Last week was the opening episode in Season 1 of His Dark Materials, and it would be fair to say that some of the audiences not familiar with the books found it a little slow. I personally did not, as I like to think I have patience with a show and a story to get where it needs to get to, for a while anyway.

Last night, for the UK (BBC) and tonight for HBO subscribers across the world, sees the second episode hit, “The Idea of North.” For me, there were surprises, tension, suspense, and some phenomenal performances. So let’s get to reviewing this episode, shall we?

The Idea of North

I’ll try to stay away from anything too spoiler-filled here, but that’s tricky to do for an episodic review like this. I will certainly attempt to stay away from book spoilers which talk about the future of the TV show, though even there, there is one thing we must talk a little around for this week’s episode.

“The Idea of North” funnily pretty much all happens farther south from Oxford as Lyra and Mrs Coulter travel to London, to Mrs Coulter’s home. The vast majority of this episode centers on the development of the relationship between Mrs Coulter and Lyra. Whilst initially Lyra remains in awe of Mrs Coulter, she also begins to see another side of her new guardian creeping out, little by little. Lyra may not feel as happy to be with glamorous Mrs Coulter as she thought she would, and it’s clear that Coulter knows a lot more about Lyra than maybe she should?

Meanwhile, The Gyptians continue their search for the missing children and they think they know where the Gobblers are keeping them, so can they get there in time? We also have a little bit more time with Lord Boreal this week and what he is up to on behalf of the Magisterium, and that’s the part where I may have to delve into the books a little to discuss more in this one. So before we got to that, if you have not seen this week’s episode and want to be completely surprised by every turn of events, then possibly best come back and check this afterwards.

Was it any good?

Ah, I loved it. Even though I know what is going to happen, watching it all unfold in what felt like a natural progression of these characters was mesmerising to me. As I said above, this episode focusses on two characters and two characters alone. Yes, there are plenty of background characters, like the Gyptians, Lord Boreal, and a few others, but those are merely seeds being planned and not a massive amount of screen time is being devoted to them yet. It is a hell of a lot more than the books however, as Lord Boreal and what he is doing in this week’s episode was not covered at all within the first book of the trilogy. Even the Gyptians and their campaign against the Gobblers did not appear until later on in the book.

I’ve definitely heard criticism from non-book readers that Boreal and the Gyptians have not been developed enough so far, honestly I don’t see it that way. At this point in the story, we are simply scratching the surface of these secondary stories, especially that of Lord Boreal. The Gyptian’s and Lyra’s stories will begin to merge in this season, but Boreal’s aims and goals will not come into play till much later if we go by the books, though clearly things may be a little different in this adaptation.

I was very surprised to see where they went (literally) with Boreal in this week’s episode, but once that surprise was over, I began to realise that this approach is probably going to work better for a long form series told over at least three seasons. I will talk about this more below, but I’ll again try to avoid spoilers, or mark them clearly.

For me the central story is that of Lyra’s and the knowledge we as the audience have, should remain predominantly focussed on Lyra’s point of view. As a child of only 12, Lyra comments in this episode that she simply doesn’t understand adults. That is both an indication of us seeing things from Lyra’s perspective whilst also a little tease for what’s to come, because this story deals heavily with the differences human beings go through as they progress from child to adult.

Did we understand the full story of Breaking Bad within the first two episodes, what about Game of Thrones, or The Boys? No, we didn’t and yet audiences were not up in arms that things were not being laid out for them on a plate, yet that’s exactly the kind of criticism I am seeing from non-book readers with this show. The question should actually be, are you interested to find out what the hell is going on here? If the answer is yes, then give the show some time to get there. Especially given the fact that Lyra simply doesn’t understand the story she is in herself at this point, or for some time yet.

Book fans are divided

The general feedback I am seeing on social media, discussion forums and the like is that there are developing two divisive bands of audience on this show so far, and I am talking more about fans of the books. We have one side that seems to complain every time there is a deviation from the books, and those who are loving the way they are teasing the larger background story at such an early stage. I feel like this is The Last Jedi all over again, and this time I am on the other side as a fan of the show so far.

As mentioned above, this divisiveness comes from two main things, the decision to show the Gyptian backstory from the start and the decision to show what Lord Boreal is up to so early in the story, something book fans probably didn’t expect to see until at least Season 2. My own rationale for this, is simple. To only focus on one character and her interactions would work for a book, it would work for a movie perhaps also, but for a long form TV series, I think this actually makes a lot of sense and I’ll take both items separately.

In the books, we only find out about the Gyptians, Billy Costa and their campaign against the Gobblers once Lyra meets them with her own quest to find Roger. This results in a hell of a lot of exposition and backstory, while the Gyptians explain everything we have seen so far in the first two episodes to Lyra. In a book, this works much better because we get a lot more of what Lyra is thinking and feeling that cannot always be done in a visual format. The way they are doing it in show, means that when Lyra does meet the Gyptians, we as the audience already knows a little about them, and why they are effectively on the same mission as Lyra herself. Personally I think this will improve with the pacing when we get to that point, which could well be as early as next week’s episode.

