https://youtu.be/APduGe1eLVI: Series 1
https://youtu.be/3CdQm6gLHUM: Series 2
An ‘in progress’ report. I was not posting when I watched the first series but it was a superb, exemplary adaptation and I am very pleased to be able to say that, so far, the promise has been more than fulfilled. Style and spirit working hand in hand!
And after Episode 4 - oh yes…The voice-over scene-setting at the start was an excellent idea as it pulled together he various strands and the way the books - all three - have been structurally adapted is superb.
Well about to watch the penultimate episode - and looking good. Last week was wonderful and the character of Mrs Counter is definitely done with more nuance and sympathy than in the book - not that she is a mere cardboard cut-out villain there of course. The close-ups on her face are wonderfully revelatory as is much is conveyed and she really is someone one can empathise and sympathise with - not so much the case in the book.
Well the second series has now ended gloriously -although also tragically. Seeing this episode reminded me just how effectively and brutally radical Pullman was in his willingness to lose major characters - but always as a dramatic means of advancing the plot. And my earlier thoughts about Mrs Coulter are more than rightly confirmed; she really is the central character. And I am sure she is more ambiguous than in the book - although it has been a while since I have read the first series. He relationship with her daemon is fascinating and richly nuanced - one almost feels much more sympathy for him than her although of course, they are two sides of the same coin.
Apparently a stand-alone episode with Asriel -absent throughout this series although his actions are the initial trigger which sets of much of what happens here - was unable to be filmed due to Covid but there was a fragment of it (or just something that was possible to add at the end)? -which set up the upcoming final battle. And I was glad that I read online that there was a post-credits teaser for the next series; I have not stayed with previous episodes up to that point so I will have to check to find out if there was anything similar in earlier episodes. I suspect that if there were, they would only tease the upcoming episode so it makes sense if this only happened at the end of the series.
So, a year now at least until the final episode, I suppose…