His Dark Materials builds on Lyra's sense of adventure, but trips up on its plotting (newbies)
TV Reviews Recap
The perpetual problem with this show seems to be a sacrifice
of character development in favor of forward momentum. There’s so much that
works so well in this episode, but it’s hamstrung by the need to shift pieces around.
The death of Billy Costa is very affecting. We’ve spent the
last five episodes getting to know sweet Ma Costa, and there’s no way for the
death of a child not to be incredibly tragic. And Lyra’s bravery in the scene
where she goes to retrieve him is filmed in a way that makes it clear how
courageous she’s being. We’re being told that this person is extraordinary, and
watching her go forward when every instinct tells her not to is one of a few
signs this episode that she’s worthy of all the fuss.
But the thing that trips up the scene from really landing is
that the show is still struggling to make daemons seem as meaningful as we are
repeatedly told they are. The notion that it’s incredibly upsetting to see a
little boy without his daemon would work a lot better if we could see more
people react to its absence. And I’m not totally sure it’s possible for the
show to demonstrate how meaningful the presence of every daemon is in every
single scene. There isn’t a real world amalgam to what we’re supposed to
believe about these animals, and half the time I don’t even notice if the
animal is in the scene or not. There’s an unnerving dread we should experience
when Lyra finds poor Billy without Ratter that just isn’t there. It’s a scary
moment, but the scene ends very abruptly, and beyond Pantalaimon’s panicky
response, we don’t really get a sense of how creepy this is for Lyra. It’s
scarier to watch her approach him than it is once we find out what’s happened.
How did she get him out to Iorek? Did Iorek have a response to seeing a human
without a daemon? We get nothing until the gyptians respond to their return,
and even then, the tragedy of his obvious ill health is more impactful than the
absence of a daemon.
And then, strangely, the episode doesn’t end? The decision
to end it in the moment where Lyra, kidnapped AGAIN, realizes the same thing is
about to happen to her makes it seem like the entire preceding storyline of the
episode was created to make us afraid for Lyra. Wouldn’t it have been
more meaningful to let the episode end before then? Scary bad things are
important enough without underlining them by pointing out that they’re about to
happen to our protagonist. We know she’s going to make it out—she’s the hero.
It’s a totally unnecessary cliffhanger that proves a distraction from the
emotional intensity of the prior scenes.
Meanwhile, we’ve got Will, John Parry’s son. Wouldn’t Will’s
mother’s paranoia seem more concerning if we didn’t already know a bad guy has
been contacting her? Aren’t you supposed to build up the suspense of whether
the unwell person is making it all up before confirming that she’s not? She’s
right! People are following them!
The episode also suffers from the absence of Mrs. Coulter,
who has a habit of making the proceedings zip by a lot more effectively. Lord
Boreal’s slow burn rage just isn’t quite as compelling in a villain, somehow, and his
actions in our world are so meandering and odd that it’s hard to care that much
about him. It’s not the actor’s performance that is the problem. He’s
written so opaquely that there isn’t a lot to go on there, and right now, he’s
a more present villain than Mrs. Coulter. Because so much of what he’s doing is
a mystery to us, it’s that much harder to be invested in him threatening
various people in our world.
It all adds up to a bit of a mess, a prioritization of
mechanics over meaning. Why couldn’t these things have unspooled more naturally
than this? There’s a lot that really, really works in this episode, like Lyra
charming Iorek, or her bravery, or the pained reunion between Serafina and
Coram, but it all makes the parts that land flat all the more notable.
Stray observations
- “You’re not an easy man to like,” says Lyra to one of the most
beloved pop culture figures in America. - Is it just me, or did Boreal scowl extra hard when his
companion said “seems like a good kid”? - Tony is every teen asked to help with a chore, when he
absurdly tells his mother he’ll just burn dinner. - The show’s creative choice to show us what everyone sees
when Lyra works with the alethiometer is a mixed blessing. It makes their acceptance
of what she’s saying more meaningful, since we can see how little they have to
go on, but there’s not a lot of drama to the moment.
