His Dark Materials

There is time and space to do them justice and the first episode, in all its steampunkish glory, gave every sign that the potential is to be realised.

In short, this is the adaptation fans have been waiting two decades to see.

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.

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.

Changes should alarm only nitpickers, and additions, mostly in the spirit of the text, are to the good — fleshing out characters and character relationships, converting description to action, and making a workable motion picture out of words on a page.

It’s a series that’s not perfect and it isn’t the adaptation of the books that we deserve, but it’s good, and that’s a start.

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.

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.

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.

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.