His Dark Materials (BBC serial)

In addition to this I think a big factor is that she realises the car is accelerating away from Pan which is why she gets increasingly frantic about wanting to get out since the prospect of physical separation from your daemon would be terrifying to someone from her world.
Have been enjoying this series (as I did the previous) and can't remember all the details of the books as it's been some years since I read them.

As for this incident, I agree with the above (and I wonder how many Chroners have forgotten their bag in a car/bus/train - I know I have!) but was surprised that Lyra got into the car in the first place - she normally exhibits more "smarts" than that.
 
Two things jump out at me; one is the presence of daemons in the background, and the other is pacing. This season seems a little ... not faster exactly, but ... tighter, more compelling, where season had a lot of moments that started to drag quite badly imo.

I think also they have found their voice a bit more. It seems to me that S1 didn't fully know what it wanted to be (a situation probably caused by quite a generationally diverse fanbase, including younger viewers, older viewers, fantasy audience, non-fantasy audience, new viewers to the series, old hands, and so on - a curse that Star Wars also massively battled with, tmm). Pullman is, as I understand it, primarily a children's author but the take up of HDM by older readers probably caused a bit of a direction wobble. Whereas now, they seem to have settled into a "yes, we are for younger viewers too but we have a weird Dr Who-ish sheen and we can make the two work together" sort of vibe, for me. Kid-friendly TV used to be like that anyway - some of the stuff in the UK in the 70s and 80s was downright freakish as I recall, and probably long overdue an homage or three :) All of which is good. It's a reasonably bold course to go, I would say.

I think the second season is in some ways easier to adapt than the start of the first season since there's not the same need for exposition to explain all the things we need to know about Lyra's world. By the second season the audience should be familiar with daemons, 'our' Oxford needs no explanation and we can discover Citigazze along with Lyra and Will since they also don't know anything about it.

I've seen speculation that the increased number of daemons could be due to having more money after their deal with HBO.

I noticed more daemons, though still not enough in my opinion. Most people seem to have bugs now.

I did like the lemur daemon in the most recent episode.

re things that aren't clear to people who haven't read the books - my partner asked why Lee Scoresby didn't just grab Mrs Coulter's monkey to knock her out. It's not overly obvious that it's taboo to touch other people's daemons.

Now I'm not sure whether they've explained that in the show. I don't think they have in the second season, I can't remember whether they did in the first.

As for this incident, I agree with the above (and I wonder how many Chroners have forgotten their bag in a car/bus/train - I know I have!) but was surprised that Lyra got into the car in the first place - she normally exhibits more "smarts" than that.

She does seem wary but I'm not sure she had much option. The policeman was surely going to catch her if she remained on foot and she doesn't know the policeman is working with Boreal.
 
Now I'm not sure whether they've explained that in the show. I don't think they have in the second season, I can't remember whether they did in the first.

I think maybe they did in the first when someone grabbed one of the kids' daemons, but I can't remember if it was stated explicitly or just alluded to.
 
As one of those who haven't read the books, I struggled with making sense of things in the first season.
Now, I'll know that whenever my wife is dusting the living room, she's really removing dark matter. :)
 
From an article on the website Winter Is Coming (which seems to have expanded its scope since the last time I visited):
the writer and producer, Jack Thorne, has told Comics Beat, "So I’ve been writing Series Three; I’ve written four episodes of Series Three."
However, renewal has not yet been confirmed.
 
From an article on the website Winter Is Coming (which seems to have expanded its scope since the last time I visited):However, renewal has not yet been confirmed.

Today it was confirmed that it was renewed for a third (and final) season of 8 episodes.

I really enjoyed both series, though I didn't realise episode 7 of season 2 was the finale until those major events occurred. I haven't read any of the books, but I'm hoping for another season.

It was meant to be 8 episodes but one episode focusing on Lord Asriel which was being filmed after the others to fit into James McAvoy's schedule was cancelled due to the pandemic.
 
I'm catching up on the second series on iPlayer. A brilliant first two episodes! It might be something I binge-watch, which would still only be around 2 episodes a week for me.
 
I've just binge watched the second series. All in all I thought it well done and pretty much followed the books, as I remember them anyway.

However, there is a growing problem on TV and film and that is... whispering.
Ruth Wilson's Marissa does it a lot, and it's really irritating, especially when there's no need for it, like when two characters are alone :mad:
 
I rewatched the Golden Compass movie and then went through season 1 of His Dark Materials. I probably shouldn't have watched the movie so closely beforehand as it spoilt a lot of the plot. Actually the first half of the movie was pretty good, with much set at the University. It went through that part quite slowly. Seemed like two episodes of the series went through the same as that first half. But then the movie accelerates into a desperate rush for an anti-climactic battle and the bear fight.
The series added some side stories and the details about parents were rather a big difference. Also with the scenes of the alternate world. So it was definitely far superior overall. Both had good actors, though some of the characters appeared and acted very differently. Even some demons like the monkey.
 
I'm catching up on the second series on iPlayer. A brilliant first two episodes! It might be something I binge-watch, which would still only be around 2 episodes a week for me.
And much slower than M. Robert Gibson it seems, over 2 months later I've finished! I'm a little disappointed, as I just went to the iPlayer wondering where episode 8 was, thinking 7 was setting up for a big finale. Oh well, I enjoyed those 7 episodes very much.

What I like about this series is that they've clearly listened to viewers' concerns re: season 1 and actively addressed them in season 2. It makes me feel like I'm in safe, considerate hands, hands that care about what they're making. Far too often, I see serieses (!!) start with a big budget bang and then slowly, slowly start to meander into the floodlands of turgid and tired writing until you're at the point where you're desperate to quit it but it's become such part of your life that you daren't, just out of fear of change.

I swear, it's the same psychology that makes people struggle to quit bad situations. I bet the producers know it too. I bet it's part of their strategy. God, I'm cynical. They probably have a name for that point too. Yeah. Gah. :)
I'm not sure how likely that was given the second series starting filming before the first aired, though I imagine feedback could have been taken into account to an extent.
 
I'm not sure how likely that was given the second series starting filming before the first aired, though I imagine feedback could have been taken into account to an extent.
While I hadn't heard that, except for right here, it is entirely possible given that the effects would have been added post-production, and so after filming took place.

I just went to the iPlayer wondering where episode 8 was, thinking 7 was setting up for a big finale.

It's another effect of Covid-19. There is a whole story of what Lord Asriel was busy doing in The Subtle Knife that they meant to include in Season 2 but had to stop filming. I expect we will catch up with it in Season 3.
 

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