His Dark Materials (HBO, BBC)

I’m not sure why, but I’ve never really been a fan of the HDM movies. They felt kind of bad. I know that I’ve watched them but I actually don’t remember much of the story. I remember daemons and that kids were involved in some fashion.

When I heard about a new series, to be honest, I wasn’t holding my breath. I think one of the redeeming things about this series is that it was on HBO, so I knew that it was going to be fairly good.

The first episode was kind of a mixed bag. It was good, but it wasn’t until the second episode when things really got good. The whole show is shrouded in mystery. Why are Gyptian kids being kidnapped? Midway through the second episode, I actually took notice at how good this series was. I have to say that I was pretty happy to learn that a second season is coming up.

One of the things that infantilized the story, at least for me, was the fact that souls manifested themselves as animals. I didn’t find it interesting or novel. However, once you start getting into it, and especially into the multi-world setting of HDM, it makes for an interesting phenomenon. The whole connection between Dust and the missing kids was also very dark. I don’t thing that this series is meant for kids at all. It’s presented as such, well for me, after having watched some of the movies.

Towards the end, it gets really surprising. There are plenty of twists and unforeseen outcomes. It got me hooked enough to find out more about what will happen next in the story.