His Dark Materials: Season 3

It's interesting the additional context the show is giving us of the War in Heaven outside of Lyra and Will. But the truth is their journeys are really the only ones that matter. Why? Because despite the fact that I believe Asriel's cause is righteous, the truth is he is a wholly evil man fighting this war for entirely selfish reasons. And as bad as the Authority is portrayed as in this episode, one of the things that interested me about the actual war in the book is that there were no actual good guys to root for. You could only hope that Lyra and Will could squash this nonsense by figuring out what was really going on. And yeah, as great as it is to get a bigger picture than we got in the book, at this point, the only perspectives worth exploring were Lyra and Will's. There is the welcome return of Yorick here and Lee Scoresby shows up later in the afterlife too. But I wasn't entirely sold on the premiere because both Lyra and Will got comparatively little screentime.

Mrs. Coulter with the deaf girl is weirdly chilling. Her false empathy is the thing that makes me cringe.

The two male angel lovers from the book are here. I always thought that was neat.

It's a promising opener suggesting how that final crazy novel might possibly be done on a TV budget. But I would have liked it more if it were more focused on Lyra and Will. 3 1/2 stars

Weirdly, I believe Mrs. Coulter actually DOES love Lyra at this point, which is all kinds of messed up.

The stuff with the female angel and the captured one was riveting. I also liked Asriel's interrogation because before he even started the torture he got a LOT of information simply from correctly reading the angel's body language and facial expressions. I can't stand Asriel, but even I know that's a gift.

The thing that I detest most about the man is he's never given us a satisfactory explanation on why he's intent on taking down the Authority. Yeah, yeah, oppression, and the loss of free will of everyone on Earth. Except Asriel never talks about that. I always get the feeling that Asriel's beef with the Authority is down to the fact that Asriel believes himself a divine being and detests anything out there potentially laying claim to a higher authority than his own. His quest to destroy God is down to the fact that that's the final frontier of the scientist who has discovered and conquered all previously unknown worlds. Asriel doesn't want to destroy God because he's righteous. He wants to do it to prove there is no being in existence that has power over him. It's narcissism and hubris that drives Asriel.

Churchy types gave the books a LOT of crap for being antireligious. But if you ask me, the antireligious movement takes it on the chin a lot itself. Repeatedly.

Mrs. Coulter is so dangerous because she knew exactly which buttons to push to get inside of Will's head. And once she messes up she's all, "Look at what you've done!" Much like her ex-lover Asriel, Coulter is a person who very much refuses to take any level of responsibility for any foolish or damaging things she's done.

That trailer at the end of the rest of the season was amazeballs. I mean, I already knew Lee Scoresby was coming back, but the split second shot of Lin-Manuel Miranda at the end was a REAL crowdpleaser. This season is going to be great.

Things are definitely picking up. 4 stars.

Similarly, when Asriel asks Coulter why she can't be what he wants, she tells him to get his hands off of her. It's a great moment, clearly written and meant for adults.

Lyra sweet-talking Yorick into doing whatever she wants never gets old, mostly because at this point she is using reason rather than guile. Her arguments being correct being the thing that impresses Yorick says something good about where Lyra is now.

People are starting to have doubts about Asriel. To be blunt they should have had them long before Coulter showed up. And the messed up thing is I trust her far more than I do him.

The show's last season is turning out amazing. 4 stars.

As for the Father President, as far as TV villains go, he's the most appalling I've seen in a while. Notice I don't say most evil, devious, conniving, sinister, or insane. He's appalling in the sense that the way he says and does the things he says and does make me cringe in embarrassment for him. I'm wondering if this specific type of villain was truly plausible until some real-world examples of embarrassing evil people came along in the past few years. All I know is very few evil characters get my pity for how they choose to go about their evil. Pathetic villains are not unheard of, of course. But Hugh is on his own damn level of that.

I love that Mrs. Coulter asks the security guard to follow up on his threat, and he lamely says he'll call for support. And she smiles and says, "Good for you. We all need support." I mentioned this show isn't made directly for children? That! That!

I like the Boatman for being absolutely 100% real with both Lyra, and especially Will. Will thinks Lyra's his first upset customer? NOBODY wants to be there! The guy always tries to be chill to help calm the situation, but really man, this is not new. I love that.

I was less comfortable with the notion that a death is a living thing all beings carry with them. If somebody wants to accuse Philip Pullman or this show of being sacrilegious I just want to point out that is specifically a very spiritual idea and notion. If Pullman were the intractable atheist his critics claim he was, that idea wouldn't be a thing.

Man, that ending just ripped my guts in half. As intended. Kudos. 5 1/2 stars.