Is “His Dark Materials” the next “Game of Thrones”? (Episodes 1 & 2)

The “His Dark Materials” Poster. Photo Courtesy of IMDB

Ever since “Game of Thrones” ended last May, companies across the entertainment industry have been presenting their own pitches and buying the rights for the next big fantasy epic, potentially. Netflix is creating “The Witcher” as well as a Chronicles of Narnia show. Amazon spent $250 million to make a prequel Lord of the Rings show, and HBO has even already had “Watchmen” be a big hit of theirs, premiering a few weeks ago. But perhaps the most likely successor right now is HBO’s other big release of the fall, “His Dark Materials”.

“His Dark Materials” is based on one of the most popular book trilogies of the last decade, along with “Harry Potter”, and “Game of Thrones” itself. The book series was similar with that of Game of Thrones in the sense that it quite shocked its readers with its themes and religious allegories. It is unique in the sense that the trilogy uses unique and complex allegories in a teen series, as well as criticizing the Catholic Church, and even religion as a whole.

Cover of the first book in the series the show is based on, “The Golden Compass”. Photo Courtesy of Amazon

The film adaptation of the first book in the trilogy, “The Golden Compass”, was released in 2007, to general consensus from both critics and audiences that the adaptation was terrible. Most consider the main problem was its treatment of the main theme surrounding the Catholic Church. The film attempted to avoid offending the Catholic Church by having the themes boil more down to a basic criticism of religion in general. This, combined with not-so-great performances and intense cluttering and excess amount of information the filmmakers attempt to throw at you.

Although it is early on in the show, it is very apparent that the series is going to be very different, yet attempt to do their best to be true to the original novel’s themes. For example, The Magisterium is a clear reference to the church in the series and the performances are arguably one of its best aspects.

While it's hard to argue that the series still seems to rush things like the movie, there are still some brilliant moments I have already witnessed. Most of these are when Ruth Wilson gets a solo shot of herself, and her expressions combined with camera angles allow the viewer to get inside her head with few words. In addition, the daemons are incredibly well done in comparison to the movie. They don’t seem to be a hindrance of the character, but in actuality, add even more depth to characters, specifically Lyra.

So for any fantasy series these days, the question everyone will be asking of it is: how does it compare to “Game of Thrones”?

Obviously, you can’t give an answer to that after just two episodes. Yet, I’m still enticed to say that this show has incredible potential, and that one day, I may even be able to answer “yes” to that question (at least in comparison to the prime seasons of GoT, I’m not talking about the final 2 seasons), but I am still quite skeptical to give my full commitment to that.

There are a few reasons for why I say this. First, “Game of Thrones” was largely character driven, and in its prime, rode the brilliant storytelling of George R.R. Martin along with the unbelievable performances from various actors like Peter Dinklage and Lena headey. “His Dark Materials” for sure has the great performances behind people like the aforementioned Ruth Wilson, Dafne Keen, and while they have either had very limited or no screen time as of yet, James McAvoy and Lin-Manuel Miranda are both brilliant in their own right that you can trust in them as well.

Ruth Wilson is brilliant in her turn as Mrs. Coulter in “His Dark Materials”. Photo Courtesy of radiotimes.com

While I have already admitted that the show for sure feels rushed so far (just look at where the show is after two episodes compared to where we were in the first episode), the groundwork is for sure there for the writers to do great things. Such as a vast world with multiple locations and various storylines, a beloved book series by many whose author is an Executive Producer, and, something that Game of Thrones seemed to not have at times, it feels as though everything is connected, so that all the characters are going in the same direction in some way.

All of this makes me quite excited for the rest of the season and series, yet there is one reveal in the second episode that, however they choose to go about it, will either allow this series to soar, or make it sputter with no hope of recovery.

SPOILERS:

The big reveal that I am talking about is when Lord Boreal walks through a portal to another world, and it is strikingly similar to the modern world we live in in 2019.

This is quite the reveal in just the second episode. First of all, beyond Lyra, we have had very little character development for everyone, and a big reveal like this seems most appropriate once we know the people this will likely impact, and can guess/worry about those impacts.

Why is this a make or break for the show? Well first of all, this is apparently vastly different from the book, where the reveal shows up much later and the reveal to reader comes in alignment to the reveal to Lyra. This shows that the writers believe that the Magisterium is going to be an important perspective throughout the series, and banking on that they can pull off storytelling like in “Game of Thrones” with multiple different storylines occurring at the same time.

Second, you can’t have such a big change from a beloved book series without having an important and thematically-justified reason for doing it. I have doubts about this. Mainly, it seemed as though Lord Boreal was doing this world-walk (I forgot what they called it) in order to help achieve a goal he was given in the first episode. Yet, all we get is one scene with a curious informant for Boreal that doesn’t give us any new information.

That is why, even after all of the great things I have mentioned about the show, this reveal (along with dust) will be its defining storyline. However, I have great hopes for this show, and personally am willing to give it a chance. This could turn into something spectacular.