His Dark Materials: Big Improvement From The Movie

Trailer attached to the bottom.

For years, fans of the hit international bestselling series 'His Dark Materials' written by Phillip Pullman have been craving a worthy adaptation for the big or small screen. In HBO's newest series of the same title, I believe we may have something that we can call an okay adaptation of the books.

The Story follows a young orphan girl named Lyra who has lived at Jordan College for most of her life with her best friend Roger. The unique thing about this world is that everyone has a demon in the form of an animal that they can communicate and share feelings with. The demons basically represent the souls of their host. So at some point Roger goes missing and she sets out on a quest to save him, and on this quest she is met with everything from armored bears and powerful witch clans, to learning about a mysterious substance called dust and her connection to it.

The show I thought did a good job taking the craziness from the pages and translating it to the small screen. Obviously with the budget of a TV show, there were comers that had to be cut but overall the CG held up. I was in the process of reading the first book while also watching the show so it was very cool to see what I just read, show up in the show. I felt the story overall was help in take with only small cuts to side stories and characters. Since each season is equal to one book, I expect at least 2 maybe 3 more seasons for the show to finish its run as long as HBO lets it.

The show also did a good job with its pacing. One thing I look for in shows is how they balance the more critical story moments with the lesser in between. Every show is different and some can get away with more 'filler' if done right. His Dark Materials I felt did a good enough job balancing its elements. Since it is a novel adaptation, it is much easier to set a pace and keep to it. There were only a few moments where I felt the story was moving to fast and didn't let the viewer breath with the characters.

Overall, the show did what fans have been craving. It was able to bring their favorite stories and characters to life in a respectable way. It is far from perfect but I think fans of the book series will find what they are looking for in the show. Like I mentioned earlier in the post, the series is available on HBO right now and I would expect season 2 late this year, early next year due to the fact that they need to keep the characters roughly the same age.

Worm Rating: worm approved

Worm Count: 75/100