Television His Dark Materials

fishfingers15

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YESHHHHH, We'll GOOO for it.
Bloody brilliant if you ask me.

Don't understand why they have to show Boreal in different Oxford and introduce the Grumman backstory as it kind of takes away the pacing of the books but still, very well directed
 

Raees

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These are far too detailed. I have turned over for the last 2 episodes to avoid them.
Same. Another banger of an episode.. wish I could binge this, the weekly wait is killing me!
 

gulli_G

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I think its brilliant, very Harry Potter esque,not read the books.
 

sullydnl

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Bloody brilliant if you ask me.

Don't understand why they have to show Boreal in different Oxford and introduce the Grumman backstory as it kind of takes away the pacing of the books but still, very well directed
The books were able to hide a lot without being overly frustrating by sticking closely to Lyra's POV, so that the reader only knew what she knew. Whereas the TV show would struggle badly to keep such a tight focus on Lyra, not least due to practical restrictions on the amount of hours the actress playing Lyra can work. Once you have to feature the secondary characters more anyway it probably makes sense to introduce those stories earlier and build them up rather than coming up with entirely new material from scratch. Good adaptation choice, I think.

Similarly, I think it was wise to have it be 2019 in our world rather than keeping it in the 90's as in the book. Saves a lot of messing about with a different period setting.
 

Ubik

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The books were able to hide a lot without being overly frustrating by sticking closely to Lyra's POV, so that the reader only knew what she knew. Whereas the TV show would struggle badly to keep such a tight focus on Lyra, not least due to practical restrictions on the amount of hours the actress playing Lyra can work. Once you have to feature the secondary characters more anyway it probably makes sense to introduce those stories earlier and build them up rather than coming up with entirely new material from scratch. Good adaptation choice, I think.

Similarly, I think it was wise to have it be 2019 in our world rather than keeping it in the 90's as in the book. Saves a lot of messing about with a different period setting.
I think
a bigger reason is that they want to establish Will's story earlier, rather than beginning with the break-in and then explaining Boreal's relation to it later. I think it might've been better had they kept Boreal's dealings that we see in Lyra's world, without actually crossing over, then they could've had a double finale with him coming to our Oxford and Asriel in the north. But I'm sure they have their reasons.
 

sullydnl

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Really rather enjoying this. Not least because, basic a person that I am, I think bears in armour is fundamentally a good thing in any TV show.
 

Bilbo

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It is living up to expectations so far. Casting is excellent and Lyra isn't annoying which she could easily have been. My daughters have now started to read the books - anxious to find out what happens without having to wait for the next episode.
 

Redplane

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I'm purposely not reading all the comments here in case of spoilers but I need help finding my next one or two tv shows to watch:

-This show
-Altered Carbon
-Umbrella Academy
-Dark
-Watchmen

Please help!
 

dumbo

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Still going strong. Exceeding expectations. It looks great and I'm loving the character details, the wharf set was gorgeous.

The explanation of the armour actually made more sense to me in the show. The books made it metaphysically confusing to me (possible a misreading by me), with the one to one daemon parallel.

Have they omitted the Iorek Von Kleist speech, or does it come after leaving?
 

0le

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Did anyone else not really like the voice of the armoured bear?
 

NinjaFletch

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It's a real shame because I love the books, but I think I've lost it with the show.
 

NinjaFletch

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That is a shame. I'm increasingly impressed as the weeks go on.
Each to their own, but I'm really struggling with the decision to move the multiverse stuff forward in the story which I and think they've botched the daemons which has robbed us of two of the most impactful moments of the first book and caused all manner of pacing issues.
 

dumbo

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So darn good. There's a real emotional weight to it and the production design is immaculate. Surprisingly creepy in places. Liked the Will introduction, who I found a bore in the books comparative to Lyra.
 

sullydnl

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The decision to move the events of book two forward works for me.
 

rcoobc

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Loved the books

Don't think this is that good
 

Minkaro

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I'm enjoying it. Think James Cosmo deserves mention for his performance, he's absolutely nailed the two big emotional scenes he's had.
 

Amarsdd

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this is a weird one for me. I like the story material and such but the performances, compared to something like Watchmen, have been subpar more often than not.
 

sullydnl

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Seems to me the pretty witch lady could have handled all of that on her own.
 

harms

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Now that's what you call a cliffhang... and she's gone

Seems to me the pretty witch lady could have handled all of that on her own.
Yeah, she just decided to let the whole expedition to proceed and multiple men die because she was saving her deus ex machina moment. Weird.
 

Ubik

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That was a great final episode. That window was really crap.
 

Suv666

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Loved the books dont remember much tbh, the Daniel Craig movie was pure shit though
 

Suv666

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I'm purposely not reading all the comments here in case of spoilers but I need help finding my next one or two tv shows to watch:

-This show
-Altered Carbon
-Umbrella Academy
-Dark
-Watchmen

Please help!
Watchmen is amazing, not a big fan of Altered Carbon. Dark is very similar to Stranger Things but much much better. Instead of watching Umbrella go for Amazon's The Boys.
 

dumbo

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An excellent series, and at times the show elevated the text. It's the best looking fantasy work I've seen for a long time; richly textured photography and sublime creature animations. That bear scrap is one of the most well designed CGI scenes.

This is about where I began to lose patience with the books, so we'll see how that goes, but I'm in it for the duration based on the first season.
 

Achilles McCool

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So darn good. There's a real emotional weight to it and the production design is immaculate. Surprisingly creepy in places. Liked the Will introduction, who I found a bore in the books comparative to Lyra.
I agree with your opinion of Will’s character from the books. I’m really hoping that the writing lifts his performance.
Otherwise, I think BBC/HBO nailed the first season. Dafne Keen as Lyra (I wasn’t sold on this when details first came out, but X-23 played Silvertongue beautifully!) and Ruth Wilson were excellent casting choices!
I can’t wait for season 2, which I didn’t think I’d be saying when I first saw the trailer. I’m a book reader, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the writers/directors/actors achieve in S2!
 

Rooney in Paris

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Watched this over the past few days, I was confident having read @dumbo's comments here, and I wasn't disappointed. Just pure joy to watch, great casting, wonderful visual identity, creepy and scary in parts, and just very well put together. There were a couple of bold choices in terms of what they're showing vs the books (introducing Will so early on) but it worked pretty well.

Can't wait for season 2.
 

Fingeredmouse

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Watched this over the past few days, I was confident having read @dumbo's comments here, and I wasn't disappointed. Just pure joy to watch, great casting, wonderful visual identity, creepy and scary in parts, and just very well put together. There were a couple of bold choices in terms of what they're showing vs the books (introducing Will so early on) but it worked pretty well.

Can't wait for season 2.
It was a really great first series but it'll live or die on the chemistry between Lyra and Will. I hope they've got that right. Based on the evidence so far, I can only trust them.
 

Superunknown

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That's a great trailer for Season 2. I would say that overall The Subtle Knife is my favourite book out of the trilogy, so much of the content that I love the most should be making an appearance in Season 2. It all hinges on the chemistry between Lyra and Will, which has the potential to work, imo.

Really looking forward to this.
 

Snowjoe

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I loved these books when I was a kid but totally missed the first series. I watched the whole thing last night and really enjoyed it.

I have to say the casting didn’t match what was in my head as a kid but it was never going to, and actually I think the casting does work. I like Will too he doesn’t match the personality I had in my head but think he does work.
 

Andersons Dietician

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Lyanna Mormont vs Laura (project x) is the fight the world has been waiting for.

The kid playing William. He was in something I watched not long ago and was really good having not read the books interested to see where it goes.