As for Boreal, this one is perhaps more controversial and as such I’m going to have to mention a spoiler here. So….warning! SPOILER ahead for this week’s episode. I will place the text in italics so you can skip it if you really want to preserve any surprises.

**SPOILER**

..

.

Lord Boreal actually enters through a gateway between worlds and comes to our own version of Oxford. Boreal is making enquiries about Gruman, the leader of the expedition that Lord Asriel says he is going to follow. Boreal believes this Gruman to be alive and perhaps in our own world. Boreal of course, hides his Daemon in our world, and he uses an already opened tear in the realities to pass back and forth. This does not happen in the book, though later on, we find out this had taken place ‘off page’.

Now, the criticism from some fans is that the show is spoiling surprises that should not happen till much later, namely the fact there are doorways to other worlds including our own. The argument is that this was never spoiled in the books and didn’t come into play until realistically book 2, The Subtle Knife.

My argument, to counter this, is that the idea of other words, including our own, was never hidden in the books. The foreword to Northern Lights (aka The Golden Compass), told us that this story predominantly took place in another world, Lyra’s world. It also said that book 2, (not yet tiled) would deal with two other worlds, one of which our own, and that the final book would cover multiple worlds.

Secondly, the meeting between Asriel and the scholars of Jordan in the book also mentioned this mysterious city and spoke of other worlds. We even see the glimpses of these other worlds in the title screen and again, the first episode had a foreword explaining things a little. In my opinion revealing this early is brave and bold, but hardly controversial and hardly spoiling any surprises we are supposed to come to later on. For a start we really don’t have a full understanding of why Boreal is there and what reasons the Magisterium have for exploring our world and yet keeping its existence a secret.

*End of SPOILER*

As I read the argument against these changes and offer up my opinions as to why they are not concerns I feel like half the users on these discussion forums are with me and half are negative about any changes of this sort. I simply feel it is far too early to know if this was a mistake or not, but so far, I find it very intriguing, and I think it sets the story apart from the books a little, but not enough to warrant a backlash from fans.

Oh, and whilst I remember, there was some criticism that the show did not feel ‘steampunk’ enough, and that the use of the likes of electric lights, helicopters, and vans was going way off the themes of this world in the books. What worries me more was the amount of support this criticism was receiving last night and last week. Let’s be clear here: in the books, these things all existed, and Lyra’s world is not a ‘steampunk’ world, never was. The beginning of this series shows us Asriel dropping Lyra off in a helicopter, this matches exactly what happened in the books, same transport, everything. Electric lights were always there, they are just not as prodigious in all the places Lyra visits.

Lyra’s world isn’t all horse and carts, they do have motor cars, they again, just aren’t as prominent as we see in our world where the class system is no longer in place. The key difference in Lyra’s world seems to be no jet engines, perhaps because World War II never happened in that world? Not to mention that the US, well, it isn’t the US of A in Lyra’s world, so the landscape and technology whilst different, isn’t necessarily always less advanced. Frankly, I find it a crazy criticism and I wonder whether this view has been influenced by the The Golden Compass movie, and the design choices made for that movie more than the actual books themselves.

Performances

Quickly, I just want to give credit once again to the two main leads so far in this show, Ruth Wilson and Dafne Keen, and this week, especially Wilson. This episode as said above revolves around this pair and I was impressed by both of their performances, especially that of Wilson as Mrs Coulter. This week we get to see a very different side to Mrs Coulter start to bubble to the surface, and I thought Wilson was just mesmerising every time she was on screen, the little subtle bits of acting, the body language, or lack of at times, the eyes telling you what the rest of the face is hiding were all so well done. I thought Nicole Kidman was one of the few plus points of the old movie, but Wilson is blowing her away right now for me.

Wilson IS the book version of Mrs Coulter, the way she seamlessly uses her sexuality to her advantage in a world more male dominated than our own was, even decades ago. How she wants to mould Lyra into being just like her, to learn to play the game with men and dominate them without their knowledge of her doing so, it’s just perfect so far. And as we move into the ending of this week’s episode I loved how genuinely caring and empathetic she seems, even though by then, we know it’s just all for show, designed to fulfil a purpose, and that purpose is her desire for knowledge and power unlimited.

The relationship she has with her Daemon is so complicated as well, and I thought they showed us enough here to see that their relationship is different from what we have already been taught to expect from a Daemon and their Human. Marissa Coulter is all self-control, but even someone as skilled as Coulter cannot always control their own soul and the golden monkey will at times show us what Coulter is really thinking.

Conclusion

‘The Idea of North’ is tense, sinister, mysterious and at times a little dark, and frankly I love it. This tonal shift from one episode to the next is surely indicative of how this story will progress going forward. This adaptation is not going to soften things, it’s not going to treat it like a story for under 10’s. This is an adult tale, told through the eyes of a child as she transitions toward adulthood. It’s the perfect coming of age story in the books, and for me, the showrunners and directors are telling the story in a way that makes me excited to see what comes next.

Grade: A-

I cannot wait to see next week’s episode, so see you all next Monday when we review His Dark Materials: Episode 3. In the meantime, tell us what you think of The Idea of North, do you love it like me or do you have your criticisms? Share them all in the usual spot below.

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