His Dark Materials: TV Season Review

 

His Dark Materials

Season 1 Review

Where to Stream: Max

*WARNING! Season Spoilers below*

THE GOLDEN COMPASS (Also titled THE NORTHERN LIGHTS) by Philip Pullman was such a beloved, magical book of my childhood. The image of a little girl riding a large armored polar bear surrounded by the unforgiving stars and tundra of the far North has stayed with me forever, as have its unforgettable characters: our bold and indomitable heroine Lyra, her soul daemon Pan who likes to take the form of an adorable little ermine, aforementioned bear king bad ass Iorek Byrnison, and Lyra’s childhood friend Roger are just a few of my favs (plus Lord Asriel’s daemon Stelmaria because hello snow leopard cool).  The other memorable scene is when Lyra spies on the scholars at Jordan College and sees her supposed uncle, Lord Asriel, stun his audience with a photograph of an otherworldly city flickering in the Northern Lights, framed by Dust.

A bit more special than the type we sweep off the floor, this Dust, Lyra soon discovers, is the subject of a brewing war between rebel minds like Asriel and the ruling Magisterium, this world’s version of an all-powerful Catholic Church, who believe Dust to be the incarnation of Sin accumulating over time and corrupting us all, especially since Dust is photographed appearing on adults, not children. This particular interest in the relationship between children, their daemons (physical incarnations of a person’s soul that takes its final shape at puberty), and Dust sends Lyra on a journey to the North of her dreams, where a mysterious woman is running experiments on kidnapped kids under the guise of freeing them from Sin once and for all. Lyra soon captures attention of the Gyptians (a river-roving nomadic group who have suffered the bulk of these kidnappings), the armored bears, the witches (whose daemons can travel large distances from them), and the aeronaut Lee Scrosby, especially as it becomes evident that Lyra is a Chosen One, with the incredibly rare ability to read the alethiometer, a compass-like instrument moved by Dust that tells the truth to any question asked.

The TV series captures the wonderfully fantastic imagery of the book and is able to dive much more personally into the complex world Pullman has created than the movie—the cast is perfectly lovely, which is quite a feat when the movie had the likes of Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman, and Ian McKellen. Ruth Wilson particularly stands out as she assumes the immensely difficult role of Marisa Coulter, chief antagonist, a woman who is brutally ruthless toward her enemies but genuinely caring for her daughter; she dances the line of the Magisterium while it serves her agenda but does not suffer fools. “We cut out your daemon, not your brain,” she snaps in a particularly vicious mood toward the subject of one of her experiments at Bolvangar, the delivery so spot-on that it’s horrifyingly funny. Indeed, the whole sequence at Bolvangar was extremely well-done. As a child, I remember the part that wounded me the most was Roger’s fate, but this time around as a parent, seeing what was happening at Bolvangar and experiencing Ma Costa’s pain hit the hardest for me.

The witches in this be like mad-skilled—would not go up against them in a fight! And we can Lin-Manuel Miranda as the aeronaut Lee Scoresby—now Sam Elliot, pretty perfect, but I found Miranda just as light-heartedly entertaining and love his dynamic with his very patient hare daemon who always has to be the voice of reason. He always brings a genuine passion to every role he plays, and you can tell he’s having a fun time doing it. Plus, I see we’re going to get Andrew Scott (an amazing Moriarty in Sherlock) as Will’s father John Parry and am really looking forward to Season 2—granted, The Golden Compass was the hands-down favorite book of His Dark Materials trilogy for me, but I’m willing to give The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass depictions a chance (please cut down Mary Malone’s scenes pretty please and more of the angelic duo Balthamos and Baruch).

The biggest change is the introduction of Will in Season 1, possibly to ease the heartbreak of what befalls Roger (sob!), which is interesting—his scenes felt like filler to me, but at least a lot of backstory is out of the way to now focus on Lyra and Will’s relationship in the strange new world they find themselves in.

This is a series that is wild, fantastical, and will challenge core beliefs around authority while still staying grounded and heart-warming in the little moments between complicated, morally gray characters who are all just trying to make sense of an immense universe that expands and humbles in more ways than could ever be imagined. Truly a classic in the same vein of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, two of my faves. Heartily recommended to jump on this journey with Lyra, Pan, and their truth-reading alethiometer to the North and beyond!

Here is a trailer below: