His Dark Materials: The Complete Second Season - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

His Dark Materials: The Complete Second Season



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
Based off of Phillip Pullman’s young adult series trilogy, His Dark Materials was a surprisingly fun 1st season entry last year. Those fans of the movie adaptation a decade ago called The Golden Compass had to wade through what was basically a re-telling of The Golden Compass in season form (the movie took the first book and adapted it, this is going for the second novel), but the slight inconvenience was worth the effort. The show managed to be much more cohesive than the movie and gave us hints at a bigger world out there with more conflict. This season picks up right where the show left off last year and throws us right back in with Lyra’s adventures abroad.

Lyra Belacqua (Dafne Keen) is running from the Magesterium with her her ferret like Deamon Pan (who acts as her conscience and sounding board for her problems) while Mrs. Coulter (Ruth Wilson) is off somewhere doing her own thing. The Magesterium (in all of it’s Catholic comparative glory) is trying their best to capture the young waif, but are having problems of their own as well internally. They’re trying to deal with the “rip in the sky” (supposedly created by Lyra’s father, who was played by James McAvoy). Simultaneously, Lyra manages to escape to the “City in the Sky”, a prophesied city that is actually known as Cittagazze.

Cittagazze is an abandoned city that looks like it was left in a hurry. But here is where things get interesting, and new characters pop up. Lyra meets a lone boy named Will Parry (Amir Wilson) who comes from an entirely different world. A world that appears to be what would be considered “Earth Realm”. Will is also looking for a missing father, causing the duo to team up and go exploring, which just so happens to be Will’s portal back to “our” reality. There Lyra is privy to seeing a brand new variation on Oxford. One that is built on capitalism and consumerism (at least in the eyes of Magesterium), and is devoid of the oppressive Government of Religion that Lyra’s world is being crushed under.

There Lyra is able to meet up wit ha scientist named Mary Malone, who happens to be looking into the phenomenon of dark matter (which just so happens to line up with Lyra’s father’s discovery of “dust”, and from there the duo start to put the pieces together that the Magesterium has been hiding from the world for so long.

The show can be a bit contrived at times (the dark matter discovery is one of those bits that just feels a bit overly convenient). They are a bit too easy to come by, and wrap up to easily as well. However the best parts of the show is really the balance between science and religion, and how the two are symbiotic in many ways in the show. It’s a fascinating dichotomy and one that plays out a little differently than I think even Phillip Pullman imagined when he was writing it (Pullman got a lot of controversy back in the day for saying that this trilogy’s purpose was to be the “anti-religion” books of his days).




Rating:

Rated TV-14 by the MPAA




Video:

The second season of His Dark Materials looks even better than the previous season by a tiny margin. The show is cool blue with it's visual, but it's razor sharp and has a very lovely color saturation level to it. The red of Mrs. Coulter's dress and lipstick stand out with amazing pop, and everything just looks so incredibly well detailed. Even with the massive amount of CGI that must have been used, it blends seamlessly and doesn't show it's budgetary seams. The steam punk vibe goes well with the 7 episode season, showing a dark and murky world of witches and dirigibles, yet still having enough oomph to make facial details and clothing look well defined and nuanced. There's some minor digital noise from the show, but it's never swarming or massively annoying. Just a slight side effect of the cameras used in some of the low light areas.





Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track is very much like the previous season. It's not an Atmos or DTS:X track like some other HBO shows, but it holds its own. The track is aggressive and bold, with a heavy bass line and plenty of surround activity. The witches swooshing through the air light up all surrounds at once, and the hustle and bustle of the busy Magesterium (along with the more nuanced echoes and footsteps coming from corners of the room) keep it lively and active. The show does have it's quiet moments though, and the track softens a bit and goes towards the front of the room when that happens. There's still some soft ambient noises lighting up the surround channels, but the front heavy "talky" portions of the movie center heavily up towards that front of the room area.




Extras:

• Noble Rogue: The Legend of Lee Scoresby - This documentary will explore the DNA of Lee Scoresby's character (Lin-Manuel Miranda) and the aspects of the cowboy, outlaw or rogue, who through bravery, loyalty, and rebelliousness are willing to stick up for the underdog and fight for justice.
• Exploring His Dark Materials: Panserbjørne
• Exploring His Dark Materials: Daemons
• Exploring His Dark Materials: Portals & The Multiverse
• Exploring His Dark Materials: Witches
• His Dark Materials: Bringing Daemons and Bears to Life
• His Dark Materials: Exploring Cittàgazze
• His Dark Materials: Worlds Collide
• The Powerful Mrs. Coulter
• Lyra
• The Subtle Knife

Final Score: ​

The second season of His Dark Materials really found it’s own this year. Last season set things up nicely, but this year takes the hand off from the previous and expands upon the characters and the world. Sure, the show does lend itself towards easy outs and wrapping up plot points, but those are minimal compared to the world building that still continues. I’ve continued to be impressed with how the show takes the novels and makes them their own, and still keeps them pulling you in for the next season (which is out soon I believe). A great Blu-ray by all technical specs, and a decent show that surpassed the previous entry level season. Worth a watch.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Dafne Keen, Kit Connor, Amir Wilson, James McAvoy, Ruth Wilson, Andrew Scott, Leanne Holder
Created by: Jack Thorne, Phillip Pullman (Books)
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, French, German DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Portuguese, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Swedish
Studio: Warner Brothers / HBO
Rated: TV-14
Runtime: 345 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: June 29th, 2021

Recommendation: Good Watch

 

[Epoxy1]

I enjoyed it more than you (I really liked the second season over the first) and find it very entertaining. The A/V quality is excellent as well.

 

[Michael Scott]

I enjoyed it more than you (I really liked the second season over the first) and find it very entertaining. The A/V quality is excellent as well.

I certainly enjoyed it. And you're right about the text specs. The video and audio are stunning