His Dark Materials *spoilers*

Poop and hair and God knows what else. I like James McEvoy. I like the girl from Logan. The next Game of Thrones? We shall see...

I've read the books multiple times - some of my favorites. I thought this first episode got to a bit of a slow start. I'm going to love it and watch it regardless, but it would be nice if this got renewed to multiple seasons. Pullman has written several other books in this world, and he now has 2 of 3 in a new trilogy (first one takes place as Lyra is a baby, second one is after the events of His Dark Materials).

I find the actress playing Mrs. Coulter to be unattractive; I only mention that because the books has her be a mesmerizing and charming beauty. But the reviews I've read say she's a great actress in this.

Does anyone know - is this first season going to cover the first book (The Golden Compass) in its entirety?

mooseAndSquirrel said:

I'm going to love it and watch it regardless, but it would be nice if this got renewed to multiple seasons.

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They've already finished shooting season 2.

Spoilers for the seasons' relationships with the books.

mooseAndSquirrel said:

I find the actress playing Mrs. Coulter to be unattractive; I only mention that because the books has her be a mesmerizing and charming beauty. But the reviews I've read say she's a great actress in this.

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Ruth Wilson is a really good actress. I first noticed her in Luther. Although she may not be Miss Universe, I don't find Ms. Wilson unattractive. (I'd hit it. )

I was just getting ready to start a thread, so thanks for doing it. I enjoyed the premiere, thought it was an interesting story, well told, well cast. Having said that, I'm not sure I like Ruth Wilson in that role. I like her, but she seems "off" in that character. Time will tell.

Both this and Watchmen are two new HBO series I've never heard of before they aired. Never read a book, have no idea what they're about. I found His Dark Materials to be instantly watchable, with a story that draws you in. Watchmen... not so much. But I've said as much in the Watchmen threads, so let's not rehash it here. I only mention it as a comparison.

I vaguely remember watching The Golden Compass, but don't actually recall anything about it. Should I rewatch it prior to watching this season? I've not read any books on this material either.

LlamaLarry said:

I vaguely remember watching The Golden Compass, but don't actually recall anything about it. Should I rewatch it prior to watching this season? I've not read any books on this material either.

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I don't think so. They cover way too much in a movie. I did kind of like Kidman and Craig in their roles. If anything, I'd suggest reading the book. Not sure if they'll capture a lot of the nuance. For instance, daemons can't be very far from their person (except witches) without excruciating pain, and to touch another person's daemon is a gross violation almost akin to rape.

cheesesteak said:

My (childish) thought about halfway through the first episode was everything must be covered with animal poop since there are so many different daemons around..

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I don't think the daemons eat and drink, so no poop or pee either.

My opinion: do not watch the movie. It's not great and after seeing EP01 here I have more hope for this.

I've read the first two books, but probably 10 years ago or so. The first book was really interesting. The second book ... sort of lost me a bit. It's not that I no longer wanted to read the third, but other things intervened and... it just wasn't a high-enough priority after the second book.

Regarding poop: as I understand it daemons are not "real" in the sense that they eat and poop. They're more, external manifestations of the inner selves of their person. This was mentioned at the beginning of the episode but I don't have the exact text offhand.

I notice that only the main characters seem to have daemons following them around everywhere. Walk through busy hallways and wot-not and the majority of the people are walking by themselves. I guess that saves on the old cgi budget .

I have to rewatch this as I fell asleep some, but it felt interesting. At least from the first episode it had NO GoT feel to it, and felt more like a children's story than anything. Still, intriguing from what I saw.

Steveknj said:

I have to rewatch this as I fell asleep some, but it felt interesting. At least from the first episode it had NO GoT feel to it, and felt more like a children's story than anything. Still, intriguing from what I saw.

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The books are classified as Young Adult fiction, so that vibe makes some sense.

Just finished watching The Idea of North and honestly, I liked this a lot better than the first episode. After the episode premiere on foxtel I was really worried. But I can kinda see where they are going with this now. Lyra still isn't in her full-on Lyra mode yet (though she is pretty curious and has her moments of resourcefulness), but it feels like something that will progress over time. Lord Boreal and Mrs Coulter were incredible and I actually kinda liked Boreal travelling between the worlds. It's a good hook for the non-readers. As for the Gyptians, I feel like I haven't seen enough yet to properly judge. Overall, a huge improvement over last week.

Did anybody else want to kick that monkey's ass when it attacked Pan (and Lyra)?

I keep forgetting that young daemons can change shape. Pan's frequent changes threw me for a loop for a while.

Looks like if you kill a person's daemon, the person dies.

In episode two, I couldn’t help but think of one of my other favorite shows “Counterpart”

It's been a long time since I read the books, but it seems to me they got to Earth much quicker in the TV show...

Rob Helmerichs said:

It's been a long time since I read the books, but it seems to me they got to Earth much quicker in the TV show...

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Haven't seen episode 2 yet, but in the books they don't start world-hopping until the second book, The Subtle Knife

cheesesteak said:

Looks like if you kill a person's daemon, the person dies.

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Yeah, that was my take away as well. Seems that depending on people not to touch/assault/kill your daemon would be a suck way to live if yours happened to find its final form in something like a butterfly/moth/bee. Can the kids control the forms their daemons take, does the daemon do it, or is it random? Does the "don't touch someone's daemon" apply only to humans or to other people's daemons as well?

I'm guessing that when Lyra was kidnapped that the Gobblers also kidnapped Pan, even though it wasn't shown.

One of the characters mentioned some kind of mystery as to why Mrs. Coulson has a monkey daemon. Are they restricted somehow?

I'll have to start reading some recaps because I'm kinda confused as to what the guy who keeps crossing between worlds is up to.