His Dark Materials Series

[dooog]

On 12/16/2019 at 1:44 AM, SpaceChampion said:

for reference:

 

 

Even though that one is closer to the book, I much preferred the show's version. It just looked and felt better, less like a computer game as with the above. Yeah they don't fight with armour, it's not a big deal. Same as with all the bears creepily clutching their fake daemons

[BigFatCoward]

7 hours ago, Zorral said:

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.

I only watched s1 but I didn't find her likeable at all. Each to their own. 

[Werthead]

23 hours 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.

I was looking at her resume and was startled to see that she was in the original Time Commanders, getting thousands of Roman soldiers killed.

[Ran]

28 minutes ago, Werthead said:

I was looking at her resume and was startled to see that she was in the original Time Commanders, getting thousands of Roman soldiers killed.

Oh my god, it's true. Hah.

 

[Martini Sigil]

22 hours ago, Zorral said:

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.

She reminds me of a Simpson's character. Don;t get me wrong, I think she's fantastic in this role.. but ,,,, um... the Simpsons. 

[Isis]

10 hours ago, Martini Sigil said:

She reminds me of a Simpson's character. Don;t get me wrong, I think she's fantastic in this role.. but ,,,, um... the Simpsons.

What?

[Spockydog]

20 minutes ago, Isis said:

What?

It's the mouth. 

[Zorral]

8 hours ago, Spockydog said:

It's the mouth. 

That overbite is really annoying if the viewer isn't one of those for whom it is really sexy.

[SpaceChampion]

3 hours ago, Zorral said:

That overbite is really annoying if the viewer isn't one of those for whom it is really sexy.

Orthodontosexuals?

[HexMachina]

Can we maybe stop piling on Ruth Wilson’s looks?

[Wall Flower]

7 minutes ago, HelenaExMachina said:

Can we maybe stop piling on Ruth Wilson’s looks?

Agreed! It seems a rather shallow reason for disliking a demonstrably talented (and attractive) actor. Personally, I like a little imperfection in my actors. It makes them seem a bit more human and individual.

[Zorral]

It isn't her looks that I find unappealing about her -- her appearance doesn't matter.  It's something from within as she inhabits her rolls that doesn't work for me.  I was thinking also just now that disliking her acting / as an actor for how she looks is just stupid, and certainly not the point -- and this reaction is as particular to the viewer -- we just don't all like the same people.

[Martini Sigil]

I think she's very attractive, and she's a terrific actor, She's excellent in this role, but she still reminds me of a Simpsons character... if that offends you, sorry... #notsorry  

[Zorral]

34 minutes ago, Martini Sigil said:

I think she's very attractive, and she's a terrific actor, She's excellent in this role, but she still reminds me of a Simpsons character... if that offends you, sorry... #notsorry  

Doesn't offend me in the least.  You're not alone in thinking that, and clearly for all the right reasons, because anyone can see she is a thoroughly professional, thoroughly skilled and even maybe, very skilled, actor. 

That I couldn't watch Luther had nothing to do with the actor.  It was the whole thing -- just too much for my wittle sensibilities for some reasons I can't even explain -- I mean, I love The Unforgotten and so on.  Though I did find The Fall rather too much, despite really liking Gillian Anderson, just like the first season of Happy Valley was too much for me to take. These would interfere with my sleep if I watched them

It's not about me anyway.    It's about you.  

[Krishtotter]

3 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

Can we maybe stop piling on Ruth Wilson’s looks?

Couldn't agree more, it looked like a pile-on to me as well. 

Ruth Wilson is easily the best thing about this adaption imho - I think her ability to convey the character of Mrs Coulter has been exceptional. Through her portrayal, I've discovered so many more layers to the character compared with her book version. A complicated and strangely relatable villain - despite her monstrous deeds, psychosis and undeniable wickedness. 

And she looks great in the role too, which is a plus but a very secondary consideration to her prodigious skill as an actress.

I think in particular of the scenes between her and Lyra in Bolvanger. I found them so powerful. The mother - daughter relationship was fascinating in the books but I'm finding it even more riveting on screen. 

Not every actor works for everyone, I'll concede (which is A-OK, Ann-Marie Duff's portrayal of Ma Costa personally hasn't worked for me) - but talking about her looking like a simpson's character or finding her alleged overbite (?) off-putting is just..... 

[Krishtotter]

On last week's episode though, the ending was so effectively delivered by McAvoy.

Any doubts I had about his portrayal of Lord Asriel in episode 1 - where I found him a tad too 'thespian' / over-dramatic at times - were fully allayed by his ability to convey creepy, dark-turn Asriel in that critical moment, which must have disturbed the hell out of unsuspecting viewers who had never read the books (and were thus expecting a loving father - daughter reunion type scenario, primed to think of Asriel - as Lyra herself naively did - as this paternalistic, idealistic and free-thinking uncle/father). 

Spoiler

Having not read the books since my early teens years (before the series aired), the scene reminded me of how much I despised Asriel as a character in the books. Pullman, of course, modelled him after Satan in Paradise Lost - an anti-hero willing to justify almost anything for the ostensibly greater good of freeing his world from the regressive shackles of the Magisterium and the multiverse from the cosmic theocracy of the Authority (the Abrahamic God). 