39 Comments
It all adds up to a bit of a mess.The show in a nutshell. I’ve tried reading the experts review to see why they gave a higher grade, but they seem more interested in discussing how the story differs from the books than what’s actually going on. Oh well. There are things I actually like about this show, but it’s missing heart, and all the dialog sounds like people giving speeches.
I got the feeling the script for this episode was a little short and they had to stretch. Two songs and the start of a storyline that would work best next week. Or next week had too much and they had to offload a bit early. Biggest thing I’m wondering is have we already seen or met Will’s father? And is Will important or his pops? I’m treating this season like some Stephen King novels, lots of character introduction setting the board for the actual story. I will definitely tune in for season two to see if they do that.
IMO book one is a bit of a slog and the second and third are what make the series great. Worth noting Will doesn’t actually show up until book two, so everything we’re seeing of him now is backstory (which I’m excited about).
Will’s father is the missing Arctic explorer mentioned in episode 1. He’s revealed to be from our world a little later (episode 3, I think?)
I have no idea why non-book readers are sticking with this show. It must be utterly impenetrable if you don’t already know who the characters are.
Naw, it’s pretty easy to follow I’ve found. Maybe a bit too easy, as it’s falling into the trap a bit of characters being lagging significantly behind where I’m at as the audience.
Yikes. I understand the grief and loss the showrunners felt they needed to show, but to have the mother lite the pyre of her dead son was tough to watch. I guess in a way it was beautiful and beautifully wrenching and possibly tradition with the Gyptians. That said if I was watching as a kid. That would have stayed with me.(I am quite impressed with the CGI of the bear. The movement of his body in particular)
And then, strangely, the episode doesn’t end? . . . It’s a totally unnecessary cliffhanger that proves a distraction from the emotional intensity of the prior scenes.Seconded. It seems like it would have worked far better as the pre-credits teaser opening of the next episode, rather than abruptly taking us out of the mood and location by thrusting us in another scenario that is somehow simultaneously very plot-heavy and yet doesn’t change the plot at all (as pointed out, we know our protagonist isn’t going to die here; and she’s now in a place she’ll have to escape or be rescued from, which is . . . the same place they’ve all been planning to rescue the kids from anyways).
I thought the good outweighed the so-so. My only mini-gripes were first, that the boxing ring bully was such a one-page dick-head. And second, why wouldn’t Ma ask Lyra in a panic, “Ask the alethiometer how to save Billy!” I mean, that’s ‘me-logic’ not the show’s, but I’d ask.
“Ask the alethiometer” is quickly becoming oracle-ex-machina.net. I now want to see famous scenes reworked with a character using the alethiometer.“I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.” “To be sure, ask the alethiometer!” “What’s Rosebud?” “Ask the alethiometer!” “Are we gonna need a bigger boat?” “Ask the alethiometer!” “Is this the cup of a carpenter?” “Ask the alethiometer!” “What’s in the box?” “Ask the alethiometer!”“Who ya gonna call?” “Ask the alethiometer!”“Who’s on first?” “Ask the alethiometer!”
“Let’s see. Skull … Christmas Present … Baseball”“It’s thinking. … … (sigh) … thinking.”“It says: Oz, Sled, yes, yes, head … Some sort of Spirit Capturing Service, and ‘What’s on Second.’”
By the way, Lyra now also sees things through the alethiometer? (“This is the place I saw”, she said, when looking at the fishing village). But if it can just conjure visions in the mind of the asker, why is the alethiometer still bothering with the arcane symbols?
Instead of ‘ask the ale’meter’ have ‘attack by brain eating zombies inserted instead.’
With respect to the the characters’ response to the absence of Billy’s daemon, he’s supposed to be pathetically clutching a dried fish from the shack they find him in.
Apparently this was filmed, but cut because “it didn’t work”. Looks like this decision and the lack of daemons falls squarely on producer Jane Tranter, who could not give away her obliviousness to the source material any further:“Every new daemon character is a butt-ton of cash,” executive producer Jane Tranter told RadioTimes.com.“But I think it’s a very happy union of being governed by spend, and having to make the most of the daemons we’ve got. I’d rather have quality than quantity of daemon form.”But there were also stylistic considerations to think about, with early tests where all the daemons were in shot sapping the energy of scenes and making for an overly “busy” atmosphere.“Literally I just sat with my head in my hands in the edit,” Tranter told us.“As wonderful as CGI is, when you have got these amazing actors and you cut away to a daemon – kind of like, one moving over to the other to show that it’s warming to it – the scene would just drop like a stone. And you’d think, ‘What are we doing?’“I mean literally, when we had rehearsals we had flying daemons in and out… the daemons were crawling over everything, every character’s daemon was marked. It was so noisy, we could hardly get onto the set for them,” Tranter recalled.
