Season 2 of HBO/BBC co-production of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials starts immediately after where we left off. Lyra finds herself in a strange land, with a strange boy, and a whole new adventure ahead of her.
If you’ve read the books the series is based on, then you should probably watch this adaptation. If you saw the movie when it was released several years ago and enjoyed it (it was called The Golden Compass just in case you were curious), then you should watch this adaptation. If you haven’t read the books or seen the movie (or if you saw it and didn’t enjoy it), then you should watch this adaptation. Basically, if you understand words and enjoy stories, then you should watch this adaptation.
Cards on the table, I haven’t read the books, or seen the movie. But it’s HBO, and with a stellar Season 1 cast lead by Dafne Keen, Ruth Wilson, Clarke Peters, James McAvoy, and Lin-Manuel Miranda, how could I not watch this? And with Season 2 adding the wonderful Andrew Scott, I was all in. In fact, the performances throughout the series are exceptional.
Season 2 of His Dark Materials brings Lyra to our world, and our Oxford, with mobile phones and fast moving cars and no daemons or talking bears in sight. In the five episodes that we were given access to, His Dark Materials does something that I wasn’t expecting. It tries to ground the magical with the scientific. Again, none of this may surprise you if you’ve read the book, but by connecting Lyra’s search for the meaning of Dust and the science of our world’s dark matter, Season 2 doesn’t necessarily ground the story in reality, but at least shows you where the links are. And that makes for interesting fantasy storytelling.
Also, the acting just continues to be superb. Dafne Keen continues to grow as an actress from her turn as X-23 in James Mangold’s Logan. However the true MVP for me has to be Ruth Wilson. There are two scenes in particular in this second season that I have not been able to stop thinking of.
In the first, she faces up to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Lee Scoresby, and as he challenges he for the love of her daughter, you see the reality of the situation sink in, as the look on her face goes from strength, to rage, to doubt, to longing, and finally to the acceptance of the reality of what Lee Scoresby just said.
The second scene is when she comes face to face with Dafne Keen’s Lyra, and the fight drains from her face as the weight of her previous encounter with Lee Scoresby comes true. That despite all of the love she feels, Marisa Coulter knows that she can not be there for Lyra the way she wants to be. The heartache and heartbreak in Ruth Wilson’s performance is truly a sight to see.
His Dark Materials is a difficult series to recommend. Not that it’s bad. On the contrary, it is really very good. Its audience, however, isn’t as easy to pin down. It isn’t hard fantasy-drama and feels too juvenile for the Game of Thrones crowd. But at the same time, it may be too slow (with heavy, heady conversations about the place of religion) for a younger audience. The same that may feel a kinship for Dafne Keen’s young Lyra Belacqua.
Overall, His Dark Materials Season 2 continues the amazing work from Season 1. Once again, it doesn’t matter if you’ve read the books, or even seen the movie, you owe it to yourself to watch this adaptation.
His Dark Materials
HBO, Season 2, 7 episodes
Creator: Jack Thorne
Cast: Dafne Keen, Amir Wilson, Ruth Wilson, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ariyon Bakare, Will Keen, Andrew Scott, Bella Ramsey, Terence Stamp, Simone Kirby, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge
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