i'm liking the pre/se-quel trilogy a lot, especially how it's exploring lyra's world. he did such a great job building the world in northern lights, and while i'm glad pullman decided to set off into the multiverse, i'm glad that the new trilogy is taking the time to marinate in the society and the mystery of the world.
really loved the *spoiler* papal assassination scene *spoiler* in the secret commonwealth, the way it wove in the sly, character-based humor to undercut the horrific action.
― glengarry gary beers (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 27 October 2020 21:45 (three years ago) link
I don’t remember much about it, to be honest - there’s a surgery sequence that’s pretty existing and twisty iirc One not-very-serious flaw - there’s a lot of stuff about how unusual it is for daemons and humans to split - then it seems like everyone’s doing it
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 27 October 2020 22:36 (three years ago) link
that feels less like an inconsistency in the storytelling than the scales dropping from lyra's eyes–another "taboo" that her authoritarian theocratic society wants to pretend doesn't exist.
― glengarry gary beers (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 27 October 2020 23:01 (three years ago) link
A taboo and a minority group - the kind that's treated as invisible but becomes a lot more visible if you happen to be part of it.
― Lily Dale, Tuesday, 27 October 2020 23:08 (three years ago) link
right, and that's a metaphor that pullman makes clear when lyra meets the refugee girl who lost her daemon.
― glengarry gary beers (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 27 October 2020 23:12 (three years ago) link
Ah that makes sense
― Chuck_Tatum, Tuesday, 27 October 2020 23:20 (three years ago) link
I just finished season 1 of the HBO adaptation. The first bunch of episodes were a bit dispiriting, with so many corny moments. I understand wanting to show various side plots instead of focusing in Lyra, but I would've preferred sticking with the book's structure. Lin-Manual Miranda was a particularly bad call. I was also not excited about starting the Will plot in S1, but it ended up making sense overall. The show was really redeemed in the last few episodes, which went much darker, and the finale ended on a pleasingly ambiguous note.
― Mr. Cacciatore (Moodles), Tuesday, 27 October 2020 23:22 (three years ago) link
im cautiously optimistic for season 2, despite a trailer that seemed to be deliberately obfuscatory
― glengarry gary beers (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 27 October 2020 23:31 (three years ago) link
love ruth wilson so much
― mark s, Sunday, 8 November 2020 21:09 (three years ago) link
(s2e1 dropped)
― mark s, Sunday, 8 November 2020 21:10 (three years ago) link
She does sadistic almost *too* well.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Sunday, 8 November 2020 21:45 (three years ago) link
finally got round to s2e2
― mark s, Sunday, 29 November 2020 21:20 (three years ago) link
Not feeling this season yet. Both kids’ acting was pretty poor throughout.
― the thing that the angry Left forbids (hardcore dilettante), Sunday, 29 November 2020 21:55 (three years ago) link
Forgive the thread spam, but I wanted to note that this show's 2020 season is nominated in the 2020 ILX TV poll:
ILX's Best Television of 2020 Poll / VOTING AND CAMPAIGNING THREAD / Voting Ends After January 29, 2021
If you like this show and you'd like to see it have a good showing in the poll (running in February) all you need to do is submit a ballot including it and your other favorites (3 minimum, 25 maximum, ranked by your favorite to least favorite) to forksclovetofu at gmail. It'll take five minutes; get to it!
― the serious avant-garde universalist right now (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 21 January 2021 19:46 (three years ago) link
finished season 2 the other day! i thought it was a big improvement on season 1 (especially in the daemon department, aka the most important department) while still feeling like it's missing something essential and ineffable that the books had. it seems like they're neutering the "killing god" aspect of the books, which might make season 3 very weird, and they've totally messed up scoresby and the witches. but they've got the will/lyra relationship down, and ruth wilson is transfixing even as she's completely different from my conception of the character from the books lol
― boz conspiracy by toby hus (voodoo chili), Thursday, 21 January 2021 20:02 (three years ago) link
Lin-Manual Miranda is terrible in this!