On one hand I feel for the difficulties of budget and directing scenes with that much ‘noise’ but, on the other hand, if the technology is not in place to affordably and effectively display an utterly vital part of the story you are trying to tell, well, maybe it isn’t time to be telling that story yet.
Honestly, her quotes make sense to me. It’s got to be a logistical nightmare, so they have to make some tough choices. As filmmakers it’s their prerogative. The problem is, these decisions can be short-sighted and end up hurting an episode like this one. I beginning to think animation is actually the best format for a story such as this. They can draw whatever they want.
I think I can fully understand the concern over a “busy” feeling of the scenes if all the daemons were constantly there. It’s a perfect example of something that works on the page but doesn’t translate to the screen, which makes me think these books, if one were to do them justice, should be considered unfilmable.
Odd then that the 12 year old movie managed to balance this perfectly.
It’s frustrating to read this quote and the simialr I have read and feel liek the imagination didn’t extend beyond a. do things in exactly the way they are on the page in the way that immediately occurs as literal or b. just dont’ bother.Like the daemons are not a failure of budget but of storytelling. Yes, if you couple every human actor in a show that you’ve shot like any other drama you are going to spend all of your money in half an episode only to end up with something that looks like Doctor Dolittle.So one works out what you can do with visual storytelling. How to actually solve the problem of ‘the most immediately obvious approach I thought of is too dear and looks bad’.Pullman didn’t just shove daemons into the book in a haphazard and cluttering way, he handled his medium, words, to create a sense of naturalness, history and logic to the idea. He was incredibly careful not to let it get distracting of bog things down. He understands as he has put it before, that you mustn’t ‘make the metafor do the work of a fact’.The TV adaptors come acorss like they’ve mistaken matafor – storytelling invention, idea shaped by one medium and available to shape differently for a different medium – as a fact. They talk about trying to put daemons on the screen and it not working like daemons are a real thing which cannot be altered to suit the storytelling.
And actually Pullman wrote daemons in such a way that there’s plenty of helpful stuff to steer a visual adaptor if only they are capable of investigating the text with much curiosity and intelligence. He drew on visual source material, like Holbein and Da Vinci portraits, for his sense of daemons. Pullman implies patterns to fill in a world by inference; he draws on a specific and rich seam of existing aesthethic and meaning (the daemon forms of Northern Lights draw almost exclusively on the imagery of Renaissance portraiture and heraldry) to help the reader fill in a rich world of meaning and history behind the sparse surface details etc.
But partly because of the availability of a certain kind of ‘photo-realism’ via CGI now, it feels like adaptors of story for screen have their imaginative engagement begin and end at “how many realistically textured animals can we have on screen per epsiode?”.
I knew there was something missing that had to do with a fish, and this was it. I was so disappointed by how they handled this scene — if we’d gotten something, anything from Billy, I think it would’ve made the whole thing more impactful then him being literally comatose.
As a newbie who has not read the books but understands the premise (and several book-related spoilers), I’m just really happy that they cast Dafne Keen as Lyra. She brings such a realistic look at a child who is just beginning to understand how complicated and awful adults are in her world. Oh and I absolutely love that the acceptance, empathy, and encouragement that she gets from Scorseby is everything she deserves but didn’t get from her ‘real’ father (it’s probably meant to be portrayed that way). He’s now her surrogate father and no one can tell me different. This is the one relationship I am truly looking forward to seeing develop on this show.
Is Will’s father McAvoy? … is that guy just laying seed wherever he goes? Do tell!It’s also nice to see prime minister Hugh Grant’s Chief of Staff back on screen as Will’s mom. Welcome back! … now, let’s fix the world, shall we?
