His Dark Materials review: season 3 goes out with a bang
The show's final season on HBO Max is an epic reminder to be wary of institutions that claim to guide us
TV Reviews His Dark Materials
[Editor’s note: This review contains spoilers of His Dark Materials seasons one and two.]
War. Authoritarianism. Religious bigotry. Hearing those topics, you’d be hard-pressed to figure out if someone was talking about our current state of affairs or the final season of His Dark Materials on HBO Max. It’s no secret that novelist Phillip Pullman’s trilogy is known for commentary that has gotten it banned from U.S. schools. And while the first two seasons of this adaptation did certainly dip their toes into those waters (religious and otherwise), this third and final installment takes Pullman’s views and practically beats you over the head with them. Admittedly, it can make the show—one entrenched in fantasy with talks of dæmons, angels, and traveling across the multiverse, but rooted in the notions of faith and love—feel a bit on the nose this time around. But it’s a quality sendoff nonetheless.
When we last saw Will (Amir Wilson) and Lyra (Dafne Keen) at the end of the second season, they’d been separated. Will went off to find his dad, John Parry (Andrew Scott), who instructed him to find and join Lord Asriel (James McAvoy) and his army. Unfortunately, their father-son reunion was cut short when John was killed, leaving Will once again without a parent to guide him. To make matters worse, while he was gone, Lyra’s mother, Mrs. Coulter (Ruth Wilson), found and kidnapped her. And in the final scene of the season, Asriel was speaking directly to the angels, pleading for them to join his fight against the Authority, which they agreed to do.
Cut to this final season, which puts a stronger emphasis on angels, heaven, and the freedom of choice than we’ve seen so far. It builds on the idea that the Authority has created an institution across all the worlds, intent on manipulating humans into thinking that they are serving not just some random angel but the creator of all living things. Sounds familiar, no? Especially with the Magisterium’s belief that Lyra is the reincarnation of Eve, the mother of all sin, it’s practically impossible to ignore what the series is trying to say about religious righteousness and the guise of doing evil things “for the greater good.” In short, the show spends a ton of time exploring this idea, especially when compared to past installments.
What’s more, with the deaths of John Parry and (thankfully) Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Lee Scoresby at the end of last season, His Dark Materials season three thrives by focusing more on its central characters. We would have liked more witches—Ruta Gedmintas’ Serafina Pekkala simply does not get enough screen time this season—but by spending so much of the season on Will and Lyra’s battle against the Authority, the show neatly builds to an epic finale. It’s a culmination of everything we’ve seen so far: travel between worlds, dust, dæmons, and angels, all wrapped in a tiny little bow and covered in allegory.
And what we appreciate most about this season isn’t just that it reminds us to be wary of the institutions that claim to guide us. It also positions queerness as a tool that serves a greater purpose; it’s not something to shy away from but the very thing that can help humanity better itself. Obviously, we can’t detail what we mean by this (and we can only assume readers of the novel might know what we’re getting at), but to see queer characters propel a story that’s so heavy with religious allegory is pretty remarkable. There’s a particularly poignant moment when a character says, “you who judge are just afraid,” and we’re sure it will resonate with many long after the final credits roll.
Performance-wise, Amir Wilson and Keen are killer. We were a tad concerned about what the length of time between filming seasons two and three would do as far as how quickly they both grew up, but their aging works here, and the two have a solid chemistry. As for McAvoy and Ruth Wilson, both actors are afforded the chance to play with delicious moments as parents, ex-lovers, and warriors, and deliver.
This last batch of episodes is poetic, heavy with heart and soul, and provides a satisfying conclusion to a story that’s been (mostly) a joy to watch unfold. And it stays true to what unfortunately made Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy controversial in the first place—that is, that it drives home the theme to hold onto the people we love and who they are, and screw the institutions that tell us how to think or feel.
His Dark Materials season three premieres December 5 on HBO Max.
32 Comments
Been looking forward to Season 3 for some time now. The production is lavish with every budget dollar on screen and everyone is great in their respective roles, especially Ruth Wilson playing the type of role she excels at…slightly unhinged, self centered, ruthless (no pun) villian. Getting this and S4 of Doom Patrol in the same week is like an early Xmas gift.Now when can we expect the back half of The Nevers S1 and it’s (probably doomed) announcement of Season 2?
This and The Nevers were two shows that, while not stupendously good, I enjoyed watching very much. Don’t mind that this is the last season of HDM, but really looking forward to it.
Just gotta catch up on Doom Patrol now!
Don’t like it too much, they’ll cancel it. LOL!
I actually hate myself a bit for both watching the Nevers and thinking it is stupendously good and probably won’t be as good if it were to continue (for obvious reasons). It’s a show I can’t help but champion
I feel the trailer don’t have enough daemons. And I guess with the storyline they are doing, that will be even more true in season 3.
