His Dark Materials: The Cave Books Included

November 23, 2020 7:09 PM - Season 2, Episode 2

Lyra and Will head to Oxford for answers; the Magisterium is faced with a choice.

EW recap: Danger awaits Lyra and Will as they cross into his world - After crossing into Will's world, Lyra searches for the meaning of Dust while he finds trouble in an unlikely place.

posted by oh yeah! (6 comments total)

I’ve been looking forward to Mary since the first season’s first trailer dropped. I enjoyed The Cave in this modern instantiation. I am interested to see how they’ll do Mary’s story, especially next season.

The Magisterium politics and war with the witches, eh. I don’t really see how it will play into the larger story.
posted by supercres at 11:18 PM on November 23, 2020

I'm enjoying Se02 even more than Se01, and that is saying plenty. Flawless production, including camera work. production design, acting, writing (both plot and dialog). Love this show.
posted by not_that_epiphanius at 8:22 AM on November 24, 2020 [1 favorite]

Really liking being able to see the daemons more, and Will and Lyra learning about each other. I understand why we have to see the Magisterium stuff but that is less interesting, except as a way for Mrs. Coulter to be terrifying.

I still think LMM is not the right fit for his role, which clearly called for a Sam Elliott type.
posted by emjaybee at 11:31 AM on November 25, 2020 [2 favorites]

One thing I notice this season, as I noticed last season, is that they seem to be really adapting this piece not just to the screen but to our modern conception of children and their protected nature and status. So Lyra gets immediate reassurance from the aletheiometer that Will is “the good kind” of murderer, rather than her childish “ah, a murderer, that’s fine and not something to worry about” which might be hard for modern audiences to relate to. And Will, instead of identifying himself that way, and being somewhat dark and bitter about it, now has some form of trauma from having to kill people who wouldn’t have cared one bit about killing him, and resists that identification enough that it’s an issue.

I’m wondering how that’s going to impact future events when Will has to fight, or if they are going to tone those down.

Also: it was a little unclear to me: what did the negotiator reveal that made the witches vulnerable?
posted by corb at 10:34 AM on November 29, 2020

Now that the Spectres have shown up, I wonder if they are still going to have Mrs. Coulter be so annoyingly OP that she can control them. That part of the book made me roll my eyes. Like at least give her a Magisterium whatsit that protects her
posted by emjaybee at 10:13 AM on November 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

Also: it was a little unclear to me: what did the negotiator reveal that made the witches vulnerable?

Yeah I was a bit confused about this, also. I rolled with it, because it didn't seem that important a detail to the larger story, but I am curious.
posted by Kadin2048 at 1:09 PM on December 19, 2020