No. And that’s not a spoiler – they said several times his father is John Parry.
I do recall. But I wasn’t sure if that wasn’t an alias or something. I haven’t read the books, ok?
We’ve seen him in a picture. He’s apparently played by Andrew Scott (of Sherlock and Fleabag’s fame).
Yes, thank you. Which I read in Entertainment Weekly not 2 hours after I posted my last comment. That should be fun!
i didn’t say “don’t you recall” or “Haven’t you read the books” or “what a dumb question” – no need to get defensive when you literally said “do tell” and i gave you a simple, direct answer.
Sorry! but when I heard “they said several times,” I think I heard my mother scolding.
Thank you! It took me half the episode to place her, but once I did I couldn’t wait to see if anyone else noticed! The Love Actually Prime Minister’s admin!!
I’m a broken record on the show’s misuse of the daemon’s at this point (though very validly so as this episode proves).So instead I’ll ask: With all the fanfare about bears and their armor why does Iorek immediately abandon it despite being about to ride into unknown danger? I even went back and rewatched the scenes to see if I missed something but it is never mentioned or commented on. If they didn’t want to deal with the CGI of it for the riding scene they could at least have given us a throwaway line to explain it ‘I’m entrusting my armor to you, Gyptians, as proof of my oath to return and fight beside you’ or somesuch. Just anything that would make the world building consistent. Also ‘bears cannot be tricked’ is rich coming from a bear we now know has been tricked at least twice.
Rendering metal armor like that (especially dull, not-really-reflective armor) should actually be dramatically easier than rendering his fur, so I can’t imagine that’s the explanation.It makes some minor sense for her being able to hang on, but surely they could have made it work with the armor too. And yeah, the lack of any dialogue about that seemed weird. Maybe it’s on the editing floor because they had a lot to fit in since they had a whole section of what should’ve been next week’s episode they wanted to get to at the end of this episode 😉
I just want to see how the bear puts it on
His armor is removed so he can travel more quickly (is what my husband told me was mentioned in the books). But yes, no reason to not mention that.
I love the books and am almost done with the newest one, the secret commonwealth, book two of the next trilogy. I am really enjoying the snow but am reluctant to tell new people to watch is as it may not make any sense to people who do not know the books.
I am tapping out after this episode. In my opinion, this show is just not very well done. I went into it with an open mind, and I do not care at all about the whole “religious” thing as I am not religious and actually would enjoy an anti-religious parable. But the show is a tonal mishmash, they tell rather than show almost everything, and I just do not get the whole daemon thing at all. At the start of this episode they again just show a boy (from our world?) and just announce he is important and like Lyra is some “chosen one”. However, five episodes in, I have no idea why Lyra is some prophetic chosen one. Good stories like Harry Potter or even Star Wars explain why the protagonist is important..here they just tell us. Why can she read the golden compass? no idea. Now they just drop another boy into the mix and announce he is a chosen one too! It just comes across as the plot demands it.The aeronaut guy seems like he came in from another show. Tonally, he is comic book-y and just clashes with what the tone was before, which was serious. It was all about kid stealing and pretty serious stuff, and all of a sudden this guy comes in like a winking Han Solo? Then they introduce witches and talking bears to all of this..because hey, why not?The daemons? Sorry, don’t get it. Five episodes in and I have zero idea what they “do”. Why do people even have them? It would seem to be a huge evolutionary disadvantage having some part of you encased in a weak animal that is easily killed and when it dies, kills you. They say it can not leave you or go far, so what is their deal? They never showed a daemon actually doing something a person could not do. I am just not getting it and not enthused.
