His Dark Materials Season 3 Review: Final Assault Against the Kingdom Of Heaven On HBO
Cast: Dafne Keen, Ruth Wilson, James McAvoy, Amir Wilson
Creator: Jack Thorne
Streaming Platform: HBO
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (fours stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
In His Dark Materials Season 3 review, we confirmed the positive sensations that the first season had already been able to give us, for a fantasy characterized by a well-recognizable soul and a narrative structure of great value. Exactly fifteen years after the first, ill-fated film adaptation, and at the end of various production vicissitudes, the adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials literary trilogy finally reaches its epic conclusion. It all started in 2007, with the theatrical release of The Golden Compass by Chris Weitz: the production house was New Line Cinema, back from the worldwide success of Lord of the Rings, and the cast included a plethora of stars, including Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Eva Green and Ian McKellen.
Yet, despite having been born under the best auspices, the film had not garnered the hoped-for reception, and the dream of adapting the entire trilogy was soon shattered. The saga, however, was too topical and compelling to remain confined to oblivion: and so, in 2019, the English director Jack Thorne tried again, this time choosing to transform it into a TV series for the BBC and HBO. The obstacles, however, were not over: in 2020 the pandemic seriously jeopardized the fate of the second season, which was only able to see the light after the complete cut of an episode. Now, however, on Sky Atlantic and Now TV we can finally enjoy the third and final act of the series: here, therefore, is our review of His Dark Materials Season 3.
His Dark Materials Season 3 Review: The Story
The third and final season of His Dark Materials opens with a prelude dedicated to the origin of the cosmos: at the beginning of time, an angel usurped the celestial throne and made all his peers believe he was a God. Many other angels rebelled against the imposter but were banished to the multiverse, spawning Dust. Thus began the rule of the Authority, the false god revered by the Magisterium and other religious institutions of the various parallel worlds. And it is precisely against this Authority that now Lord Asriel is preparing to wage war, gathering in a single faction the fallen angels and rebellious humanity of the various parallel worlds.
His intentions are noble, but his methods – as we already know by now – are decidedly less so. Meanwhile, Lyra Belacqua is unconscious, a prisoner in a remote stone building on the Atlantic coast: her mother Marisa keeps her in that state, determined to keep her hidden from the Magisterium even against her will. On her trail, however, is Will Parry, who, after witnessing his father’s death, is determined to use the powers of the subtle blade to reach her and bring her to safety. Once reunited, however, the two protagonists will have to choose their next move carefully: follow the two angels Baruch and Balthamos to join Asriel’s great war, or descend into the realm of the dead to meet poor Roger one last time, who continues to haunt Lyra’s dreams? Will’s dagger is the only weapon that can kill the Authority…
His Dark Materials Season 3 Review and Analysis
Despite the excellent performances of the very young Dafne Keen and Amir Wilson, it must be recognized that the second season was heavily penalized by the total absence (due to the pandemic) of James McAvoy, who plays the cynical and unscrupulous lord Asriel. In the last act of the trilogy, the triumphant return of his character – in an unprecedented warrior guise – contributes not only to reconnecting the threads of the story but also and above all to raising the bar of the overall quality of the series, providing a perfect counterpart to the test of the always excellent Ruth Wilson (Marisa Coulter).
With each appearance, and especially on the occasion of the animated showdown of the third episode, the two anti-heroes steal the show and bring out on the screen all the contradictions of a couple of adults animated by good intentions, but always driven to make the wrong choice from their basest and incorrigible instincts. At first, however, the very young Dafne Keen (Lyra) and Amir Wilson (Will) seem to struggle to get back into their roles. With the passing of the episodes, however, their acting becomes more and more convincing and incisive, also allowing viewers to gradually get excited again and identify with their adventures. Overall, their performance is very positive and is destined to culminate in a finale full of strong emotions.
Among the antagonists, the star of Will Keen shines once again (father, in real life, of the leading actress, and here interpreter of the cruel Hugh MacPhail), who manages to give life to an incredibly petty and bigoted character, strong with the weak and weak with the strong. At the beginning of the third season, the ruthless MacPhail has ascended from the rank of cardinal to that of “father president”, i.e. supreme pontiff of the Magisterium, and will give the heroes of the saga a hard time. The most difficult challenge for showrunner Jack Thorne was to create a transposition capable of truly doing justice to the original material. As readers of the saga will surely already know, Philip Pullman’s Golden Compass cycle not only represents a masterful example of steampunk fantasy, but it is also and above all a work full of metaphysics, philosophy and religion which, due to its explicitly inspired by the apocryphal gospels, it is often considered a perfect antithesis of the Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis.
These characteristics, initially only sketched, become particularly explicit in the third and final novel of the saga, which abandons any young adult semblance to lead us straight to the heart of a story that speaks of dogmas and free will, rebellion, and original sin. In hindsight, it is probably fortunate that the film trilogy did not go beyond the first film: the tight timescales of a feature film would never have allowed all the elements of the third act to be fully developed, from Metatron to the Underworld, and from the tiny Gallivespians to the mysterious mulefa. In all likelihood, readers would end up clashing with the film’s admirers, complaining about the (certain) use of cuts and changes to compact the approximately 450 pages of the book into a single feature film.
In all likelihood, readers would end up clashing with the film’s admirers, complaining about the (certain) use of cuts and changes to compact the approximately 450 pages of the book into a single feature film. As typical of BBC-branded literary adaptations, however, His Dark Materials makes full use of the eight hours at its disposal to reproduce the source with maximum fidelity, net of only a few, minimal changes (the Himalayan cave where Marisa hides Lyra, for example, turns into a stone cottage overlooking the ocean). The third season thus wins the difficult challenge of transposing a complex and cinematically difficult book onto the screen, giving us an excellent series finale, capable of better standing up to the comparison with its paper counterpart.
Ultimately, His Dark Materials 3 owes its success above all to the showrunner’s ability to always find a balance between opposite polarities, which, if not managed properly, would have led to a serious imbalance within the identity of the story. First of all, there was to deal with the strong dualism that contrasts the world of adults to that of adolescents: the first can be fascinating because it is full of politics, darkness, and complex machinations, but it is the second that contains the deepest heart of the saga. On a television level, we are witnessing a good balance, which reserves the right space both for the events of Lord Asriel and Marisa Coulter and for those of Lyra and Will.
At the same time, the third and final season of the series is called upon to balance the more narrative and adventurous component of the story with its philosophical and metaphysical background, which still manages to find an adequate depth during the eight episodes, albeit net of the understandable need to give priority to entertainment. However, the most delicate balance is that linked to the visual and aesthetic sphere, which inevitably ends up being affected by the limited budget available to the TV series, but still managing to achieve its goal effectively. Overall, Jack Thorne does his best to best adapt the third novel in the cycle and succeeds very well, crafting a solid, emotional, and well-proportioned tale.
His Dark Materials Season 3 Review: The Last Words
His Dark Materials Season 3 reaches an epic conclusion as it tells us about the cosmic war of rebellious humanity against a false god, as well as the conflict between a daughter and two selfish and irresponsible parents. His Dark Materials Season 3 confirms the merits that had already characterized this series in the past, for a fantasy capable of staging well-written characters, supported by a commendable artistic direction. Despite some defects related to a certain haste on the part of the authors in resolving some situations, this restart convinces, and if you loved the previous seasons we can only advise you to recover this third season as well, waiting for a final battle that promises to be absolutely epic.
