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Based off of Phillip Pullman’s young adult series trilogy, His Dark Materials was a surprisingly fun 1st season entry last year. Those fans of the movie adaptation a decade ago called The Golden Compass had to wade through what was basically a re-telling of The Golden Compass in season form (the movie took the first book and adapted it, this is going for the second novel), but the slight inconvenience was worth the effort. The show managed to be much more cohesive than the movie and gave us hints at a bigger world out there with more conflict. This season picks up right where the show left off last year and throws us right back in with Lyra’s adventures abroad.
Lyra Belacqua (Dafne Keen) is running from the Magesterium with her her ferret like Deamon Pan (who acts as her conscience and sounding board for her problems) while Mrs. Coulter (Ruth Wilson) is off somewhere doing her own thing. The Magesterium (in all of it’s Catholic comparative glory) is trying their best to capture the young waif, but are having problems of their own as well internally. They’re trying to deal with the “rip in the sky” (supposedly created by Lyra’s father, who was played by James McAvoy). Simultaneously, Lyra manages to escape to the “City in the Sky”, a prophesied city that is actually known as Cittagazze.
Cittagazze is an abandoned city that looks like it was left in a hurry. But here is where things get interesting, and new characters pop up. Lyra meets a lone boy named Will Parry (Amir Wilson) who comes from an entirely different world. A world that appears to be what would be considered “Earth Realm”. Will is also looking for a missing father, causing the duo to team up and go exploring, which just so happens to be Will’s portal back to “our” reality. There Lyra is privy to seeing a brand new variation on Oxford. One that is built on capitalism and consumerism (at least in the eyes of Magesterium), and is devoid of the oppressive Government of Religion that Lyra’s world is being crushed under.
The show can be a bit contrived at times (the dark matter discovery is one of those bits that just feels a bit overly convenient). They are a bit too easy to come by, and wrap up to easily as well. However the best parts of the show is really the balance between science and religion, and how the two are symbiotic in many ways in the show. It’s a fascinating dichotomy and one that plays out a little differently than I think even Phillip Pullman imagined when he was writing it (Pullman got a lot of controversy back in the day for saying that this trilogy’s purpose was to be the “anti-religion” books of his days).
Rating:
Rated TV-14 by the MPAA
Video:
![4.5 Stars :4.5stars: :4.5stars:](/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/4.5_stars.png)
Audio:
![4.5 Stars :4.5stars: :4.5stars:](/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/4.5_stars.png)
Extras:
![3 Stars :3stars: :3stars:](/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/3_stars.png)
• Exploring His Dark Materials: Panserbjørne
• Exploring His Dark Materials: Daemons
• Exploring His Dark Materials: Portals & The Multiverse
• Exploring His Dark Materials: Witches
• His Dark Materials: Bringing Daemons and Bears to Life
• His Dark Materials: Exploring Cittàgazze
• His Dark Materials: Worlds Collide
• The Powerful Mrs. Coulter
• Lyra
• The Subtle Knife
Final Score:
![4 Stars :4stars: :4stars:](/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/4_stars.png)
The second season of His Dark Materials really found it’s own this year. Last season set things up nicely, but this year takes the hand off from the previous and expands upon the characters and the world. Sure, the show does lend itself towards easy outs and wrapping up plot points, but those are minimal compared to the world building that still continues. I’ve continued to be impressed with how the show takes the novels and makes them their own, and still keeps them pulling you in for the next season (which is out soon I believe). A great Blu-ray by all technical specs, and a decent show that surpassed the previous entry level season. Worth a watch.
Technical Specifications:
Starring: Dafne Keen, Kit Connor, Amir Wilson, James McAvoy, Ruth Wilson, Andrew Scott, Leanne Holder
Created by: Jack Thorne, Phillip Pullman (Books)
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, French, German DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Portuguese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Swedish
Studio: Warner Brothers / HBO
Rated: TV-14
Runtime: 345 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: June 29th, 2021
Recommendation: Good Watch