I agree with some of the criticism here, but I would urge you to
continue watching as I can tell you now that there are things that will not
make sense even by the ending of season one, or two, but that the
story as a whole is so worth it.It runs the same way in the books – remember that this is
based on a trilogy and as such you’re not going to get answers to everything
straight away – or even not so straight away. But the culmination of everything
that happens truly does end in something spectacular – and if they pull it off
I will be highly impressed.Regarding how they don’t explain how/why Lyra is so
important – again you have to step back and look at the story in a
wider context and give it time to reveal itself to you. For now all you
really need to know is that the witches have a prophecy and there’s some
destiny that Lyra has to fulfill, but has to remain ignorant in doing it.Keep in mind how the story focuses on children on the cusp of
adolescence, a time of transition from the unconscious grace of
children to the consciousness of young adulthood – and that one
of the main focuses of the story is on the mystery of Dust, particles that have
something to do with consciousness. The question of consciousness is a vital
theme to this story. What it is and how it affects the world around us.I feel it’s important to remember that Phillip Pullman wrote
about some very deep, thought provoking questions about our realities and gave
it to us in the form of a children’s book. So if something doesn’t make sense
on the surface just think of it as an analogy to something in this
context. Like the issue of daemons, think of them as physical
manifestations of an aspect of ourselves, our consciousness. Something I must
point out is that people can survive without their daemons, as displayed by
Billy still being alive when Lyra found him, but that they are not fully there
any more, they are like ghosts – I think of it as kind of an lobotomy of the
soul. It’s actually the other way around where the daemon can’t survive without
their human providing them with a life source. Daemon’s
are something I feel that they haven’t done justice to in this series and
I fully understand if people are confused. Considering how important they are
to the story I don’t see how there was even a discussion about not having
them in the scenes. They really could have focused on the relationship between
human and daemon more, especially in the scenes leading up to finding Billy
without one so people could really feel the impact. I didn’t even notice Pan
when Lyra and Iorek were traveling together. If it didn’t work
aesthetically or budget wise, rethink it, rework it or do something other than
dialogue to try and convey the importance. (Side note – after reading
Pullman’s latest books where he explores the nature of daemons further – I
have to say I’m more confused now than I was before.)This is why I feel if people are going to make a
film/series from something that is anything but a surface story,
there really should be a disclaimer to say that a certain theme should be kept
in mind while watching. But I suppose that’s what these forums are for.The character of Lee (the aeronaut )- I am sad to say that I
agree and feel they missed the mark here with Hollywood’s incessant need
to add some form of comic relief to everything. And I’m doubly sad
about this because I’m in such awe of the brilliance of Lin Manuel Miranda
who plays him. The character in the books is a stoic westerner with a
rough hide and rougher charm. To me he always seemed to be some kind of mirror
of Iorek – these two dry, impenetrable veterans, and I always felt
that the two characters in a way are there to show you the power that one
child has in changing even the most stubborn of creatures.All this being said, I feel they are doing a decent job of the
series so far. I love the tone and the overall feel of the series, and I’m glad
that they’re laying out the foundations for season two so well – I don’t
feel it’s rushed at all and I think the introduction of Will’s character is progressing
quite naturally. If it had followed the books in this regard (where this other
world is not even mentioned until book two) I promise there would have
been an uproar of confusion and criticism.So, I’m looking forward to
seeing how they do, and I hope they don’t make the same mistake as the
film, where they lose sight of the true story in order to give us some amazing
graphics and action. The beauty of this trilogy is the depth of the story being
told, and that, more than anything, should always be in the forefront of
consideration.
Yeah, they’ve done a horrible job explaining the daemons. The daemon is the person’s soul. So whereas in our world, the soul is inside our bodies, in Lyra’s world, the soul is external, in the form of a daemon. That’s why they can’t go far away from you, and killing them kills you, and vice versa. In the books, when people in Lyra’s world speak, they usually use “we” instead of “I” for that reason. Like when Lyra left the Gyptians because the alethiometer told her about the “ghost” in the nearby town, she said, “we have to go” check it out. When she saw the boy separated from his daemon (in the books it was a different boy, not Billy), she clutched Pan close to her chest in horror because the idea of someone being separated from their daemon (their literal soul) was so unthinkable. They’ve done a terrible job showing the importance of daemons and their relationships with the humans they belong to.
I do agree with the criticisms raised here. The boy not having a daemon doesn’t feel like that big a deal to me, spending time with Crazy Mom was kind of exhausting, I missed Mrs Coulter, and the episode tacks on a cliffhanger it didn’t need to, undercutting an otherwise emotional ending. But damnit, I still I actually came away liking this episode. Thanks entirely Lyra. Every moment she shares with another character just captivates me. Dafne Keen is getting me through this weird show