HIS DARK MATERIALS

I don't really get the plot, or why I would care about any of the characters. The anti-religious stuff is very obvious, though.

Seems reasonably true to the book but I haven't read it in 10 years or something.
Trying to work out what falls within this series.
Seeing the summary on some tv listing as 2 children travel through multiple dimensions or some similar paraphrase. & I thought they didn't before the 2nd book.

Want to read the new books.

Like the look of the series anyway. Though somewhat jarred by the vehicle used to transport baby Lyra at the start seemed to be a 50s or 60s looking helicopter after which they jump forward 12 years to airships. I thought they basically had 30s level technology on the starting world if that from what I remembered from the books.

"I don't really get the plot, or why I would care about any of the characters." I take it you haven't read the books then?

No one is particularly likable aside from Lyra.

I got irrationally annoyed whenever I couldn’t see a character’s daemon. I mean sure it could’ve been hiding in a pocket or something, but idk, Pullman always goes out of his way to let us know what form a character’s daemon takes—it’s a literal window into their souls

After one episode there's either not much plot, or else fucking loads - someone is stealing children; this guy has discovered 'dust'; dust lets you see alternate dimensions; girl is somehow implicated and starts on a journey.

Not seeing everyone's daemon perturbed me slightly too, but only slightly. There's a lot in the latest book about people who don't have daemons, and how you can just tell they don't have one even if it's not visibly apparent, the inference from which I took was that a lot of people's are small animals that sit in pockets a lot of the time, so I wasn't too fussed.

Pullman's been involved as executive producer hasn't he, and has certainly given full blessing to this version, so the helicopter (gyropter!) intrigued me rather than seeming anachronistic. I don't think it's as simple as them having pretty much 1930s technology - they've obviously just got different levels of tech in all sorts of different directions. Some of it magic!

I thought it was pretty good. Lyra a lot posher than I imagined her, but I guess she did grow up in an Oxford college! The actress' performance is a little odd, but maybe she'll grow on me. Rest of the cast and design and pacing seemed decent.

My partner who's never read the books loved it, so that's a good sign.

Trying to work out what falls within this series.

Pretty sure it'll just be book 1, particularly as casting for Will hasn't been announced.

No one is particularly likable aside from Lyra.

Not sure this is true? Been a decade since I read them, but Will and Lee Scoresby spring to mind.

I was thinking the actress was teh same girl as Eleven from Stranger tHings when i first saw her face in publicity material.
Is that just a type for this year or something.
Seemed like years ago you would have a lot of somewhat lookalike actresses turning up in films at the same time following the appearance of an actress that was deemed somewhat iconic or hip for that year who they semi resembled. Like Faye Dunaway being followed by clones or whatever.

The girl is Wolverine.

hugh jackman is such a chameleon

a lot of people's are small animals that sit in pockets a lot of the time, so I wasn't too fussed.

yes i thought of this too. but there should be more dogs, dammit!

I liked it. I'm glad it steered clear of all-out exposition but I did have to stop and explain a couple of things to my kids (13 & 11). It generally looked great with a couple of bits of old school Saturday evening telly thrown in, but that's fine.

I tried watching the film before and I don't think I got much farther than Lyra leaving with Mrs. Coulter, or if I did I don't remember. This is already much better IMO.

the only thing the film has over the series so far is that Nicole Kidman was pretty much a quintessential Coulter.

Yeah thought she was more of a siren or whatever.
This one might be ok but I think I have her in the back of my mind.

I quite like Ruth Wilson and her weird mouth even if I do keep expecting her to stab someone in the neck any moment.

Yeah I meran she could be great if I didn't already have an image of the previous actress. May be something I can overcome and will be something that people who didn't see the film won't have to deal with.

Did they start the film thinking they were going to do other parts of the trilogy then not do well at the box office or something?

Also the actor playing Roger has a small part in The Aeronauts. Liked that film a bit not sure how many people would.

Yes, the theatrical release performed poorly. There were issues with budget during production. It also faced a TON of (stateside) criticism on grounds of anti-religious sentiment.

The film is a mess, but it's casting was pretty perfect across the board. The actors they've found for the TV show don't appear to be such obvious fits for their parts, but I'd like to see what they do with it.

ruth wilson is a pretty impressive coulter so far, but mcavoy seems slightly miscast. he's a fine actor, but not an imposing physical presence, and he can't quite achieve the type of haughty, cold, egomania that daniel craig radiates even when he's trying not to.

This is doing loads right. Some properly tense moments, particularly the golden monkey slapping down Pan. I like how uhurried they've allowed it to be, though I could do without the thread of the magestirium bloke going into our world (not in the book iirc?). Still not entirely convinced by Dafne Keen, her accent is a bit distractingly odd. All other performances are excellent.

It's all a bit flat and characterless for me, the set and costume design is too shiny and ersatz, and McAvoy is boring. Reminds me a bit of the Good Omens show - it only really works as a victory lap for megafans.

As mentioned upthread, my partner is really into it and she's never read the books so that's not 100 percent true.

The design is maybe not as stunning or interesting as it could have been, but it does the job fine imo.

mcavoy seems slightly miscast. he's a fine actor, but not an imposing physical presence, and he can't quite achieve the type of haughty, cold, egomania that daniel craig radiates even when he's trying not to.

