Series Review: His Dark Materials, Season One (HBO)

hisdarkmaterials

Series Blurb:

A young girl is destined to liberate her world from the grip of the Magisterium which represses people’s ties to magic and their animal spirits known as daemons.

My Review:

Characters

3star

Though interesting on first glance, the characters in this show fall flat to me in the long run. They don’t measure up to the movie version or the books by a long shot.

Plot

twostars

While the plot started off well enough, it ended up becoming a quickly sinking ship that didn’t seem to have a real rhyme or reason.

Flowtwostars

The flow was good in the beginning, but later on the number of subplots alone seems to ruin any kind of flow.

Overall Impression

I really wanted to like this, but it is awful in the long run (I have NO idea why it’s receiving such acclaim). Characters vividly portrayed in the book and movie version (yes, I’m comparing, and you should too!) with intriguing personalities and wonderful speeches are painted in a bland sense. The speeches didn’t feel inspired enough to excite me.

And the plot? Jesus. BBC clearly tried to overcomplicate the plot in this first season, which ended up confusing and frankly, disappointing. Also, large parts of the plot in the Earthlike world simply could’ve been cut out. It had very little entertainment value. Did BBC skimp on visual effects, or is it just me?

If you can get over the odd pacing, plot holes, and overcomplication, sure, try this out. But I can not recommend it. I will not be watching the second season of this travesty.

Final Score

4.5/10

Wrap-up

That’s it for this series review. How about you? Have you seen this one?

Did you enjoy it? Love it, hate it? Feel free to comment, and have a great day!

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6 Comments »

    • I will admit that I’m biased based on my reading the books and seeing the movie prior, but my friends who hadn’t read the books didn’t like it much either. By the end, we were hate-watching it just to finish the season lol.

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