Spoilers His Dark Materials TV series

[N-121973]

I stand corrected, thanks.

dJE

There was also Serafina Pekkula's and Azrael's. I've been wondering whether its possible for someone to have a rhino, or a T-Rex or a large sea creature like a blue whale as a Daemon. And what if someone with arachnophobia had a spider for a daemon. I also wonder if people keep pets as it would seem redundant? Something I was curious about is whether in the scene where Mrs Coulter goes to the Magisterium and passes the guards on duty, all with black dogs is whether the dogs were CG or real?

On a more light-hearted note I wonder if Bruce Wayne would have a bat for a daemon, Peter Parker a spider, Scott Lang an ant etc?

Oh and spare a thought for the guy who played Harry Potter's cousin Dudley. Here he was flattened by an armoured bear in Norway whilst an hour later in The War of the Worlds on the same channel he was set on fire by a Martian war machine near London.

One last thing, was I the only one who when Lyra asked Iorek Byrnison about making new armour, this came into their head:

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[JD]

There was also Serafina Pekkulas and Azrael's. I've been wondering whether its possible for someone to have a rhino, or a T-Rex or a large sea creature like a blue whale as a Daemon.

It's been while since I read the books, but the biggest animal I remember for sure is Asreal's snow leopard.

And what if someone with arachnophobia had a spider for a daemon.

The daemons are based on your personality, so I'm pretty sure they wouldn't settle into something you are afraid of.

 

[diankra]

I stand corrected, thanks.

dJE

It's to do with the person, I guess. Coulter's daemon doesn't speak, which fits with her controlling personality.

If an arachnophobe's daemon settled as a spider I guess that would indicate intense self-loathing.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

As expected, we got an earlier introduction to Will and his struggles to take care of his ill mother while strange men are watching them. Not much happens with him in this episode other than laying down the groundwork of his story, although I do wish the episode hadn't immediately connected him to Lyra through the witches' prophecy (and I'm not even sure if he was actually part of Lyra's prophecy in the book). It feels like the show is robbing all of the mysteries and surprises of the books and I'm quite disappointed about that. Also, I'm pretty sure that the cat Will follows wasn't one that they owned but a stray (but then he and his mom didn't live in some fancy house either, so well).

I appreciate the the show didn't shy away from Billy's death and the nature of what caused it, although I am disappointed that the episode seriously truncated Lyra's visit at the abandoned fishing village. That whole sequence in the book was much eerier.

 

[DarthTimon]

Next week's episode appears to be the most grim one yet, if the preview is anything to go by.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Not surprising considering what we know what's coming...

 

[.:: TSN ::.]

...
Unfortunately, I think it's a budget thing like daemons missing for background characters.

They could have had background actors carry around stuffed animals. Cats, dogs, ferrets or owls. Maybe couple of snakes or lizards peeking around from inside their jackets in the cold weather. I would have been fine with that. Daemons don't need to be moving all the time. They don't all need to be real animals or cgi creations.

 

[auntiehill]

I am REALLY loving this show so far; even though I knew Billy's death was coming, it still made me tear up a bit.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

"What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to do what I do best: Cause chaos."

While the turn of events happen rapidly from Lyras capture at Bolvangar to hatching her escape plan, it was nonetheless cathartic to watch the Gyptians rescue the children. The major coincidence of their timely arrival at the same time as Lyra pulling the fire alarm and blowing up the cutter happens in the book, too, so I don't mind it here. However, what I didn't like was how Serafina was used as deus ex machina killing machine (not unlike the Army of the Dead in The Return of the King), especially since it was so unnecessary: In the book, Serafina leads the attack with her tribe, raining down arrows on the Tartars in the open area outside of Bolvangar. I guess they didn't that hear for budget reasons (the entirety of the fighting happened within the corridors instead), but it was still annoying.

Another thing that's been nagging at me: While Iorek mentioned his banishing from Svalbard, there hasn't been any discussion about his desire to return and dethrone Iofur. Perhaps I remembering the book incorrectly, but I seem to recall Lyra directly making some kind of deal where she would Iorek get his throne back in exchange for rescuing her father. Maybe that's something that happened later after Iofur rescues Lyra from the cliffghasts and Iorek follows to rescue her fr, but I could've sworn it was something discussed before leaving Bolvangar.