Mrs Coulter was an absolutely shitty mother and a callous sociopath to most people, but I actually think she loved Lyra far more - albeit in her own fucked-up way - than Asriel ever did, his greater presence in her earlier life notwithstanding. She rescues Lyra from Intercision at Bolvanger, she looks after Lyra in the cave in the Himalayas, and she fights desperately with Father MacPhail to make sure that his bomb doesn’t kill Lyra. In the end, she gives her own life to drag Metatron into the abyss for her daughter. 

Before that same end, when Asriel ultimately does sacrifice himself along with Coulter, I always felt he tended to see Lyra as either a hindrance or a means to an end (always so focused on the ideal, considering his daughter less important to it until he learns that she's the new prophesied Eve that can save the multiverse), whereas Coulter (despite doing some psycho shit like drugging her own daughter), always did seem to act to protect her in the end, out of some sense of maternal love.

Asriel's sacrifice of Lyra's best friend Roger was the pinnacle of unforgivableness and cruelty for me as a child reader. Coulter had kidnapped and had children's daemons cut away as part of her experimental theology to discover the source of sin, but Asriel's targeted murder of Lyra's closest friend in front of her always struck me as the absolute worst thing any father could possibly do to emotionally traumatise their own kid. It really was a horrific plot-twist for a children's / young adult novel. 

Coulter, to her credit, at least didn't stoop that low in relation to her own daughter. 

 

[HexMachina]

6 hours ago, Krishtotter said:

Couldn't agree more, it looked like a pile-on to me as well. 

Ruth Wilson is easily the best thing about this adaption imho - I think her ability to convey the character of Mrs Coulter has been exceptional. Through her portrayal, I've discovered so many more layers to the character compared with her book version. A complicated and strangely relatable villain - despite her monstrous deeds, psychosis and undeniable wickedness. 

And she looks great in the role too, which is a plus but a very secondary consideration to her prodigious skill as an actress.

I think in particular of the scenes between her and Lyra in Bolvanger. I found them so powerful. The mother - daughter relationship was fascinating in the books but I'm finding it even more riveting on screen. 

Not every actor works for everyone, I'll concede (which is A-OK, Ann-Marie Duff's portrayal of Ma Costa personally hasn't worked for me) - but talking about her looking like a simpson's character or finding her alleged overbite (?) off-putting is just..... 

Thank you, agree completely!

I can’t wait for the stuff in the Himalayas after seeing how Ruth Wilson and Dafne Keen pulled off their Bolvangar scenes.

We are also in agreement on Ann Marie Duff, though i thought she was brilliant in the reaction to Billy’s death.

Re: your second post, once again agree on the Asriel never loving Lyra stuff, and this is made pretty clear in the books too. Mrs Coulter actually calls out Asriel on this in TAS and he basically shrugs and goes yeah, true, so what? Coulter also never loved young Lyra in fact she resents her for the taint she puts on her) and only begins to take a real interest around the time she comes looking for her at Jordan College.

The whole dynamic is just great though, not just the relationship between Lyra and both parents, but also between Asriel and Coulter too. Is it hate? Love? Lust? Love of the power each one of them represents?

Its also quite sad that Asriel is the parent Lyra almost worships growing up and clearly thinks the world of. Even after Roger, she never exactly hates him or thinks of him with malice. Yet, like you, I consider hik just as if not more evil than Coulter.

 

TL;DR, Coulter and Asriel are brilliant characters and can’t wait to see more on screen

[HexMachina]

Loved it, think they nailed the finale. All the actors were fantastic, the daemons were excellent (Lyra and Roger’s daemon’s playing together was adorable!) visuals and music brilliant as ever.

The score over the end credits was pretty damn haunting and sad i must say.

Season 2 comes next year and I already can’t wait!

[williamjm]

14 minutes ago, HelenaExMachina said:

Loved it, think they nailed the finale. All the actors were fantastic, the daemons were excellent (Lyra and Roger’s daemon’s playing together was adorable!) visuals and music brilliant as ever.

I agree, I thought it was excellent and I think the show has gotten stronger as the season has gone on. It's a great relief to see the real end of the story on screen after the absurd way the film ended. I particularly like the scenes with Asriel and Lyra and the meeting between Asriel and Mrs Coulter. McAvoy did a good job of showing what Asriel's motivations were for going to such extreme lengths. I agree they made great use of the daemons, Pantalaimon looking mournfully for Roger's daemon in the cage was particularly effectively. Admittedly, Will wasn't given much to do this episode other than wander around Oxford but the decision to include him in season 1 does mean that we get the parallel scenes of Lyra and Will both stepping through to another world.

Season 2 comes next year and I already can’t wait!

I wonder if there's any change we get some news about season 3 at some point, since they do seem to be trying to minimise the gaps between shooting. Ratings in the UK seem to have been very good, although I don't know how well the show has done in other markets.

[Mladen]

Oh, boy... It was difficult... I knew what's coming and still... I am heartbroken... 

That said, Wilson and McAvoy were so perfect that I am having problems finding appropriate words to describe them. It's such a complex relationship and they both did wonders playing off of it. The two of them were easily the best casting choices for this series.

It was a good ride. It was getting better and better and it ended on a very dark note. I will miss the boy who played Roger because of all the cute child actors out there, he really takes the cake. Which is why his death was so horrible...