That was my feeling as well. He comes off as a bit too cuddly, even when he's threatening to break Lyra's arm. That he's wearing a sweater for his big Dust presentation doesn't help.

My main concern so far is that Lyra doesn't seem to have the picaresque trickster quality that she has in the books. Sure, she tears around the rooftops doing parkour like any other literary tomboy, but I haven't seen her telling any wild stories or starting wars with the gyptians or doing anything characteristically Lyra yet. And the bit where she almost refused to take the alethiometer because she didn't want to keep secrets was wildly out of character. I'm sure they're planning a character arc where she grows into the Lyra we know, but I hope it happens soon.

IT's been a while since i read the trilogy but I was trying to remember if there was a suggestion in one of the 2nd 2 books that there had been some interdimensional sliding going on other thna the main protagonists. I know its not introduced until the end of the first book at least and probably not before the beginning of the 2nd. BUt did wonder if this guy who's already doing it might tie in to some point later in the trilogy that might as well be introduced at this point.

Pretty sure that character just shows up later in the books.

I was just thinking there might have been some suggestion taht they had some history of slipping between dimensions so might have been doing it at this point.
& reason that it wasn't encountered in the book is that pullman hadn't thought of him while writing first book but when he expanded for later volumes he introduced him and a past history of him. BUt has been a while since I read the trilogy.

Pretty sure he's already been mentioned in the show.

if we're talking about lord boreal, yes he's a castmember and already showed up in episode 1

Was actually thinking of Grumman, but yes, Boreal too.

Nobody slides between universes this early in the actual books, Not sure if people were sliding outside the periphery of the books at the time shown in the first book. Or if anybody might have been shown from later actions to be doing so but outside of the books depiction.
JUst pretty sure taht there were other people sliding than the 2 protagonists.
First book mainly concentrates on actions around Lyra following her kidnapped friend and a couple of underhanded adults to the nOrth which is the springboard into the later pair of books activity. BUt can't remember if other sliders were doing so for first time following the protagonist pair or if they might have been seen to having been doing so for a while before which would mean this chronology with lord boreal wasn't necessarily out of step with what happened in the books, just hadn't been looked at in the remit of the first book at least.

Lord Boreal appears briefly in the first book, but we don't learn that he's spent a long time in our world until the second book.

I was a big fan of the books but couldn’t make it through half an hour of the new series. Once the kids started singing some weak-ass song we shut it off.

Right Moodles that was what I was wondering. So it does make some sense to show him sliding at this point since his activity may be needed to set things up for later.
& they've changed the structure from a trilogy of books with one or 2 main protagonists to a series in a different medium where sub plots and more peripheral characters are equally important.

I haven't seen the TV show yet, but it seems like showing that early on kind of abandons the big reveal of Will's world later, which I thought was one of the cooler twists in the books.

Yeah quite probably. But may have a reason since different medium. Have to make some sacrifices etc. I hope they know what they're doing. Has been quite good so far.

I haven't seen the TV show yet, but it seems like showing that early on kind of abandons the big reveal of Will's world later, which I thought was one of the cooler twists in the books.

This is my feeling too (MINOR SPOILERS), the switch without warning to the mundanity of our own world at the beginning of book 2 was jarring in a good way.

Wonder if the translation into a different medium was part of consideration. So experience of the punter would be different.
This does have different structure because of elements like that and cannot be following quite the same arc as the books. Not sure what other elements have been reordered as yet.
But do think things like that change quite frequently in that changing of media. Ones encounter with a book is different to one's encounter with a screened image and difference between variations of the latter can be significant I think.

We’re watching this, have no familiarity with the books, enjoying it so far.

I have no recollection of this “weak ass song” from episode one. Episode two was pretty good. I hear ratings dropped off horribly on the BBC

Drag, haven't heard how far they've currently got the go ahead to go. Is this going to be another partial adaptation.
I don't know what could re-interest a general public if they're already losing interest.
Have liked this so far so would like to see it finished at least to a coherent end point even if it doesn't get all the way through the trilogy.

Also don't know how far ahead they are, the point that has been filmed to. Is this going to be something that has complete series already filmed before first episode was shown?
& if foreign markets might lap it up more than the domestic one?

Although it lost viewers it was still the most watched show on tv in the UK at that time slot

A mate works next to Bad Wolf studios in Cardiff and he says they've knocked up lots of Italian looking buildings out of chipboard so assuming that's for Cittàgazze from the second book (which i guess could make an earlier appearance now?)

Second season has already been commissioned (but assume that could change if ratings do completely fall off a cliff)

The third book is my least favourite, but also the one I'm most interested in seeing an adaptation of

We’re watching this, have no familiarity with the books, enjoying it so far.

Read the books instead! They're great, easy to read, better than the tv show

Going to be charitable and believe that the jumpy messy pacing of episode 3 is an homage to the messy movie.

just read the books this week

that guy really hates christianity huh

Once the kids started singing some weak-ass song we shut it off.

LOL when that bit happened I was immediately reminded of Byron and his hippy Telepath crew from Babylon 5.

so my son hates this adaptation because he finds the writing really terrible. I half agree; some of the dialogue is way overly expository and unrealistic. c'mon bbc. Other than that I'm enjoying it.

also this Coulter has finally won me over and made me stop wishing it was Nicole Kidman again. She was pretty scary and fierce in this last episode.