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His Dark Materials Series


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55 minutes ago, Zorral said:

Whose, or who is, the cat in Will Perry and his mother's house?

It's been years since I read the books, and the reading progressively got like skimming as they went along.  Evidently teleologic issues as fiction don't work so well for me?

 

 

It is Will’s cat. We’ll see this week if the other cat shows up 

Spoiler

The stray who reveals the window, who he later saves from Angelica and the mob in Cittigazze, whom Lyra believes is his daemon

 

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13 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

Couldn't disagree more about the Will sections, I feel like they have been a real highlight of the season and I particularly like what they have done with Boreal. It helps that the actors for Will, his mother and Boreal are all doing some fine work 

I was a bit doubtful when we initially saw Lord Boreal crossing over so early in the season, but I think that storyline got stronger once Will himself was introduced and I don't feel it has been distracting from Lyra's story.

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1 hour ago, HelenaExMachina said:

It is Will’s cat. We’ll see this week if the other cat shows up 

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The stray who reveals the window, who he later saves from Angelica and the mob in Cittigazze, whom Lyra believes is his daemon

 

Is it a daemon?  I thought the daemon showed up later.

 

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46 minutes ago, HelenaExMachina said:

No

Why then did the house cat behave as it did just when it did?  This really confused me, and of course, it being a Cat, I mean, well, really, we Need to Know! Just because ... Cat!

 

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9 hours ago, Zorral said:

Why then did the house cat behave as it did just when it did?  This really confused me, and of course, it being a Cat, I mean, well, really, we Need to Know! Just because ... Cat!

 

Behaved as it did in what way? It was just behind the man's legs the way cats are always underfoot. Nothing unusual about it. 

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On 12/18/2019 at 12:35 PM, Ran said:

I just find it a bad adaptation choice. I've no problem with the performers at all, and Will's material could have been the focus of an entire episode rather than this bouncing back and forth, and still have been a highlight while not detracting from the other story. But mileage does vary, obviously.

I think the reason for the Will scenes is at least partly because the limits to the amount of hours children can work make it more expedient to get some of his stuff filmed in the first series.

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1 minute ago, john said:

I think the reason for the Will scenes is at least partly because the limits to the amount of hours children can work make it more expedient to get some of his stuff filmed in the first series.

I saw that explanation, and while it makes sense to me, if they just did 6 episodes rather than 8 they wouldn't have had the issue of needing him as filler to deal with Daphne Keen's limited availability. The pacing would have been improved a lot with two less episodes, IMO.

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15 minutes ago, Ran said:

I saw that explanation, and while it makes sense to me, if they just did 6 episodes rather than 8 they wouldn't have had the issue of needing him as filler to deal with Daphne Keen's limited availability. The pacing would have been improved a lot with two less episodes, IMO.

I was thinking more that looking ahead they would’ve foreseen problems with availability (for both kids) and tried to limit it by including his solo scenes earlier.

I agree that the show has too many superfluous scenes though.  Even if you exclude Will’s scenes, there’s still too little story for the number of minutes.

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I don’t mind Will’s scenes too much, although dragging them out has had the downside of making the guys trying to steal the letters look pretty dumb. They’ve spent days and days now watching a house with one mentally ill occupant during the day, in their super secret location of ‘half way down the drive in plain sight’, I’m not really sure if they’re supposed to be intimidating her? Or are they shooting for stealthy? Then they decide to break in to the house with no clue that they might be back any minute, and still fail to find the letters. Got your best men on the job there I see.

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To me it looked as though the cat specifically attacked the guy at just the right moment, flying at him. This was enforced for me by the yowling, the same sounds and register when a cat attacks something like a dog or another cat.

I do have pretty poor vision though.  But my hearing is very good!

Plus there were those multiple significant close-up shots of The Cat without even people in the frame, starting with the first and coerced entry of the Bad Guy into the house.

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4 minutes ago, Zorral said:

To me it looked as though the cat specifically attacked the guy at just the right moment, flying at him. This was enforced for me by the yowling, the same sounds and register when a cat attacks something like a dog or another cat.

Spoiler

I think all of that is deliberately foreshadowing the fact that Will's daemon [when he gets one] will settle as a cat, rather than indicating that this specific cat is a daemon.

 

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13 minutes ago, Ran said:
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I think all of that is deliberately foreshadowing the fact that Will's daemon [when he gets one] will settle as a cat, rather than indicating that this specific cat is a daemon.

 

OK.

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On 12/18/2019 at 10:25 AM, HelenaExMachina said:

Couldn't disagree more about the Will sections, I feel like they have been a real highlight of the season and I particularly like what they have done with Boreal. It helps that the actors for Will, his mother and Boreal are all doing some fine work 

Was gonna say if you compare the acting performances in both worlds for quality, I know which one comes out on top. If these were weak performances or if these were characters we didn't care about then, yes it might weaken the overall value of the show. I'm hugely into what is happening with Will's story. More so than in the books, even. That's down to the acting and directing.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm sad that we don't see more daemons, especially Pan and his interaction with Lyra (because I think it is key to the story). However, I am really impressed by the additional level of nuance and characterisation we get for Mrs Coulter from seeing her daemon's actions and appearances and how they react to each other. I find it mesmerising. It's possibly my favourite thing about the show.

Actually I was out with a friend tonight and they said they hadn't watched the show yet because they found Ruth Wilson weird and creepy in Luther... :rolleyes: I expressed my gigantic disappointment.

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4 hours ago, Zorral said:

To me it looked as though the cat specifically attacked the guy at just the right moment, flying at him. This was enforced for me by the yowling, the same sounds and register when a cat attacks something like a dog or another cat.

I do have pretty poor vision though.  But my hearing is very good!

Plus there were those multiple significant close-up shots of The Cat without even people in the frame, starting with the first and coerced entry of the Bad Guy into the house.

Cats tend to yowl when you step on them

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1 hour ago, Isis said:

Was gonna say if you compare the acting performances in both worlds for quality, I know which one comes out on top.

Will's actor has made no impact on me, Lord Boreal's good but became overbearingly obvious in his approach to Will's mother, his lackeys are colorless. The mother's the only one I'd consider exceptional. Whereas characters like Mrs. Coulter, Farder Coram, Serafina Pekkala, and Lyra tend to capture my interest (I do think Lin-Manuel Miranda is doing just _okay_ as Lee Scoresby) because of the performances. And I thought Iofur and Iorek have been very well voice acted.

But again, mileage, it does vary.

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1 hour ago, BigFatCoward said:

Has Ruth Wilson ever played a sympathetic character, and if so can she do it as well.  I only know her from HDM - terrifying, Luther - Batshit insane and the affair - creepy mental. All of which I found her amazing in.

Her character in The Affair is very sympathetic.  Even so, there's something about her on screen that I don't much care for, which makes no sense whatsoever, it's just a visceral thing, which is why we need lots of actors because none of them appeal to all of us.

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