― Dan I., Saturday, 30 January 2021 20:17 (three years ago) link
horrifically miscast, it’s true
― tiwa-nty one savage (voodoo chili), Saturday, 30 January 2021 20:25 (three years ago) link
Season 3 is 2 episodes in - one of the Belgian reviewers called this whole series "probably the best fantasy series ever"
― StanM, Wednesday, 7 December 2022 17:55 (one year ago) link
I will probably watch the last season, but I found season 2 to be a bit dull
― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Wednesday, 7 December 2022 18:00 (one year ago) link
waiting with bated breath for the final book of dust book lol, but i will def check out this season. i have absolutely no idea how they're gonna manage to adapt this final book, but i am intrigued to see how they fail
― comedy khadafi (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 7 December 2022 18:55 (one year ago) link
it's years since i read these and i remember book three as hurried -- this version has a measured pace to it that is maybe righting that?
― mark s, Tuesday, 3 January 2023 19:17 (one year ago) link
just got a massive goosebumps moment so that's a 👍🏽
sadly it involved lin-manuel miranda 👎🏽
― mark s, Tuesday, 3 January 2023 22:13 (one year ago) link
Didn’t watch the first season past a couple episodes as it seemed to be sticking to the original book so closely, and because I wasn’t enjoying McAvoy and the Lyra actress
Super curious to see this season though - thought the third book was disappointing but I’m interested to see how they do the final battle and God and the wheely creatures and whatnot
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 4 January 2023 00:01 (one year ago) link
I enjoyed in the 3rd book how the literal actual death of god was like a passing thing buried in the middle of a paragraph and you might have missed it.
― The land of dreams and endless remorse (hardcore dilettante), Wednesday, 4 January 2023 06:10 (one year ago) link
It was the same in the show I now realise. There was this very brief scene with a large crystal cube that has a person/angel curled up in it that they disintegrated. I didnt understand what it was but I do now.
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Wednesday, 4 January 2023 07:27 (one year ago) link
the wheely creatures look a bit too like if snorky from the banana splits turned up in avatar -- and the rush through the plot-points is beginning to arrive: mary's discovery of the amber lens seemed both too easy and under-explained
its various settings are still great and i feel that dafne keen has grown into the role and the character now that lyra (like keen) is a little older
ruth wilson remains MVP
― mark s, Wednesday, 4 January 2023 10:41 (one year ago) link
iorek byrnison giving mcavoy a richly deserved hard time lol
claws shd have been out tho
― mark s, Wednesday, 4 January 2023 18:47 (one year ago) link
the battle in heaven was p well realised IMO, tho it also makes you realise how dr who-ish the steampunky dimension of this story can get -- like the story will be resolved when who (or whoever) gets to press a red button on the head villain's dash which reads "my evil universe-transforming plan into explodey ruins"
(does the book use the term "mutiverse"? it's not wrong exactly but i was wincing every time azrael said it)
one ep to go
― mark s, Thursday, 5 January 2023 11:21 (one year ago) link
Of what I remember, Asriel & Mrs Coulter's motives get increasingly confusing in the last book, like they're two characters from an old Gossip Girl episode whose motivations change on a dime, just because plot
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 5 January 2023 13:48 (one year ago) link
in that case -- as my memory of the book is v spotty (i suspect bcz flaws in book but also a long time since i read it) -- the TV show handles this with rather more clarity even when their motivation is intensely conflicted (towards lyra, towards one another). with her especially -- more thx to ruth wilson than philip pullman maybe? -- we have learned always to read everything she does thru a "things not as they seem" filter. metatron is amusingly rude abt her to her face ("you are a cess-pit of moral filth") but she is NOT AT ALL BOTHERED and her face just says "i know you are but what am i"
― mark s, Thursday, 5 January 2023 14:02 (one year ago) link
Really enjoyed the whole series of this. The Amber Spyglass was prob my least favourite of the books and I did wonder how some things could possibly work on screen, but they pulled it off. Both young leads loads better in the last season. Not a spoiler, but the visuals for the physical battle in heaven and plunging fall were absolutely stunning.
― that mustardless plate (Bill A), Thursday, 5 January 2023 17:00 (one year ago) link