His Dark Materials Series

[Isis]

Wevs <-- discussion of Ruth Wilson's appearance

Anyway. I was pretty satisfied overall with that adaptation. There was some better work with the daemons in this episode - in terms of them provoking an emotional response and being more interactive with their people. All the performances were good and I am excited for season two. What a long wait ahead of us.

I especially liked the bit at the end where the cat meowed but it sounded like it said 'Will'. Cats do sound like they're talking sometimes.

[HexMachina]

9 hours ago, Isis said:

Wevs.

Anyway. I was pretty satisfied overall with that adaptation. There was some better work with the daemons in this episode - in terms of them provoking an emotional response and being more interactive with their people. All the performances were good and I am excited for season two. What a long wait ahead of us.

I especially liked the bit at the end where the cat meowed but it sounded like it said 'Will'. Cats do sound like they're talking sometimes.

So glad you said that about the cat because i heard it too and thoght i was going a bit potty.

just think of the wait comparative to other shows and it doesnt seem so bad

[dog-days]

Watched the finale last night and was really impressed - it finally seemed to do everything right. No gripes. Adored the episode from start to finish.

It's a bit lame to mention this after all the great comments here, but Amir Wilson (Will) is one to watch. He's got the ability, and in a few years' time he'll have the looks for either leading man or character roles as he pleases. Hope he carries on being in things I want to see!

[Stannis Eats No Peaches]

I thought it was great, but curious that Will’s age was confirmed as 15. I’d have thought that was too old. Was he going through the same window as Boreal at the end? It was in the same place but in the book

the window takes him to Citagazze, not Lyra’s world.

[williamjm]

21 minutes ago, Stannis Eats No Peaches said:

I thought it was great, but curious that Will’s age was confirmed as 15. I’d have thought that was too old. Was he going through the same window as Boreal at the end? It was in the same place but in the book

  Reveal hidden contents

the window takes him to Citagazze, not Lyra’s world.

 

I also thought it was the same window, although I could be wrong about that. It is a good point, I guess we'll have to wait to see where he ends up.

[HexMachina]

I thought it was the same window too. Speculation

In the books Asriel’s method of tearing open a window had changed things massively so that windows no longer opened where they once did (by which i think it was meant that a window in, say, Oxford, might now be in Glasgow). They could play around with that and say Asriel tearing a hole from Lyra’s world to Citigazze caused several other windows to shift and open there.

Alternatively, and far more likely imo, the window already led to Citigazze, and another window somewhere in Citigazze leads to Lyra’s world (Citigazze is after all referred to as something of a crossroads world). Spectres always existed there but only caused the Orphan towns problem after Asriel rips opens the window, so you can have Boreal safely passing through until recent events. He could be our intro to spectres even as he tries to go from one Oxford to another and encounters them. 

[BigFatCoward]

Just got around to watching last episode. Was pretty much perfect for me. Other than inept policeman in tv number 8564475. Circulating someone without description but on name. 

[john]

Thought the finale was more of a whimper than a bang.  It was much more interested in the admittedly fascinating relationship between Asriel and Coulter than it was in the actual stakes of the story.  Dust, original sin, crossing the multiverse, those should have been more awe inspiring.  It was like an afterthought, Lyra decides that since she couldn’t protect Roger she should protect Dust (?).  And nothing else interesting happened, Will wandered through a portal.  They shot at some bears (why not just fly over them?).  None of the other cool characters even featured, except Byrnison.  Should have smashed the whole thing down to five or maximum six episodes, IMO.

4 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

Just got around to watching last episode. Was pretty much perfect for me. Other than inept policeman in tv number 8564475. Circulating someone without description but on name. 

I was surprised he announced he was a Detective Inspector.  Do they often spend their time sitting in cars watching houses? Then he also announced Will was fifteen, which threw me as well.  Are they going to do a romance between a 15 year old and a 12 year old (albeit a giant 12 year old)?  And why is Will’s “daemon” not fixed yet then, the Costa kid must be around that age.

[HexMachina]

1 hour ago, john said:

Thought the finale was more of a whimper than a bang.  It was much more interested in the admittedly fascinating relationship between Asriel and Coulter than it was in the actual stakes of the story.  Dust, original sin, crossing the multiverse, those should have been more awe inspiring.  It was like an afterthought, Lyra decides that since she couldn’t protect Roger she should protect Dust (?).  And nothing else interesting happened, Will wandered through a portal.  They shot at some bears (why not just fly over them?).  None of the other cool characters even featured, except Byrnison.  Should have smashed the whole thing down to five or maximum six episodes, IMO.

I was surprised he announced he was a Detective Inspector.  Do they often spend their time sitting in cars watching houses? Then he also announced Will was fifteen, which threw me as well.  Are they going to do a romance between a 15 year old and a 12 year old (albeit a giant 12 year old)?  And why is Will’s “daemon” not fixed yet then, the Costa kid must be around that age.

