What were the best series of 2019? The series of the year election has already taken place and unfortunately His Dark Materials didn't win in any categories. In my opinion, however, this show was one of the best. I've already written a review for the first episode and at the time I was pleased. After watching the entire season, I became even more pleased.
His Dark Materials is based on the book series with the same name, which was written by Philip Pullman. The series takes place in an alternative world where technology, magic and religion go hand in hand. It is a world where some residents are talking polar bears. A world where each person is followed by a daemon, a piece of the soul in the shape of a living, talking animal. The first season revolves around orphan girl Lyra Belacqua (Dafne Keen), who is on a quest to find a group of missing children. During her journey she is accompanied by various strange companions. At the same time, the Magisterium is looking for her. This is a powerful religious institution that conducts dangerous research.
His Dark Materials is a fascinating series that takes place in a fascinating world. The series takes its time to not just tell the story, but also to build the world and characters in such a way that everything is credible. The creators have created this world with a lot of love and great attention to detail and everything looks absolutely stunning. The way everything looks is extremely intricate and it fits the themes that cross the screen. The CGI that is used to create the daemons is highly convincing.
His Dark Materials is deeply layered. It is an exciting adventure, but also provides a critical look at religion.
What works is that the series is deeply layered and thus suitable for a lot of people. On the surface it's an exciting adventure series with talking animals, beautiful scenery and charming main characters. But when you dig deeper and try and understand the themes and symbolism, you'll realize that His Dark Materials is also highly critical on society and of the impact of religious institutions on politics. These layers are very subtle. The books are written in the same manner and because Philip Pullman also serves as executive producer, this show manages to tell the story in the same way the books do.
His Dark Materials also has an amazing cast. Dafne Keen does a superb job as Lyra and she has lots of opportunities to display the intense acting that also resulted in her breakthrough in the movie Logan. James McAvoy portrays Lyra's uncle, Asriel, with apparent delight and Ruth Wilson does a great job as the nasty Marisa Coulter, a diplomat who is linked to the Magisterium. Coulter may be one of the best villains of this year.
Next to that there are also a lot of great side characters. James Cosmo (Game of Thrones) portrays a leading figure of the travelling gypsies. Lin-Manuel Miranda (The Electric Company) portrays the adventurous balloonist Lee Scoresby. Something that should also be mentioned is that the voice cast of the animal daemons and the intelligent polar bears called Panserbjørne do their job really well. Just to name a few voice actors: Joe Tandberg, Kit Connor (Rocket's Island) and Cristela Alonzo (Mind of Mencia).
It's nice that the series takes its time to build the story, but sometimes it is a bit too slow.
Did anything disappoint? Yes. I said before that His Dark Materials takes the time to build the world of Lyra and the other characters and that is great. But because of this it takes quite a long time for the series to really get interesting. Especially at the beginning, a lot of explanation must be given about how the world works. Only from the fourth episode, in which Lyra's journey actually begins and a few colourful characters get their introduction, does His Dark Materials really get off the ground and the adventure seems to begin.
I would like to say a whole lot more about His Dark Materials, but this review is already quite long. Despite a slow start, this series is amazing. It is an exciting and imaginative adventure, but it also provides a critical view on certain types of power, religion and philosophy. It is not just a good series, but also a respectful reimagining of the book series (more so than The Golden Compass from 2007). Even before the first episode premiered HBO had already renewed the series for a second season, so we can already look forward to season two.
About the writer, Karzal
Mike (1995) has been a member of MySeries since 2016 and is mainly active on the English version of the site. Since 2018, he has been actively translating news articles, columns, reviews and basically everything that ends up on the Dutch site. The original articles, columns and reviews were actually written by others. During the week Mike can be found at IKEA, where he is a national systems specialist and occasionally also in the classroom to teach an English lesson. In addition, Mike logically enjoys watching series and has actually been spoon-fed this from an early age. The genre doesn't matter, there is a place for everything in the otherwise busy life.
Nicely made series, but it is very slow and little to no action happens. James McAvoy looks nice on the poster, but he barely appears. It was quite a task for me and my girlfriend to watch all 8 of them, but we succeeded: P
Everyone has his own thing. Indeed, it is not the fastest series, and I understand it can be frustrating. But the series takes its time to build a credible world and I personally thought that building that world was actually necessary to build a solid foundation in order to be able to really go wild later. For example, what I was really happy about was Lord Boreal's storyline and how it really laid the groundwork for what's going to happen in season two (but maybe that's a bit cheating for me as I know the storyline of the books). The role of James McAvoy is indeed quite limited, but that's not to say he doesn't add anything.
Is not frustrating, but sleep-inducing. Far too much dialogue, most of which was very long-winded and unnecessary. It is indeed what BlackBiker says: The whole story could have easily been done in 2 hours. And I nowhere say that James McAvoy does not add anything, only that it was on the poster (1 of the reasons I wanted to see this series) and then only appears in 2 eps. Luckily, the beautiful Ruth Wilson was still there :)
I especially thought it was a very slow re-filming of "The Golden Compass". And if I'm very honest, the story actually fit in that 1:54 hour of the movie just fine. Only the storyline of Lord Boreal was new to me and actually I didn't find it that interesting. The ending is also different because the film stopped earlier in terms of story. I really hope season 2 is more interesting (for me). I have not read the books, so I wonder which way it will go.
The story itself can indeed be told in two hours. But that's just the story. The series also takes time to build the world, to conduct character studies and to explore the themes. If they follow the book, season two will be very different, much more absurd. I cannot judge whether it will be more interesting
I have stopped. Very slow with a lot of dialogue was too much for me to follow in English. I wait for it to be broadcast in the Netherlands and then give it another chance.
