His Dark Materials: Tower of the Angels Books Included

December 7, 2020 8:18 PM - Season 2, Episode 4

In search of the knife, Will and Lyra try to gain entry into the Torre Degli Angeli. Lee finds Grumman, or Jopari, as he is now known, and they take to the sky in search of the knife bearer.

EW recap: Will claims his destiny at a knife's point

Den of Geek review - Will takes centre stage in an episode rich in mythology… and Andrew Scott

posted by oh yeah! (11 comments total)

...and andrew scott. Eccch.

FWIW BBC is airing these a week earlier, I think?
posted by Kyol at 7:57 AM on December 8, 2020

Must be, Den of Geek already had the episode 5 recap/review up when I was looking for this episode's write-up.

Has Andrew Scott done something awful offscreen I should know about, or is it just a personal preference?
posted by oh yeah! at 8:55 AM on December 8, 2020

It just feels like every time I turn around, he's in yet another role. The man's everywhere! Everywhere!
posted by Kyol at 9:09 AM on December 8, 2020

Anywho - I'm definitely enjoying this season more than last season. Last season felt kind of necessary to get us here, but the breakneck pace meant so many things came up and were run through in one episode and never heard from again. I mean sure I'm glad they didn't stretch it out even more? But aside from Lee and the Witches, so much of what happened in the first season feels immaterial to what's going on in the second season.

I mean, I sort of hope some of it comes back together, there were interesting leftover threads in the first season, but it feels like a lot of it was just sort of the hero's journey, here's what made Lyra and Will into the heroes that they will need to be sorta stuff.
posted by Kyol at 9:20 AM on December 8, 2020 [2 favorites]

I noted a bit of stunt casting: Andrew Scott’s daemon was voiced by Phoebe Waller-Bridge. A fleabag reunion.
posted by chill at 1:23 PM on December 8, 2020 [6 favorites]

I think Andrew Scott is doing great here, despite sharing his meatiest scene with a questionably-interpreted Lee Scoresby. (I get it, you're not going to do any better at grizzled grandpa Scoresby than Sam Elliot but that doesn't mean you can't try. Hester is great though.)

I wouldn't call it "stunt casting"-- I'm really enjoying PWB as Sayan Kotor. I assume she wasn't on set much if at all but I'm looking forward to seeing them play off of each other.

I've always found Mary Malone to be a really great character, and I'm liking her here. Can't wait to see how her destination ends up on the screen (next season? seems like she's moving quickly).
posted by supercres at 4:32 PM on December 8, 2020

LMM is really behind the eight ball trying to out grizzle Sam Elliot.

Kinda wish they'd just made Lee Scoresby a woman and had Robin Weigert play her as a less foul-mouthed version of Calamity Jane from Deadwood.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:09 PM on December 9, 2020 [5 favorites]

Andrew Scott was actually really good! I was pleasantly surprised. The guy can Act.

I continue to believe that LMM was a terrible choice. He's is... not great... at disappearing into a role, is he? Because whenever he's onscreen here he's usually more LMM than character. Is it weird that I keep wishing it was a younger Harrison Ford instead?

The witches are getting short shrift still, I feel like the writers really don't know what to do with them other than making them Fey Folk. Maybe I'm misremembering, but they didn't come off this way in the books.
posted by BungaDunga at 9:27 PM on December 10, 2020 [2 favorites]

LMM has it pretty rough. First he has to go opposite Ruth Wilson, then he has to go opposite Andrew Scott, both of whom can take even the most cliched dialogue and make it fascinating. And in between he has scenes with witches who look like they wandered in from the infamous 6-hour London production.
posted by chortly at 10:38 PM on December 12, 2020 [1 favorite]

LMM brings down every scene he's in. I've been muting his scenes and just reading the subtitles.
posted by silverstatue at 8:11 PM on January 1, 2021

I just did a binge watch of this series and I havent read the books. Maybe it helps that I dont actually know LMM that well. I know he made Hamilton and I may have seen him on a talk show or two but otherwise, haven't consumed much media with him in it. So he worked for me as Lee, I took it all as just part of the character.
posted by LizBoBiz at 7:30 AM on January 9, 2023