There is no fixed age for a daemon to settle.

Pretty obvious the detective inspector is not acting in his official capacity when he is sitting watching the house

[john]

2 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

There is no fixed age for a daemon to settle.

Pretty obvious the detective inspector is not acting in his official capacity when he is sitting watching the house

Both of these are odd dialogue choices is my point. Why is Will 15 instead of 12? Why is detective an inspector and not a constable?

And he’s apparently sitting watching the house in an official car with a radio so he has to be telling them something down the station.

[BigFatCoward]

7 hours ago, john said:

Both of these are odd dialogue choices is my point. Why is Will 15 instead of 12? Why is detective an inspector and not a constable?

And he’s apparently sitting watching the house in an official car with a radio so he has to be telling them something down the station.

Detectives fuck off and do nothing important all the time. 

[Werthead]

11 hours ago, john said:

Both of these are odd dialogue choices is my point. Why is Will 15 instead of 12?

They needed somewhat older actors so they could overcome the limitations when they can use them for filming (at under 13 I think they still have severe limitations on filming time because they have to ensure they're getting their education). In addition, if they are suggesting the romantic relationship between Will and Lyra later on, it works better if they are over 16 (the BBC also has fairly strict guidelines on when they can depict young people having relationships in non-educational shows). If they are thinking of doing Secret Commonwealth and Dust #3 after the main series, they also needed to time it so the actors would be hitting their twenties by the time they got to them.

[john]

Sure, I get the actor needed to be older but the character didn’t.  Unless they have a reason for it, maybe they do.  But I was perfectly happy with the slightly too old looking twelve year old that I previously thought Will was.

[Werthead]

43 minutes ago, john said:

Sure, I get the actor needed to be older but the character didn’t.  Unless they have a reason for it, maybe they do.  But I was perfectly happy with the slightly too old looking twelve year old that I previously thought Will was.

A 15-year-old can't play a 12-year-old, because they're also going to be a 17 and a 18-year-old playing a 12-year-old (maybe 13). Unless they find a way of making a lot of time pass in the show, that's not going to fly.

[john]

1 hour ago, Werthead said:

A 15-year-old can't play a 12-year-old, because they're also going to be a 17 and a 18-year-old playing a 12-year-old (maybe 13). Unless they find a way of making a lot of time pass in the show, that's not going to fly.

But then they didn’t age up Lyra (or maybe they did by one year, I seem to remember her being 11 in the books) so surely that problem applies to Dafne Keen as well.

[Werthead]

30 minutes ago, john said:

But then they didn’t age up Lyra (or maybe they did by one year, I seem to remember her being 11 in the books) so surely that problem applies to Dafne Keen as well.

I think they did. They don't mention her age that I recall in the show unless I missed it. Lyra being 12-13 and and Will being 15 would be a bit yikes given their later relationship.

[BigFatCoward]

29 minutes ago, Werthead said:

I think they did. They don't mention her age that I recall in the show unless I missed it. Lyra being 12-13 and and Will being 15 would be a bit yikes given their later relationship.

15 year old boys going out with 13 year old girls is pretty much standard. 

[john]

59 minutes ago, Werthead said:

I think they did. They don't mention her age that I recall in the show unless I missed it. Lyra being 12-13 and and Will being 15 would be a bit yikes given their later relationship.

Ok, I thought she was stated to be 12 but I can’t recall when that was, could be just projecting I suppose.

[HexMachina]

2 hours ago, john said:

Ok, I thought she was stated to be 12 but I can’t recall when that was, could be just projecting I suppose.

If she said it i think it was in Bolvangar, where she has obvious reasons to play down her age

[Rippounet]

Well, I haven't read the books, so here are an "unsullied's" two cents:

- I love the show's premise: an initiation story involving multiple worlds, with a nice dose of politics and religion for good measure.
- The visual quality is very good (the deamons are sometimes very cute, sometimes very disturbing).
- The acting is fantastic. Ruth Wilson especially is amazing, but both James McAvoy and Dafne Keen are very good as well.

The one problem I have with this show is:
- It's slow. In the end, nothing much happened in these 8 episodes. I mean, stuff happened, obviously, but the pace was rather slow-ish, despite the main plot being rather simple (kids disappear, main character investigates and rescues them).
The finale left me thinking that the entire season was just one big exposition to establish the main characters. To be fair, Lyra and her parents are all complex characters who certainly needed a fair amount of screen time to understand them and their relationships, but we ended up having a lot of time only dedicated to said relationships.
The secondary plot (with Boreal and Will) was very dull, though I understand that since Will ends up paired with Lyra he had to be introduced early.

So it was good, but since the beginning was so slow I'd hope that the payoff is worth it in season 2.