His Dark Materials - New BBC/HBO/New Line Cinema TV Series

SpellowHouse · 6 Feb 2023 at 10:40

I seem to remember I was a little disappointed with the end. Of course, not a hollywood end, but it seemed rather deflating. I never read the books so I have no idea whether it was more upbeat in those.

Shamikebab · 6 Feb 2023 at 11:32

It's not really meant to be an upbeat ending. The ending was fairly accurate to the books and I think the actors did a good job. Honestly the casting in the series throughout has been superb, I don't think they got anyone wrong. James McAvoy was my biggest concern as he doesn't really fit my mental image of Asriel, but with the way they changed and expanded his story in the TV he did a good job, particularly in the scenes with Marissa.

Darujhistan · 6 Feb 2023 at 14:01

Really struggling to get through this after 3 EPS of S3, I don't care about any of the carachters, and it's just so boring and lacks any real tension, drama, or excitement. I suspected after S2 it simply wasn't very good, and I think i'm right. Not bad by any means (ROP, WOT etc), it's just not good either (HOD)...

Good opening series but it fell off badly IMO.

SpellowHouse · 6 Feb 2023 at 14:34

Darujhistan said:
Really struggling to get through this after 3 EPS of S3, I don't care about any of the carachters, and it's just so boring and lacks any real tension, drama, or excitement. I suspected after S2 it simply wasn't very good, and I think i'm right. Not bad by any means (ROP, WOT etc), it's just not good either (HOD)...

Good opening series but it fell off badly IMO.

I must confess that I started to lose interest towards the end.

Darujhistan · 6 Feb 2023 at 14:49

SpellowHouse said:
I must confess that I started to lose interest towards the end.

It's been nearly a fortnight since I last watched an EP, sadly it looks like another entry in the DNF file. So many shows go in there these days, I think TV producers et al need to get a dictionary and look up the words "Brevity" and "Pacing".

It's like TV shows are made by Ents these days, so little to say and so long to say it...

glenimp617 · 6 Feb 2023 at 14:53

I really enjoyed this, but thought the ending was crap

Would be keen for them to carry it on though

SpellowHouse · 6 Feb 2023 at 14:54

Darujhistan said:
It's been nearly a fortnight since I last watched an EP, sadly it looks like another entry in the DNF file. So many shows go in there these days, I think TV producers et al need to get a dictionary and look up the words "Brevity" and "Pacing".

It's like TV shows are made by Ents these days, so little to say and so long to say it...

That's very true. I find that of a lot of series.

The Hobbit is one that springs to mind. A book that is one sixth of the size of the Lord of the Rings but ran to the same number of films.

SpellowHouse · 6 Feb 2023 at 14:55

TheOracle said:
I really enjoyed this, but thought the ending was crap

Would be keen for them to carry it on though

Yes. To me the ending lacked purpose. Things neither settled back to normal life nor ended in anticipation of new adventures. It just sort of fizzled out over a half hour.

Darujhistan · 6 Feb 2023 at 15:29

SpellowHouse said:
That's very true. I find that of a lot of series.

The Hobbit is one that springs to mind. A book that is one sixth of the size of the Lord of the Rings but ran to the same number of films.

Yeah, that's a great example. That was just pure studio greed though, I don't pin the Hobbit disaster on PJ, but on the studio. I think the problem is shows are ordered in hours and seasons, not by creativity and quality. Like going into a timber merchants and asking for 12 planks of 4 by 2.

If you look at The Fellowship of the Ring, that is a masterclass in world-building, pacing, and changing tone, in just 3 hours without feeling rushed at all, from a sunny rural idyll to the portential ending of all things.

Irish_Tom · 6 Feb 2023 at 20:58

Shamikebab said:
Been watching this weekly so just finished. Quite a lot of changes in the third book adaptation but overall I think they mostly worked. The one I really didn't like was the cutting/minimising of the Galavespians and how little of Mary and The Mulafa's story made the show. Hell the title piece of the third book wasn't even in the show!

Funnily enough, I thought this was a good move on the show’s part. I felt the book really dragged with Mary’s storyline so I’m glad they skimmed over it.

