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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
24
Mixed:
14
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews
Radio TimesDec 5, 2022
Season 3 Review:
It has been streamlined by screenwriter Jack Thorne and some characters and plot elements from the book have been ditched but it remains a thrilling, immersive TV treat that looks stunning and still has the hard-hitting emotional heft of the book. It is a credit to all involved, both on and off-screen.
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Oct 16, 2019
Season 1 Review:
Wilson is riveting as the mysterious Mrs. Coulter. ... Keen easily conveys [Lyra's] cocksure spirit and fragile innocence; she is a rare child actor who is fully believable as a child. A caveat: This review is based on the first three episodes only (out of eight), so it’s impossible to say whether HDM will fill fulfill its early promise. (Either way, the show has a two-season order.) For now, though, HBO’s new fantasy saga feels like a page-turner.
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Jan 5, 2023
Season 3 Review:
In its third season, His Dark Materials finally strikes the right balance. ... If the series doesn’t always articulate this idea [the cosmic conflict of Pullman’s trilogy in the precious ephemera of everyday life] effectively in its most fantastical sequences, its footing is very sure where it counts, as Mary recalls her joyful loss of faith and Will and Lyra fall in love. The series handles the story’s ending equally well.
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Dec 23, 2022
Season 3 Review:
It can be said without revealing much that season 3 spends too much time of its eight-episodes on Asriel and Coulter and less on Lyra and her companion, the daemon-less Will Parry (Amir Wilson). ... A mostly first-rate cast is thoroughly committed to the beyond-fantastical tale. ... They’re one of the elements of the series that readers of the novels will find particularly ingenious, startling and/or endearing. But these same qualities can be applied to the entire series.
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iDec 19, 2022
Season 3 Review:
Niggles aside, His Dark Materials was a gorgeous spectacle: visually lush with exquisite costumes, beautifully realised details and a sweeping score that made it feel like something really special. But that polish was matched by performances which have only improved as the series has gone on, hammering home the emotional complexities of Pullman’s tale and ready to step up to the vast scope of the eventual grand finale.
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The GuardianNov 9, 2020
Season 2 Review:
Jack Thorne, one of my favourite TV writers (The Fades, currently on BBC iPlayer, is worth your time), revels in punching up Coulter as a combination of Iago and Lady Macbeth with a hint, at her most pantomimic, of Cruella de Vil. In Thorne’s hands, you never know what she might do next.
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Nov 1, 2019
Season 1 Review:
The plot of His Dark Materials is a fusion of ripping adventure yarn and coming-of-age story; neglecting the latter in favor of the former, on the misapprehension that action pleases audiences more than character, is a mistake this production does not make. The expanse of eight episodes makes it possible to do justice to both sweeping quests and intimate conversations.
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Nov 1, 2019
Season 1 Review:
By the end of the four episodes shown for critics, His Dark Materials has started to build up what could be called a head of steam, and even if future episodes never manage to rise above the bar the show sets for itself here, the original novels are strong enough that a faithful retelling of them by competent artists will have its pleasures.
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Nov 28, 2022
Season 3 Review:
At the end of the day, Season 3 of His Dark Materials is…fine. Fans of Pullman’s novels will love the opportunity to see the world of his books brought to such vivid and detailed life onscreen, and its final episode is a rich and heartfelt coda to all that has come before, with Keene and Wilson at their absolute best together. But it’s hard not to wonder what a version of this series that was more willing to take more risks.
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Nov 1, 2019
Season 1 Review:
This season, which follows the first book in the series, stays faithful to the novel with some rearranging. But it’s better at rendering the text’s imagery than capturing its tone. It all feels a little safe and sanded down, compared with the dark emotion of the books.
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Nov 4, 2019
Season 1 Review:
Eventually, near the end of the fourth episode, "Materials" finds its rhythm, and here's hoping that episodes to come will live up to their potential, now that the groundwork has at last been laid. But there are more than 500 TV shows on the air right now, and this one tests the patience of even Pullman's loyal fans.
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Oct 28, 2019
Season 1 Review:
At the end of episode four, the series has barely begun to unpack its more fantastical elements, instead choosing to draw us into its well-rounded interpersonal relationships and emotional connections, all of which add an extra sense of profundity to an otherwise straightforward coming-of-age story.
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Nov 4, 2019The TimesNov 9, 2020
Season 2 Review:
Amir Wilson is good as Will Parry, who comes from Earth's Oxford, and Dafne Keen has barely put a foot wrong as Lyra, who comes from the "alternative" Oxford, but I'm less engaged when minors carry the bulk of the episode. It doesn't help that Lyra's daemon, Pan, sounds like the schoolboy from the Milkybar advert. ... Give it time to blossom.
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TV Guide MagazineNov 14, 2019
Season 1 Review:
A robust adventure series. [11-24 Nov 2019, p.17]
RogerEbert.comNov 6, 2019
Season 1 Review:
The complexity has been diluted, the sharp edges sanded down. Thanks to those brilliant flashes, “His Dark Materials” remains a world worth exploring, but whether you’re comparing it to the source material or coming to it fresh, this series is—apologies for bringing in another liquid at this stage—weak tea.
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Nov 1, 2019
Season 1 Review:
This His Dark Materials nails much of what makes the books pop and both the special effects and a star-studded cast led by Dafne Keen and Ruth Wilson are in fine form. What never fully worked for me in the four episodes, out of the eight-episode first season, sent to critics is the necessary feeling of narrative and thematic momentum. It's vastly better than the movie, but neither fun nor smart enough to quite succeed.
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Oct 28, 2019
Season 1 Review:
It’s a wonderful story, rendered with the liveliness—and the budget—Pullman’s books deserve. Keen’s Lyra has tomboy charm for miles, and her frustration that everyone seems to know more than she does about who she is captures a feeling that, in more abstract form, is universal to her age. Yet the show’s world-building can be messy, as early episodes struggle to establish the conventions of this reality, and watching CGI animals talk plunged me straight into the uncanny valley.
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Oct 24, 2019
Season 1 Review:
The most jarring part of the series, however, is that it somehow renders the potentially vast, bleak, mysterious world of “His Dark Materials” into something more generic. Despite the rich complexities of the novel’s world of daemons, power-hungry players and warring faiths, HBO’s “His Dark Materials” feels like it could have been plucked from most any other fantasy epic out there.
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