A solid set up for the first season (book). This series has been a long time coming for me and I've been so excited to see it done right. From everything in this episode they seem to have nailed it. Great casting choices and all looks hopeful for what's to come. Keen is 100% Lyra.
I have one reservation and that's the casting choice for Lee Scoresby. If they wanted to shoehorn Lin-Manuel Miranda into the show somehow there were plenty of other roles for him. He's far too young for that character imho and really doesn't seem to hit the accent either. Happy to stand corrected once his character does appear but not holding out hope.
It's been an eternity since I read the books so I can't comment on the adaptation. What I will say, is that visually, it's stunning (except for the animals, those could look quite more realistic).
The cast seems great so far, and honestly I'd watch pretty much anything James McAvoy is in. He's amazing. I also really liked the music, as weird as that may sound lol.
Wasn't expecting much from this, not really sure why I decided to watch this. But it starts pretty well, let's hope this continues.
I'm cautiously optimistic based on this first episode. It seems faithful to the book and I really like the cast.
I felt like maybe there was too much awkward exposition up front and yet I still feel like I would be pretty lost if I didn't already know the story.
Were there helicopters in the book? I don't remember that and it seemed out of place with the 1920s technology feel of the rest of the world. Also, it felt like only the main characters had daemons with none in the background.
But, there were also moments here where I was completely entranced by the story being told. I'm looking forward to the next episode.
Intriguing. Not perfect, but i’ll keep watching.
(Saw a pre-screening)
A few minutes in (after the text), I'm thinking "What in the Harry Potter Narnia is going on here?". It's an unfamiliar yet familiar mixture of medieval and modern themes, seemingly from a 1960s perspective of what the future may be like. Interesting, I'll keep watching...
I'm at the intro sequence now, and I still have no idea what is going on, who anyone is, or why anything is important. All I got is that
None of this is connecting with me in an interesting way yet, but I'll keep watching...
The intro sequence + animations reminds me a lot of Game of Thrones (objects transforming around), Benjamin Button (old-style watch), Stargate SG-1 (old-style watch reminds me of a DHD), Inception (upside-down stairs and city), and Interstellar (the multiple layers of cityscapes and horizons sandwiching together reminds me of the Tesseract). Music is pretty generic to me. I'll keep watching...
At the end now, I'm thinking of Narnia the whole time with the talking animals and 1960s/2000s anachronism of technologies. I'm interested enough in this "dust" and the city revealed in the aurora borealis to watch another episode to see what the "evil Ministry of Magic" will do, and what they know
I read half of the book before coming to watch the show instead because the book didn’t interest me too much. Seeing everything visualized is much more interesting to me idk I guess my imagination is cooked. This is a good introduction though that made some aspects more and less interesting to the book. Probably about the same level as the book so far.
6/10
A Harry Potter adjacent multiverse type show. My attention strayed a few times and I'm not sure what exactly the story is about, but it's curious enough, let's see where it goes.
good pilot, a little slow, but essential to set the themes and tone of the whole series. I didn't read the books, we can certainly see that they've changed some characters, but for me it didn't come of as forced.
Whole lot of blah blah blah, not a whole lot of sense
Guessing you would have to read all the books related to this TV show to actually get what is going on
[Initial Impression] Spectacular cast. Wonderful performances. An intriguing premise and storytelling. Convincing special effects. I think this is going to be a marvellous series for those who love fantastic adventures. I give this series an optimistic 8 (great) maybe 9 (superb) out of 10. [Fantasy Adventure]
I felt the premiere was a strong, confident start. I love that its world and character building is being done gradually but assuredly. Like the best shows I suspect it’ll need a couple of episodes to fully draw you in, but it’s in the quiet character moments that it’ll hook you.
Well, I haven't read the books so this one was quite confusing for me.
It had a nice wrap as a book coming to life BUT if you're not familiar with the source material a lot of things sounded a bit silly. For example never in my life I've witnessed such drama and awe for "dust". Last time dust was that significant was when aliens invaded Mel Gibson's and Joaquin Phoenix's farm house.
Couple of thoughts that came to my mind during the watch:
• Amid the slideshow presentation, when Lord Asriel showed them the "Ah Ha! A city, in the sky!" first thing came to me was "no way, Ant-Man quantum city is here too?"
• How many more actors from Marvel comics medias and the X-Men franchies taking part in this show.
• Is this better from Dark Phoenix?
• Please let Huge Jackman have a cameo at the finalé.
• Every person in this show has a CGI animal companion, but Jon freakin' Snow (who, by my understanding so far, might be the king of this north too) couldn't have Ghost as a regular good boi? The heck HBO.
• As a college student, I have never took that much pride of being in college.
• My spirit animal most suited for this world: the European Dust Mite, of course
Great start. I am just not sure why they how Lyra was spying on the Master. When it was just Asriel talking. She didn’t get to hear the Master say any of his plans.
It is great though that we’ll finally get more of the story. Since I think it was actually Catholics who banned sequels from happening. Calling the movie Sac religious.
Review by N'Delamiko BeyBlockedParent2019-11-05T10:53:58Z— updated 2019-11-06T11:06:04Z
So "His Dark Materials" is quite amazing.
It's not just the visuals, and aesthetic which are amazing, it's that as a staunch and stolid lover of the books, it is utterly glorious to see the story come to life and so faithfully.
The monstrosity that was the film version of this story, which although beautiful, was horribly truncated while being overpacked and veered so wildly from the source material in some crucial ways, I was glad they never made the remaining parts of the story as it would have been excruciating. Even with Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman, it was just not the story I had hoped to see.
For me, it was that the actress who played Lyra, was far too pretty, far too pretty even in her 'scrappy' running around Jordan College as a hoyden of chaos and ruin.
In all the major ways that the film failed, this single first episode of the HBO series succeeds and with the most thrilling reaction in me as a fan.
I know the story. I've read the trilogy at least once a year since 2004.
But this still makes me want to sink deep into this visual retelling. And oh, oh my, the visuals... Lyra's world is exceptionally realised, and we still are yet to see much beyond Jordan College.
I love the added scene of Lord Asriel delivering baby Lyra and Pantalaimon to the Master of Jordan College, during the Great Flood. This was a beautifully added detail, that in the books was only retold to Lyra in a second-hand fashion by Ma Costa. Here we're given a snippet of this, at the beginning, where we're well into the first story before we get anything real about the amazing Lyra Belacqua aka Lyra Silvertongue.
This episode, whets the appetite of even the most ardent and devoted fan of His Dark Materials (like myself). I and eagerly awaiting the second episode, and thoroughly enjoyed watching it with my thirteen year old son last night.
I must say that James MacAvoy is looking RATHER distinguished! Plus he manages to convey the ferocity and intensity of Lord Asriel in a way I never got from Daniel Craig who was merely cold.
This and Carnival Row, both exceeded my expectations! Do watch!