I really enjoyed the books and thought the series was very well done. It’s been a while since I read the series, so I can’t remember all of the things they changed or omitted, but for the most part I enjoyed it.

Just need Pullman to finish number three of The Book of Dust…!

Shamikebab · 6 Feb 2023 at 21:09

Irish_Tom said:
Funnily enough, I thought this was a good move on the show’s part. I felt the book really dragged with Mary’s storyline so I’m glad they skimmed over it.

Kind of? But it is kind of important to the dust arc and I felt having it all in one episode was a little weird and meant we didn't really get the character development or friendship, so the goodbyes in the last episode felt a little unearned. I would have liked to have say a scene or two in more episodes, like one of her climbing the tree and learning about the dust, one finding out the difference between mulafa children and adults and their co-dependence with the trees (which was hinted at but not really explained) and then one with her forging the amber spyglass (which they bizarrely excluded)

Also did anyone think in the second to last episode it was weird showing the scene with the almighty but not explaining who it was! The scene made no sense without the context, I had to explain it to my parents who haven't read the book. That was such an odd idea.

casper_uk · 6 Feb 2023 at 21:20

Enjoyed the show. Didn't like the ending though, even if it reflects the ending from the books somewhat. So, after all that they did for the angels, it was too much to leave one more gate open, even though the are natural gates between worlds? Or I don't know, turn them both into angels as a thank you so they can be together? I understand why they did it, but they honestly could have got away without the last episode at all, and just left it open.

Shamikebab · 6 Feb 2023 at 21:22

casper_uk said:
Enjoyed the show. Didn't like the ending though, even if it reflects the ending from the books somewhat. So, after all that they did for the angels, it was too much to leave one more gate open, even though the are natural gates between worlds? Or I don't know, turn them both into angels as a thank you so they can be together? I understand why they did it, but they honestly could have got away without the last episode at all, and just left it open.

They explained that, leaving any more doors open would continue to draw dust into the abyss.

Hodders · 6 Feb 2023 at 22:20

Greebo said:
I like her but just cant get over the duckface.............

My wife has wrecked it by saying she looks like Marge Simpson.

casper_uk · 6 Feb 2023 at 23:01

Shamikebab said:
They explained that, leaving any more doors open would continue to draw dust into the abyss.

They did, but they left one door open without worrying about dust being drawn into the abyss, so why not two? The multiverse had plenty of natural doors open for 1000's of years etc. I don't buy it, just seems like a bad plot point to force the ending. The angels can travel between worlds, and close doors. Why couldn't they open a door for a minute, once a year for them to swap between the two worlds? There are plenty of credible explanations that could have been used to make a better ending views would buy into.

I enjoyed the books when I was younger, and also the TV show to a certain extent. I just feel it was let down by the ending, and it would have elevated the whole show if they picked a better ending.

Shamikebab · 6 Feb 2023 at 23:03

casper_uk said:
They did, but they left one door open without worrying about dust being drawn into the abyss, so why not two? The multiverse had plenty of natural doors open for 1000's of years etc. I don't buy it, just seems like a bad plot point to force the ending. The angels can travel between worlds, and close doors. Why couldn't they open a door for a minute, once a year for them to swap between the two worlds? There are plenty of credible explanations that could have been used to make a better ending views would buy into.

I enjoyed the books when I was younger, and also the TV show to a certain extent. I just feel it was let down by the ending, and it would have elevated the whole show if they picked a better ending.

Were you watching it? They explained that enough dust is generated naturally to sustain one door permanently. They also said that every time a door opens evil slips into the world, a spectre is formed or a natural disaster happens.

Iron Man · 6 Feb 2023 at 23:14

The ending seemed a bit lackluster but it wasn’t too bad.

casper_uk · 7 Feb 2023 at 18:23

Shamikebab said:
Were you watching it? They explained that enough dust is generated naturally to sustain one door permanently. They also said that every time a door opens evil slips into the world, a spectre is formed or a natural disaster happens.

I did, and they are just bad plot points to drive the story to the end they wanted. My point is there are countless ways they could have left a door open and had the viewer believe it. You are talking about the multiverse and angels, a last battle against the metatron... but nope! An extra door is just too much.