I wanted to like this. I really did. This book series has been my favorite for a long time, having read through the series three times now. And while I criticized the Golden Compass movie adaptation years ago, I now oddly miss it, for all it's shortcomings. What this adaptation does is assume that it's audience is stupid and unimaginative. Unlike the books where we get to experience the world that is so like ours but so very different through Lyra's eyes, we're told immediately right off the bat in text that that's the case. This first episode should be held as a shining example of how to "tell, not show". The amount of overblown exposition and lack of any emotional connection to the characters is staggering. The pacing is incredibly fast... I felt like they covered FAR too much in the first episode for you to get any meaningful sense of the world and Lyra. Unlike the books where you uncover the tension and plot along with Lyra, the plot is thrown at you through arguably trite performances. I felt like few actors had any subtly, and honestly I never thought I would yearn for Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig back. While Dafne Keen looks the part in my minds eye far more than her predecessor, she's given little to do and some fairly uneven and obnoxious dialogue. The CGI daemons are beautiful at times but also somewhat unsuccessful. The smaller pole cats and ermine's feel believable enough but Azriel's snow leopard lacks any of the weight and presence that the movie version had years ago.
I'm curious to see where this goes, and while I'm glad to see this story get screen time once again, I hardly think that this is the adaptation this book deserves. I admit the book is a glorious spider's web of chaos and complexity, but there is still a spark amidst all of it, and a passion that shines through. I get none of that from this show. The editing, cinematography and color grading all scream BBC. And I don't mean that in a good way. Everything just feels mildly pedestrian. The movie at least succeeded at having a cohesive point of view in its art direction, the art direction here seems a bit all over the place with little real point of view.
Maybe the book is unadaptable. I don't know. But I knew I was in for a bumpy ride when I had the world described to me in four sentences before I ever even set foot in it.
Maybe in another ten years we'll figure it out.
I'm curious to see where this goes, and while I'm glad to see this story get screen time once again, I hardly think that this is the adaptation this book deserves. I admit the book is a glorious spider's web of chaos and complexity, but there is still a spark amidst all of it, and a passion that shines through. I get none of that from this show. The editing, cinematography and color grading all scream BBC. And I don't mean that in a good way. Everything just feels mildly pedestrian. The movie at least succeeded at having a cohesive point of view in its art direction, the art direction here seems a bit all over the place with little real point of view.
Maybe the book is unadaptable. I don't know. But I knew I was in for a bumpy ride when I had the world described to me in four sentences before I ever even set foot in it.
Maybe in another ten years we'll figure it out.