His Dark Materials Series

[dog-days]

14 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

Starts sunday night, cant wait. Coincidentally just been for a walk next the pub from book one of the sequel/prequel series. 

Was considering waiting then bingeing it, but realistically I'm never going to be able to stick to that.

Pretty jealous. I've longed to visit that pub since reading Belle Sauvage! 

Hope the video service I use works better than last time - it buffered most of its way through S1 of HDM. 

[BigFatCoward]

2 minutes ago, dog-days said:

Pretty jealous. I've longed to visit that pub since reading Belle Sauvage! 

Hope the video service I use works better than last time - it buffered most of its way through S1 of HDM. 

Its lovely, last time I was there, there was a peacock next to the waterfall. 

[dog-days]

1 hour ago, BigFatCoward said:

Its lovely, last time I was there, there was a peacock next to the waterfall. 

Not helping with the jealousy! 

[BigFatCoward]

24 minutes ago, dog-days said:

Not helping with the jealousy! 

How far are you? It you go in the summer its lovely there. You can swim in the thames right next to it. 

[dog-days]

1 minute ago, BigFatCoward said:

How far are you? It you go in the summer its lovely there. You can swim in the thames right next to it. 

According to Google Maps, I'm 127 miles away. Not sure about swimming in the Thames - apart from the fairy women and hidden giants, thanks to Belle Sauvage, Ben Aaronovitch has made me wonder about river deities. And Leptospirosis. 

Anyway, really looking forward to the second series. Even though I had plenty of gripes about its first outing, I still watched it with more commitment than anything else over the last year, bar What We Do in the Shadows. I've avoided the trailers - don't want to be spoiled for how Cittagazze is realised. And for what places look strangely like somewhere in Wales. 

[AncalagonTheBlack]

UK boarders, what did you think of the new  season premiere?

[dog-days]

Just watched it right now. Really liked it. Fairly slow-paced, but not in a boring way. A couple of minor gripes mostly to do with the delivery or style of certain lines. The look of it is stunning. One particular scene with Will and Lyra sitting on opposite sides of a set of parallel stairs stood out visually. And Pan gets to change his form a lot! Hope they didn't blow the daemon budget on this episode. 

[HexMachina]

On 11/6/2020 at 4:34 PM, BigFatCoward said:

Starts sunday night, cant wait. Coincidentally just been for a walk next the pub from book one of the sequel/prequel series. 

Was considering waiting then bingeing it, but realistically I'm never going to be able to stick to that.

I was planning to do this. I've held out a grand total of less than a day and that was only because I was at work. Turning on iPlayer now...

[Stannis Eats No Peaches]

I’ve just watched it, and found it OK as a start with somewhat clunky dialogue, but I’m still deeply puzzled about why they made Will older.

[BigFatCoward]

It really is the best looking thing on tv. A bit slow to start, which wouldn't be as much of a problem if it was a streaming show. 

[Isis]

On 11/8/2020 at 10:19 PM, AncalagonTheBlack said:

UK boarders, what did you think of the new  season premiere?

I loved it! Lyra and Will have some great chemistry* together, with Pan as an added dimension in the conversation.

Again and again, I keep coming back to how brilliant the daemons are as a concept for portraying complex emotions. The obvious example is Mrs C and the golden monkey: mostly they work in lock-step, sometimes they caution each other, but sometimes they are in conflict (stop hitting yourself!). Lyra and Pan are the next best thing. Pan being a fierce wolverine was very cool but it's equally great when he's something small and scared. I honestly think it's just so clever and it works so well on the screen. Definitely worked in the books too. But I am continually surprised and delighted by how effectively it translates to a visual expression of a person's feelings.

The witches were cool in this episode too. 

*by which I mean as actors, not romantic chemistry or anything ickly

[Heartofice]

On 11/10/2020 at 8:26 AM, Isis said:

I loved it! Lyra and Will have some great chemistry* together, with Pan as an added dimension in the conversation.

Again and again, I keep coming back to how brilliant the daemons are as a concept for portraying complex emotions. The obvious example is Mrs C and the golden monkey: mostly they work in lock-step, sometimes they caution each other, but sometimes they are in conflict (stop hitting yourself!). Lyra and Pan are the next best thing. Pan being a fierce wolverine was very cool but it's equally great when he's something small and scared. I honestly think it's just so clever and it works so well on the screen. Definitely worked in the books too. But I am continually surprised and delighted by how effectively it translates to a visual expression of a person's feelings.