 

[Starkers]

Well I'm sticking with it, in part because what else is there to do on a Sunday evening, but also because every episode has something that piques my interest, but damn the pacing is glacial at times! Some shows suit the 1 hour format, some don't and I think this falls into the latter category. Maybe it doesn't help that I've never read the books?

The girl playing Lyra is a great lead, and Ruth Wilson's just wonderful.Lin-Manuel Miranda is such an engaging screen presence and armoured polar bear? Superb, I just wish it was a little pacier.

 

[Q2UnME]

Final, an episode with a good pace. After being stuck in first gear for what has seemed like an eternity, this episode hit the gas and got moving. Liked the escape and the balloon segment. Good episode!

 

[N-121973]

Well I'm sticking with it, in part because what else is there to do on a Sunday evening, but also because every episode has something that piques my interest, but damn the pacing is glacial at times! Some shows suit the 1 hour format, some don't and I think this falls into the latter category. Maybe it doesn't help that I've never read the books?

The girl playing Lyra is a great lead, and Ruth Wilson's just wonderful.Lin-Manuel Miranda is such an engaging screen presence and armoured polar bear? Superb, I just wish it was a little pacier.

Perhaps it should have been 6 rather than 8 episodes with all the stuff on 'our' Earth left out for the next season?

 

[diankra]

Perhaps it should have been 6 rather than 8 episodes with all the stuff on 'our' Earth left out for the next season?

That's how the books work. Suspect season two might have to be six episodes given a lot of its early chapters have been done in season one (sensibly, as otherwise season two wouldn't feature the established characters for several weeks).

 

[DigificWriter]

^ Season 2 consists of 8 episodes just like Season 1.

 

[Beagleman]

I don't have a problem with the pace, it's been ten years since I read the books and I love slowly rediscovering the world and all the plotpoints I had forgotten...

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Conversely, because I have read them relatively recently (a year ago after reading the first entry in The Book of Dust trilogy), I feel like it's moving too fast and skipping over important things and removing all of the mysteries along the way.

 

[777]

I am not a fan of the trend towards extremely shortened seasons. Really, 6 episodes??? May as well just make a standard long length movie then. I enjoy a series for letting you stay in the world you love for a long time, giving characters time to breath and grow and not rushing through plots and suspense. Why this sudden desire to rush through stories lately? I really miss 24 episode seasons.

 

[JD]

I have to question if you could really get 24 episodes out of 400ish pages novel, without making some massive changes, or adding a whole lot of filler.

 

[DonIago]

I don't necessarily mind filler if it's good filler.

...then there's "The Hobbit" movies, which could be debated endlessly...

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Now we know why we haven't been seeing much in the way of daemons this season: The CGI budget was largely used in this episode to fully render the panserbjørne and especially the fight between Iorek and Iofur. Not only did they feel real, they felt dangerously real. I felt the same fear as Lyra felt as she confronted Iofur and lied her way through her imprisonment and ensuring Iorek's safety. The fight felt dangerous between the two and, if I didn't know the outcome ahead of time, I would've genuinely felt fear for Iorek when Iofur initially knocked him down.

The Svalbard situation was the bulk of the episode and the episode was better for it. Will's and Mrs. Coulter's storylines were rather perfunctory, setting up for the finale. However...

Spoiler: The Subtle Knife

...I am disappointed that after the much-earlier introduction of the character, we didn't get to see him regularly spend time slipping away to Cittàgazze after following the cat. Instead, it feels like they've set up the episode for him to follow his father's lead with the letters. And even if he still does follow the cat (we keeping seeing one at his home but I'm pretty sure it was a stray in the book), it'll be a one and done and he just stays there until he meets Lyra. I suppose the first episode of the second season could cover several weeks of Will and Lyra exploring Cittàgazze separately before meeting each but that seems unlikely.

While I appreciate the show introducing Will earlier so as not to not be bogged down with exposition and excessive flashbacks when Will and Lyra meet, yet again I feel like that the show has once again gone out of its way to undercut all of the big mysteries from the books.

(I realize I haven't been careful with spoilers from the books for the non-readers, so I apologize for that and I hope I'll do better from here out)

That said, I loved how the final scene is played out. The right amount of weight is placed into Asriel's horror in seeing Lyra and deep relief in seeing Roger...