'His Dark Materials' stays faithful to the book in strong opening episode
Full disclosure: I never watched The Golden Compass.
I couldn't do it. I love Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, and as soon as I read the negative reviews of the movie I knew I didn't want to see it.
When I heard that the BBC and HBO were collaborating on a new adaptation, though, my interest was piqued. And when I watched the trailer, it was seriously piqued.
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Well, good news: I went to the world premiere of His Dark Materials on Tuesday, and I can confirm that the piquing is still very much ongoing. It's piquing all over the place. Obviously one episode isn't enough to judge a whole series on, but — so far, at least — the signs are looking good.
The first thing that hits you about His Dark Materials is how much work's gone into the thing. The episode opens with some aerial shots of a waterlogged Oxford, and the sense of scale and level of world-building is made instantly clear. A lot has been invested in this one, and not just in terms of money. You can tell a large group people who are fans of the books have spent time poring over the little details — from the costumes and set design to the impressively realistic-looking CG daemons.
A lot of time has clearly gone into the script, too. The first episode introduces us to the key players —mischievous Lyra (Dafne Keen); her amusing friend Roger (Lewin Lloyd); the distant Lord Asriel (James McAvoy), and the unpredictable Mrs Coulter (Ruth Wilson) — while seamlessly bringing in two central mysteries: Lord Asriel's apparent discovery of another world in the North, and the missing children who may or may not have been kidnapped by a faceless group known as "the gobblers". There's a lot going on, but it manages not to feel rushed — the action is well-paced. Writer Jack Thorne said it took 46 drafts to get right.
The other big question Pullman fans will have going into this adaption is one of accuracy. How faithful is this adaptation going to be to the books? The Golden Compass was famously criticised for shying away from the darkness of the novel's ending, as well as for its dilution of the book's religious themes. Will this new adaptation fall into the same traps, or will the creators stick more closely to Pullman's vision?
Again, it's tricky to say from just one episode, but early signs point to the latter. The first hour doesn't shy away from the horror of children being kidnapped, and executive producer Jane Tranter was keen to address the adaptation's faithfulness in a Q&A that took place after the premiere.
"We plan to adapt the books as the books were written," she said, before emphasising that they don't intend to shy away from the story's darker elements.
If done right, His Dark Materials has the scale and fanbase to become a new Game of Thrones.
It's too early to say whether it will be or not, but things are off to a promising start.
Correction: A previous version of this article stated that the daemons were puppeteer-operated. They are in fact computer-generated, with the puppets only being used initially as an aid for the actors.