I guess I somehow managed to totally miss Season 2?
During her search for a kidnapped friend, a seemingly ordinary but
brave young woman from another world uncovers a sinister plot involving
stolen children and a mysterious phenomenon called Dust.
So it’s basically a live action Isekai?
No reincarnation into a sexually irresistible uber-mage/slime/vending machine, no sale.(it’s a shame how loaded the term isekai has become; Japanese anime/manga/novels has a fine tradition of good portal fantasies that has been erased post-Reki Kawahara. His Dark Materials is almost inarguably a portal fantasy – albeit something of a reverse one, if you’re reading the novels – but I’d be damned if I’d call it an isekai.)
How much bear?
Whenever the armored bear isn’t onscreen and mauling people, everyone should be asking “where’s the armored bear and why isn’t he mauling people?”
Cocaine Bear has taken away some of Yorick’s limelight.
Oh my god bear is driving (viewers to this show)
But is he coked out of his mind while doing so, is the question…?
Looking forward to this. Season 1 was not great, unfocussed, annoying characters. Season 2 was excellent — some sort of alchemy happened, and it became hugely enjoyable.
I keep meaning to get started watching this show. I absolutely love the books – does it follow them at all closely?
Plot wise they do stick pretty close, but it loses a lot of the heart and a LOT of the (ahem) skepticism of religion. I heard at some point that the showrunner has never read the books.
Ridiculous hearsay. Clearly that isn’t true.
How can those books be adapted without the… Let’s say “criticism” of organized religion? I mean… Half the catalyst for the events is that.
It’s there for sure but it’s very much softened. I hope it comes through stronger this season.
Not knowing anything about the development of the third season, I’m most interested in how the world of the mulefa is handled, because they are so integral to the third book. The entire idea of the mulefa and they way their bodies are designed is fascinating.
I’ve not bothered watching this show at all – I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the books and thought the movie was pretty great – and was not confident that it would survive until the end but now that I know the Mulefa do make an appearance I will be watching the whole thing! (I’m also a cycling tragic)
I just Googled this – there are a couple of screenshots of the mulefa out there, and they look pretty good. But, maddeningly, none of them show their feet/wheels.
this series has had a LOT of problems, most of them to do with Will. I hope that the time between seasons has made his age difference with Dafne Keen less disturbing, particularly given what happens in the third book.
They are… 1 year apart (Amir is 18 and Dafne is 17). Character issues may be one thing, but age difference between the actors is not the problem here.
He’s only a year older than her.
What are you even talking about
If this good show was on Netflix, it would take them at least six years to release three seasons. Too bad it ends soon. I have enjoyed it quite a lot.
What of the Mulefa?
Maybe we need a “for experts” version of this review like the old AV Club used to do for the Game of Thrones review, because man, the plot of the third book……so……many……spoilers……really, stop reading if you care… …is not quite “the Authority has created an institution across all the worlds, intent on manipulating humans into thinking that they are serving not just some random angel but the creator of all living things” — the relationship between the senile god and the Metatron is not fully sketched out but it’s very clearly god and Asriel’s plan is quite literally to attack and dethrone god as the saying goes, and he succeeds (well, he and Coulter kill the Metatron; Lyra accidentally kills God) and the first two seasons really did their best to tapdance around that aspect of the plot so I’m very curious how they decided to handle it here.
I am happy to hear that they more or less “went there”, as the book series does. To think that they were going to attempt a movie trilogy seems so naive now.
I really enjoyed the show, but DUDE it ends on such a depressing note.
I just finished the final season (unless they do the follow up series, I only just found out that Lyra is in the second book of the Book of Dust series)…SPOILERS: 1) there isn’t an amber spyglass as such, kind of a spypane…sort of an odd thing to leave out; 2) apparently even the mild sexuality of Lyra’s awakening during Marzipan was cut from the US version of the book (shades of Anne Frank’s diary), but you get the idea; 3) they really do not explain if the Authority was God or just another angel as they have said, and they sure do not make clear that it was an oops moment when Lyra and Will accidentally kill him (or even if that’s what happens); 4) some odd comic book moments with Mrs. Coulter blasting the specters and Asriel’s Star Wars ship, and unexplained moments (why does that angel die after killing the bad guy’s daemon? Mrs. Coulter’s underwhelming escape plan); 5) dear sweet lord Ruta Gedmintas is attractive (apparently she played Laura Fraser’s lover in a Brit TV show, I’ll be in my bunk); 6) kind of fun to have Dafne Keen’s father as the head of the Magesterium trying to hunt her down; 7) oy I did cry at the ending.Overall it is far improved from the first two seasons, and Will doesn’t shout petulantly in every scene–he seems to have grown up thank god. The CGI is great, especially the elephunks, and Dafne Keen sure is a star, I look forward to seeing her in the Star Wars she’s doing next.