HBO/BBC His Dark Materials series

[AndrewCrossett]

Oh, I'm stoked for this one. Loved that trilogy of books, but I always knew volumes 2 and 3 would never fly in American theaters. This is the perfect way to do justice to the story without having to nerf the un-religious theme.

Should be a good follow-up to Game of Thrones for HBO... though it may very well premiere before the final season of GoT airs.

[Panic]

I am looking forward to this adaptation, despite personally feeling the third book was disappointing. Love the first two books though.


I've grabbed the cast list from the wiki page, and I've got to say it's looking pretty good:

Dafne Keen as Lyra, an orphan
Lin-Manuel Miranda as Lee Scoresby, an adventurer
James McAvoy as Lord Asriel
Ruth Wilson as Marisa Coulter
Clarke Peters as Dr Carne, The Master of Jordan College
Ian Gelder as Librarian Scholar Charles
Will Keen as Father MacPhail
Ariyon Bakare as Lord Boreal
Georgina Campbell as Adele Starminster
Anne-Marie Duff as Ma Costa
James Cosmo as Farder Coram
Lucian Msamati as John Faa
Mat Fraser as Raymond Van Geritt
Geoff Bell as Jack Verhoeven
Simon Manyonda as Benjamin de Ruyter
Lewin Lloyd as Roger Parslow
Daniel Frogson as Tony Costa
Tyler Howitt as Billy Costa
Archie Barnes as Pantalaimon

Now that's a nice cast.

It's supposed to be one of the most expensive BBC productions ever, and I thought Johnathan Strange & Mister Norrell looked pretty damn good a few years ago. The Beeb must be confident in its success as they've just commissioned season 2 without waiting to see how season 1 is received.

[Elmo]

Hell yeah. loved the books as a kid.

I didn't like the movie that came out in 2007 at all; too much set up and not enough action, and the movie doesn't even adapt the entire first book. Hated it. However it had an amazing cast.

Hopefully the source material will translate better to TV; the lore gets dense

[AndrewCrossett]

The partnership with HBO certainly gives them reason for confidence... much better than sticking it on BBC America or something.

[AndrewCrossett]

This debuts tonight! Anybody planning to watch?

[EmeraldGladiator]

I liked it, only reservation was the whole kid's POV for a show that is 'seemingly' more adult based, don't get me wrong I loved that as a kid but it isn't my jam as I have gotten older. That being said it seems to have great potential to become the reason I keep HBO.

[AndrewCrossett]

Guh, I got sidetracked and couldn't watch it last night. Tonight for sure.

I'm also keeping HBO for Westworld, for the (hopefully) upcoming series The Nevers, and (optimistically) the Game of Thrones spinoffs.

[Kirby101]

A bit hard to follow. But I liked it and assume they will explain as we go further along.

[Panic]

It was good. The cast is excellent, it looks expensive, and the fact it is taking its time to get into the story is a good thing, imo. People have pointed out that the show has short-changed a lot of background characters of their daemons, probably due to time and money, but that's a minor quibble. I'm looking forward to the next episode.

[AndrewCrossett]

It does look good. I'm happy with the casting. The daemons are particularly hard to do without looking or sounding silly, but they are managing. It's never ideal when you have to open your show with a text info-dump, and even less so when that text contains references to prophecies and chosen ones, but I guess that was the least awkward way of doing it.