His Dark Materials: Armour

I'm a week behind, with another episode having already aired, but - Lee Scoresby has arrived! Iorek Byrnison has arrived! Serafina Pekkala... has been mentioned! Let's face it, things don't get cracking until these three turn up.

It opens with Lee and his daemon Hester singing with each other on his balloon, and it's just magical. Right there they manage to capture the bond between human and daemon in a way that the previous episodes just couldn't.

And without missing a beat, they dive straight into the exposition, which lands with a heavy clunk. You know, I think this scene will pretty much sum up the show in its entirety: moments of true transcendence side-by-side with leaden info-dumps.

But Lin Manuel Miranda has spoken about what a big fan he is of Pullman's trilogy, and he certainly brings an energy and liveliness to the project that's been missing so far. A bar scene has him fighting with locals while Hester shouts out advice and instructions (which again, portrays the human/daemon bond better than anything we've seen so far) and his motivation grants him a little subplot in which he goes searching for Iorek's armour (even if it doesn't go anywhere).

Though they're characterizing him as a bit more of a con-artist this time around, even a pick-pocket. Eh, I suppose it's not that much of a stretch from what appears in the book.

James Cosmo also does some great work here, hinting at his relationship with Serafina by expressing anxiety about how much he's aged. This is not something the book Farder Coram was too hung up on (you got the sense he had long-since made his peace with his dead son and lost love) but you don't often see a man self-conscious about his age in relation to a woman, and he plays it so beautifully.

He takes Lyra to see Martin Lanselius, which is one of the best scenes of the book. Don't ask me why, I couldn't tell you. But Lanselius is one of my favourite minor characters, who is drawn so clearly despite only appearing in the story this one time. He's a quiet, unassuming man, but with an extraordinary job that suggests still waters run deep in him.

Here he's played by Omid Djalili, who would have been perfect for Lord Boreal, but never mind. I always pictured Lanselius as a smaller, more timid man, though I realize I sound odd for having such strong ideas about a minor character who is literally never seen again.

But I did appreciate seeing the downstairs cellar with all the cloud pines, which is not revealed or described in the book (Lyra fetches it off-screen while Martin and Farder Coram talk).

But when we get to Iorek, the script lifts things straight from the page, because why wouldn't they? We learn he's been exiled from his home, that a polar bear's armour is the equivalent of a person's daemon, and that he's prepared to throw in his lot with Lyra and the gyptians in exchange for its return.

The CGI is pretty good (something tells me he's the reason we're not seeing many daemons) though I'm not keen on his accent. Iofur didn't have one, did he?

Because the episode ends with a meeting between Mrs Coulter and Iofur, which sets up the power dynamic between them. I'm not sure why they're meeting in a cave, as it's not like Iofur's obsession with Coulter was any kind of secret at court, but it demonstrates her manipulative side.

Like mother, like daughter in that regard, though Lyra's similar machinations result in both Lee and Iorek joining the gyptians to mount a rescue mission for the children, and I like that it's clear why both man and bear devote themselves to her cause.

Miscellaneous Observations:

Hey, it's Dudley Dursley! I'm sure he's a nice guy in real life, but... yeah, he really does have a face for playing creepy fanatics.

Another look at Mrs Coulter's psyche occurs when she slaps away the monkey's hand and rejects his comfort on the airship; a pretty clear expression of self-hate.

It occurs to me for the first time that the Magisterium never seems to question employing a woman like Mrs Coulter. I don't mean her obvious ruthlessness, but that she's clearly seductive and conniving, two things that the church definitely doesn't like in a woman. It's hypocrisy I guess, but it caught my attention this time.

Mrs Coulter met with Fra Pavel, who if memory serves is in The Amber Spyglass (it's the one I've read the least amount of times) and asks who Lyra Belacqua is. Clearly she's gunning for her "true name" as it appears in the witches' prophecy, but... does she get it here? Because that's pretty important information, and not something that should be shared off-screen.

Um... Serafina's daemon is a snow goose, and that bird was definitely not a snow goose. What's going on? All the other daemons have been accurate. Kaisa watching the incident with the polar bear from above was cool though.

They're giving Tony Costa a lot of screentime, so that's interesting. Do they have something planned for him?

***

So I'm still enjoying myself, and yet they can't seem to make things feel important or urgent. There's no sense of stakes, even with all those children missing. It's hard to put my finger on what's missing, though the wishy-washy dialogue doesn't help. Farder Coram and John Faa have a conversation about bringing Lyra along, in which the former says: "something tells me I'll need her."

Why not have him say something like: "I don't want to take her, but we have to," which is just off the top of my head, but still feels like a stronger, more complex sentiment. Besides which, hasn't Lyra's presence among them been established already? They've already taken her all the way to Trollesund! That argument is over. 

In the book, the conversation between Lyra and Lanselius, the silent ebb and flow of information, is FASCINATING. Here, it just sort of happens. Also, why leave out the part where Lyra negotiates with Iorek and tells him not to take vengeance? Here she just says: "that's fair," when he says he'll kill anyone that gets in his way, which doesn't mesh at all with her intervening to save Dudley's life a few minutes later. It's all so toothless.

Ah well, Lin Manuel Miranda and Iorek have already pushed more energy into the proceedings, so let's see what they do next...