A review of season 3 of "His Dark Materials", the touching and epic conclusion to Philip Pullman's adaptation of the saga
The finale of Lyra and Will's adventures: confusing in places, heartbreaking in dreams.
"Even after its conclusion, The Dark Beginnings was undecided about its niche in the pop-cultural and media space. The HBO and BBC project has been increasingly pressed for a replacement role: to support an audience bored with Harry Potter, to pick up Game of Thrones ratings, or to become a flagship platform. The film adaptation of Philip Pullman's novels failed to meet any of the missions assigned by audiences and spokespeople on the Web, and in 2022 it was also left in the shadow of the mighty battle of titans online: "The Lord of the Rings" and "House of Dragons." But the diligent selection of labels in the case of "Dark Beginnings" is from the sly: Lyra and Will took its own place as a bittersweet Christmas tale - all three seasons ended at the end of December.
The paths of the characters diverge into several parallel plots: some meet, some break up, and some return. Mrs. Coulter (Ruth Wilson) keeps her daughter in a state of oblivion and slumber, lest Lyra (Daphne Keane) be found by agents of the Magisterium. The servants of the powerful church see a new Eve in the girl and want to prevent the prophecy from coming true at the cost of the teenager's life. Lord Asriel (James McAvoy) intends to go to war against Metatron - the Lord Regent of the heavenly realm - and the Sovereign himself, whom he interprets as an angel usurper. An Oxford scholar like ours, Mary Mallone (Simone Kirby) is transported to the wondrous world of the magical beings of the Mulephs and studies the dust, which in that dimension is called "shruff." Wonderknife bearer Will (Amir Wilson) searches for Lyra and meets a longtime and great friend of Dark Beginnings bear Yorek Bernison.
The final novel of the trilogy (but not the saga--Puhlman also released The Oxford Lyra and the prequel about Lee Scoresby), The Amber Telescope, suffered the most in its transfer to the screen. The final battle (good and good? evil and evil?) skips steps, reshapes arrangements, and compresses the agonizing approach of the finale. All the exegesis of the plot, however, is deliberate and in the service of cinematic expressiveness. The second half of the season is filled with impressive battles, flights, escapes and battles of conscience. But still, "Dark Beginnings" is much better at intimate and compact scenes: Mrs. Coulter and Lord Asriel's sworn lovers, Mary Malone's discoveries or Lira and Will's timid touches of dæmons. The plot rut of the teenagers who come together at the beginning of the season remains the most clinging, touching, painful, and, in general, key to the novel.
We desperately want Daphne Keane and Amir Wilson's pairing to stand the test of time and audience love (not just reader love). The young artists carefully bring to the screen the timid poetry of first feelings, which is destined for a great purpose. The fierce atheist Pullman in "Dark Beginnings" smashed religious dogma and denounced clerics who are intoxicated with secular power. The books were banned and the writer condemned, but the beliefs in serial form became more malleable and less categorical. With their hands, Dark Beginnings tries to break the vessel of original sin, but with their soul they deduce in scattered gold dust across the screen "God is love." And the sincere feeling is stronger than any magical knives, alethiometers and thought-letters (Asriel's bizarre transport).
While the squabbles of the revolutionaries in Azriel's camp and Mrs. Coulter's latest espionage plots in the Magisterium are both delightful and tiresome (at times the pathos of conviction overpowers the degree), the little things are mesmerizing. The world of "Dark Beginnings" is tactile and tangible: every dæmon possessor can stroke his soul, the matter of worlds suffers wounds from a miraculous knife, and in the dimension of the dead it is not difficult to meet his death to talk face to face. The path to immortality from the prison of Purgatory lies through stories of childhood hooliganism and adventure, and the memory of vitality overcomes endless despondency and oblivion. At the finish line, the saga gets confused about what's important and stilted in programmatic monologues, but it leaves the shimmering metaphysics a glittering pollen at your fingertips. Toward the end of an exhausting year, one wants more than ever not only to believe, but to know for sure, that every dark beginning will one day have a bright end. Even if it is very sad.
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