

Since the potential disaster of escaped beasts is a serious breach of the Statue of Secrecy, the former Auror Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston) jumps on the case, eager to reclaim her post as an investigator.

However, things take an ominous turn when Newt, as well as Tina, gains the unwanted attention of Percival Graves (Colin Farrell), the enigmatic Director of Security at the Magical Congress of the United States (MACUSA).

Joined by Tina’s sister Queenie (Alison Sudol), Newt, Jacob and Tina form an alliance to track down the menagerie of escaped strange creatures, from the mischievous Niffler (that looks a platypus) to the Thunderbird, a regal avian creature native to the arid climate of Arizona.

The hunt for the magical creatures is the most agreeable moment of the film, but larger issues loom with the appearance of Johnny Depp as the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald, the epitome of evil.

Since four more movies are apparently planned, it’s likely many of the characters will be fleshed out over time. In the meantime, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” satisfies an audience ready for the fantasy realm.

TV Corner: 'Good Behavior' on TNT cable network

Fans of the high-brow PBS series “Downton Abbey” may be curious about Michelle Dockery’s transition from upper class Brit to trailer park white trash from North Carolina in TNT’s new series “Good Behavior.”

Dockery’s Letty Raines has recently been released from prison for good behavior, which given her almost immediate recidivism to the life of con artist and thief seems like a gross error by the parole board.

Her attempts to go straight last only briefly as she is quickly fired from a waitress job at a greasy diner after having to fight back against a customer who apparently thought sexual assault was a menu item.

“Good Behavior” is a dark thriller about the conduct of a tortured soul who has no capacity to remain virtuous or to suppress her addictions to alcohol and drugs, even though she is devoted to listening to self-help tapes.

A consummate scammer, Letty is soon hooked up with a dishonest desk clerk at a posh resort to steal from hotel rooms. All goes well until she gets trapped in the closet of resort guest Javier (Juan Diego Botto) and overhears a criminal plot that crosses her minimal standards of propriety.

It turns out that Javier is a hired assassin who entertains a male client’s wish for the contract killing of his wife. Letty takes it upon herself to warn the woman of the immediate danger, knowing full well the details of the scheme.

Things get unnecessarily complicated and messy when Letty sets up an encounter with Javier in the hotel bar, only to turn around a day later to thwart the despicable strategy of killing a clueless housewife.

Other aspects of Letty’s muddled state of mind include a fervent desire to reconnect with her estranged son that is in the custody of her mother Estelle (Lusia Strus), who is resentful of her daughter’s wild ways.

Using guile and flattery, Letty evades the constant mandatory check-ins with her parole officer Christian (Terry Kinney), who is struggling with his own demons such that his emotional connection to his parolee threatens his ability to do his job.

The dark tone of “Good Behavior” settles in with Letty’s collision course with the killer, when both of them get entangled in a dangerous relationship that results in Letty’s entrapment by Javier’s compulsive acts.

Only a few episodes into TNT’s seductive thriller, one gets the sense the plot could take some weird twists given that show creators Chad Hodge and Blake Crouch also developed the strange TV series “Wayward Pines.”

For a show that could prove wayward in its direction, Michelle Dockery delivers a femme fatale sensibility reminiscent of the heyday of film noir.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.