The witches were cool in this episode too. 

*by which I mean as actors, not romantic chemistry or anything ickly

I'm currently listening Book of Dust book: Secret Commonwealth on Audible (btw Michael Sheen is a genius narrator, he's just unbelievably good), and all I keep thinking all the way through is how much the Daemon concept was just a stroke of genius which allowed Pullman to describe so many thoughts and emotions in such a gracefully simple way. It taps into a quite primal way of looking at the world that we all have, considering how we anthropomorphise animals all the time. 

[Mladen]

On 11/9/2020 at 12:11 AM, dog-days said:

One particular scene with Will and Lyra sitting on opposite sides of a set of parallel stairs stood out visually.

That one was truly stunning. The gathering of witches was the second one.

On 11/10/2020 at 9:26 AM, Isis said:

Again and again, I keep coming back to how brilliant the daemons are as a concept for portraying complex emotions.

True. I have also enjoyed Seraphina and Skadi's deamons continuing their debate. It was a nice extension. 

On 11/10/2020 at 8:27 AM, BigFatCoward said:

It really is the best looking thing on tv.

I am now rehashing everything currently on TV

Yeah, visually, it is stunning. It is also colorful but still subtle in the British sort of way. As someone who grew up with Harry Potter movies, whenever I think of British production, I think about greyish, dark look of late HP movies. Which is why I appreciate the colors mixed with the darkness in HDM.

[williamjm]

On 11/8/2020 at 10:19 PM, AncalagonTheBlack said:

UK boarders, what did you think of the new  season premiere?

I agree with what others have said that it was a good episode. I thought Cittagazze was visually very impressive - I wondered where they had filmed it but apparently the whole thing is a set they built in Wales, it does look very realistic. I thought the Lyra/Will interactions were good as well, showing them cautiously building up the start of a friendship.

Scoresby's plotline felt a bit disconnected from the rest of it, but the scenes on the submarine gave Ruth Wilson plenty of opportunity to dominate the screen again. The witch attack was great as well.

On 11/11/2020 at 3:34 PM, Heartofice said:

I'm currently listening Book of Dust book: Secret Commonwealth on Audible (btw Michael Sheen is a genius narrator, he's just unbelievably good), and all I keep thinking all the way through is how much the Daemon concept was just a stroke of genius which allowed Pullman to describe so many thoughts and emotions in such a gracefully simple way. It taps into a quite primal way of looking at the world that we all have, considering how we anthropomorphise animals all the time. 

I remember Pullman saying that the whole thing started with a fragment about a character and their daemon and Pullman trying to work out what the 'daemon' signified. I agree it's a great concept, and something about it just feels right. Even if it's obviously fantastical I think readers almost immediately understand it, and we see that with Will in the episode as well where he seems to quickly understand at least something of what Pantalaimon means for Lyra.

[dog-days]

Last night's episode was good, though I don't have much to say about it. I liked the dynamic between Will and Lyra. While I've quite enjoyed the look into Magisterium politics, I do wonder what they'll do if the TV series ever makes it as far as Secret Commonwealth - because aspects of the plotting and murder in that one appear to have been drawn on to provide the extra material for the show. 

[BigFatCoward]

Dr Malone is perfectly cast 

[Corvinus85]

This is starting tonight in the US. I honestly remember nothing about books 2 and 3, outside of Will who was already introduced.

[Stannis Eats No Peaches]

I liked Mary’s introduction, though found the focus on the Magisterium’s internal politics a bit unnecessary. I’m hoping they just wanted to get it out the way and that’s the end of it for now. I did like that there were more background daemons.

I like Will and Lyra together, and the scene in the botanic garden was a very nice touch.

I don’t really have anything else to say. It’s a bit... slow? Looks good though.

[Maltaran]

I think the Magisterium stuff was because they felt they had to give Ruth Wilson something to do.

I don’t remember Will’s grandparents being in the book?

[Werthead]

3 hours ago, Stannis Eats No Peaches said:

I don’t really have anything else to say. It’s a bit... slow? Looks good though.

It's always been a bit slow. The first two books are relatively short, you don't need eight hours apiece for them, although you probably do for The Amber Spyglass (which I'm pretty convinced is going to be hugely changed for TV). I think at five or six hours the first season would have been tightened up quite nicely. It also sounds like they've settled on one season for Book 3, which is the right move.

This season looks like they've come up with more organic ways of filling the time out with material that we heard about in the books but didn't see directly on-screen, which is a good move as it also keeps the other actors engaged.