His Dark Materials - Season 3

With the third season, His Dark Materials gets an emotional, spectacular, but above all worthy conclusion. It's a wrap! Philip Pullman's iconic book series has finally been completely adapted! In my opinion, His Dark Materials is a worthy adaptation that knows how to respect the source material very well, but is not afraid to sometimes add its own twist to the story. This season does too. The third book is much thicker than the first two, but the series still manages to tell the whole story calmly and does exactly what it is supposed to do.

At the end of season two, Lyra (Dafne Keen, Refugiados) was kidnapped by her mother, Mrs. Coulter (Ruth Wilson, Luther). She hopes to protect Lyra from the Magisterium and the outcome of an ominous prophecy. Will (Amir Wilson, The Letter for the King) is looking for Lyra, but two angels try to get him to live with Lyra's father, Lord Asriel (James McAvoy, Shameless). Asriel is engaged in a war against a divine being called The Authority and Will's mystical blade may be instrumental in defeating this entity.

There is a lot of spectacle, but that is often secondary to the emotional growth of the main characters

There is an awful lot happening in this season and the pace is very high at certain points. Still, the series finds enough rest. Sure, there's a war going on, but that's not the main part. It's Will and Lyra's emotional journey that matters most. This is evident, for example, during two large-scale battles in the second and in the seventh episode. The war is just a side issue. Although I certainly would have liked to see more of these two scenes, it doesn't bother me that they are fairly brief. The finale also takes enough rest and time to complete Will and Lyra's journey. The war against a being who is in fact God is only a side issue. Here and there a storyline sometimes gets snowed under, but in the end, all characters and storylines have a goal and everything comes together nicely toward the end.

What helps is the fantastic cast. Dafne Keen and Amir Wilson are back in top form. They have both matured a lot and you notice that in the more complex acting. And of course, it's a pleasure to see Ruth Wilson at work again. Mrs. Coulter is incredibly layered. Yes, she is evil, but she also has a heart somewhere and Ruth Wilson does a great job of arousing both pity and disgust. James McAvoy's character Asriel also possesses approximately the same qualities. You can sympathize with his cause, but his means are sometimes downright despicable. In any case, it is nice to finally see more of him after a fairly limited role in the first two seasons. And when Asriel and Coulter share the screen, the energy pours right out of your television.



We also have the necessary strong supporting characters. Newcomers like Sian Clifford (Fleabag) and Jonathan Aris (Stan Lee's Lucky Man) as mini-humans called Gallivespians, Jamie Ward (Tyrant) as the Magisterium agent Gomez, and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (Lost) as Asriel's right-hand man Ogunwe all do a great job. It is also nice to see several interesting characters from previous seasons, including the armored polar bear Iorek (Joe Tandberg), the scientist Mary Malone (Simone Kirby, Hidden Assets), the witch queen Serafina Pekkala (Ruta Gedmintas, The Strain) and some other surprising characters.

The creators know how to find the balance between the source material and their own ideas

Where we have already seen a few special worlds and its special inhabitants in the first two seasons, this season goes completely wild. It seems impossible to portray all this properly, but the creators succeed. We see angels, winged harpies, elephant-like Mulefa, Gallivespians, and more. There is some deviation from the source material, but it is not really disturbing. The same goes for certain storylines. The creators realize that things that work well in the books might be a lot less logical or credible in television series. They have found creative solutions for this without detracting from the big story.

After three seasons, it's finally over. The story of Lyra and Will can be appropriately concluded in a season that knows how to surpass itself in terms of spectacle and emotion. Although His Dark Materials is now over, Philip Pullman has written several different short stories about the world of Lyra. He is also working on a second trilogy in this world, The Book of Dust. One of the producers has already indicated that they are interested in filming The Book of Dust as well. And I sincerely hope that we can see these stories on our screens one day.