His Dark Materials (Season 1)

So a lot of my thoughts on this series and the books (that I have not read) were already covered in my review of The Golden Compass movie that came out in 2007. That being said, I am glad that I took the time to watch this series. While I am worried that I might have been comparing the show to the movie (my only point of reference for the series) I do think it's been a fun comparison and it did give me a better understanding of the story than the book did.

His Dark Materials takes place in a parallel world to ours where people's souls live on the outside of them in the form of animals called daemons.

The story mainly follows an orphan girl by the name of Lyra (played by Dafne Keen). She grew up in this world's equivalent to Oxford College and is periodically visited by her adventuring uncle Lord Asriel (played by James McEvoy).

The start of this story is pretty strange because while Lyra is a strong willed person wanting to go out on adventures with her uncle, she doesn't really start her adventure. She just seems to be swept up in an adventure and her goal for quite a while is kind of muddled up in the fact that there are children being kidnapped for unknown nefarious purposes and that includes her friend Roger.  Her adventure doesn't really start until a powerful woman named Mrs. Coulter (played by Ruth Wilson) takes her to London to be her assistant while she does her work for the Magisterium, the overarching bad government. It should be noted that its not very subtlety an analogy to the Catholic church. 

As far as performances go, Dafne Keen and Ruth Wilson are very good. I'm not sure I really like how the character of Lyra is written because she's just kind of a typical "chosen one" character, though its never really explained why and it seems like she more stumbles upon other people's problems rather than having an overarching quest. This show does a good job at building up the relationship she has with her friend Roger and having that be a guiding purpose, but she seems to be more of a blank slate rather than a strong character.

Ruth Wilsoin does a really good job. I couldn't help but unfairly compare her performance with Nicole Kidman from the movie because Kidman was really kind of perfect for that role. But Wilson does a really good job and was probably one of the best parts of the show.

There are a couple of actors from Game of Thrones like James Cosmo and Lucian Msamati that did a really good job. They along with Anne-Marie Duff play Gyptians that were really interesting but get dropped from the show pretty unceremoniously.

So Lin Manuel Miranda is in this, and like Wilson, he's going up against a performance from the movie that despite its flaws, had some really good performances. So to go from Sam Elliot who just seemed like a perfect fit for a cowboy balloon pilot to Lin Manuel Miranda just felt weird. Also, they really tried to beef up his part when the story seemed to be unceremoniously leaving him behind as well for no real good reason.

Also Miranda, while not a bad actor, just felt out of place in this show. Maybe I'm too unfairly comparing him to Sam Elliot, but his accent isn't very good and he looks more like Inspector Jacque Clouseau from The Pink Panther, which seems weird.

But on a more positive note, James McEvoy did a pretty good job in this.

I remember when I watched the movie, having not read the book and knowing Lord Asriel's role in everything, I thought it was a waste to have Daniel Craig play that role to have him really be in one or two scenes and then never be seen again.

I don't know where the first book ends, if its closer to the series ending or the movie's, but this show introduced McEvoy in the beginning and I thought it was going to be a similar outcome to Craig's role, but the last two episodes feature him more and I get where he plays into the film more than before.

I think what I appreciate about this show is observing how a show that was made in 2019 telling the same story as a movie that was made in 2007 can be very different based on context. The 2007 movie is trying to be the next Harry Potter while this show is wanting to be the next Game of Thrones.

And the big benefit is that this show is able to expand on elements of the story over 8 hour long episodes where the movie could not even get close to exploring in the less than 2 hour run time it had.

I think a lot of the questions that I had after watching the movie were answered by this series that takes the same story and expands on it a lot better.

That being said, I do take issue with the claim that these books should only be made into series. I'm hearing more people who wish that Harry Potter was a TV show that divided the books up into seasons. While I would watch that, it really diminishes the work the Harry Potter directors were able to accomplish by making really good movies based on those books. I think a lot of the time its an excuse to say this book couldn't be a movie because I think it could, it just has to be done well. (He says having never made a movie himself).

I think the reason I say that is because I think some episodes of this show were much better than others. The first half of the season takes quite a bit to get going and I don't really feel like some of it was carried out the way it was being built up to. Characters like Scoresby and the Gyptians, like I said, seemed to be unceremoniously exited from the show to maybe come back in season 2, and the stuff that I did enjoy, especially when they illustrate the connections between the different worlds, seems to only be hinted at for future seasons.

Also, to me, its not totally clear who this show is for. I think that might have been a problem with the book too because while it does have balloon piloting cowboys, talking polar bears, and witches, the story also does a pretty deep dive into theology, philosophy, and critiques of religion. The subject matter is also pretty dark and if the sales pitch is to make this the new fantasy series to replace Game of Thrones, I doubt parents are going to let their kids watch this. On the other hand, it's always got a PG-13 rating so some people might not take it as seriously. It's hard to tell who the audience is.

I think the other thing that I found interesting was how this story is actually closer to Stephen King's The Dark Tower series than it is something like Harry Potter or The Chronicles of Narnia.

I think that's what continues to make me somewhat interested in it, is that there is a chance for some kind of story to be told here, but it's nothing mind blowing in my opinion. I could be wrong as this show is up for a second season and it will start delving into territory of the books that I have never seen any kind of interpretation of.

Last couple thoughts. The opening credits song is amazing. The music is very well done in this show.

Visually this show is fantastic too. I think that's been the main draw of this story is how unique this fantasy world is and a desire to see how it's used, especially because the story is so uniquely counter cultural.

I will say, in an attempt to be different than the typical heroes journey, the pacing of this show feels very odd. I mentioned before that Lyra is largely swept up in the journeys and adventures of others and doesn't take her own initiative until well into the series, but there are also some reveals that seemed to come at very weird times and the show kind of meandered with them because there wasn't really anything the characters could do about it until later episodes.

Overall, His Dark Materials was an interesting experience because it gave me more insight into a book I just need to sit down and read. But despite having a longer form, the same problems with story, pacing, and characters from the movie do carry over to the show, and I don't think that's anything on the show creators or the performers, I just think the characters are uniquely written. That's both good and bad because it makes His Dark Materials intriguing, but a little uneven. It's a beautiful show with an awesome soundtrack and a mostly good cast. I would say if you're looking for a unique off kilter fantasy adventure, His Dark Materials is not a bad choice, it's just not going to be super memorable, at least not during this season.

But those are my thoughts on His Dark Materials. What did you think? Have you read the book? Have you seen the movie and the TV show? How does the show compare? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films and TV shows I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks for Reading!