Review 591: His Dark Materials (Series 2)

Based on the second novel in the His Dark Materials Trilogy, The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman, Lyra Belacqua (Dafne Keen) journeys through Lord Asriel's opening between worlds to Cittagazze, a city whose citizens discovered a way to travel between worlds. Here Lyra meets and eventually befriends Will Parry (Amir Wilson) who has recently stumbled into Cittagazze in an effort to find his long-lost father Col. John Parry (Andrew Scott). Venturing into Will's world, Lyra meets Dr. Mary Malone (Simone  Kirby), a physicist who is researching dark matter.

At the beginning of the series, Lyra and Will end up in Cittagazze which is an in-between world that is completely empty. The peoples reckless use of technology has released soul-eating spectres, which children are immune to, rendering much of the world closed to transit by adults. 

When Lyra and Will first meet, it's clear that they're not very fond of each other and aren't very trusting of each other but eventually they realise that they can help each other and that they are in fact the missing pieces to each others puzzles.

So much of Series 2 revolved around Dafne Keen and Amir Wilson's performances and they both nailed it.

 

After a fairly minor role in Series 1, Ariyon Bakare gets a proper chance to shine playing Lord Carlo Boreal. Bakare has an incredibly strong, sinnister, commanding presence that was perfect for playing the authoritative figure at the Magisterium

 

Lin Manuel Miranda  Lee Scoresby discovers the existance of the Subtle Knife that someone named
Stanislaus Grumman (aka Will's father) knows about it and he makes it his mission to find him and the knife. He doesn't know much about the knife in the specifics, he just knows there's this enormouslt powerful weapon and if it can be on Lyra's team instead of in the hands of the Magisterium, it's an asset; He just wants to keep Lyra safe and give her the best chance of succeeding.

 

Directors Jamie Childs & Leanne Welham's direction is  the score by Lorne Balfe is  the production design is fantastic, especially noteworthy is the the city of Cittagazze