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

[Michael Scott]

His Dark Materials: The Complete Third Season



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


​

Movie
Watching His Dark Materials unfold has been rather fascinating. I was honestly not sure it would last more than a single season simply due to the fact that Phillip Pullman’s novels had sort of failed in movie form (rather spectacularly I might add) with a little film called The Golden Compass. I was sure that audiences wouldn’t take to the story another time, especially since almost half of the 3 season arc was covered in The Golden Compass (in a much more truncated form of course). Well, HBO got it right it seems, as the show has lasted 3 full seasons, each covering a book in the original Pullman series. SUPPOSEDLY the final book was supposed to be split over seasons 3 and 4, but Jack Thorne got an ultimatum of “get it done in one season, not two” and went with it. According to several interviews even the showrunners didn’t think that they’d be able to finish all of the threads in time, but the end result actually shocked them in how well they could get everything wrapped up in 8 episodes. Myself included.

Season 3 acts as a sort of balance between 2 extremes in a sense. We’ve come to grips with Lyra’s world in the first season, and “our” wold with Will in the second, with the third season pulling from both worlds simultaneously. It’s as if we’ve had the introductions out of the way and can sink our teeth into both worlds without having to be fed information (as does the main characters). The worlds are basically falling apart due to the breaches (it seems that’s a common multiverse theory) and Will and Lyras interventions are only opening more windows into the two worlds. Not only that, Lyra finds out the truth of the world of the dead, and with her own losses, wages a war against their purgatory in hopes of freeing EVERYONE.

It’s going to be hard to really give a solid synopsis as there is an enormous wealth of themes and ideas wrapping up all at once, in a short period of time. In fact, it’s so dense that I had to watch the last 3 episodes a couple of times to really grasp all of them. Especially the fact that the trilogy is not just about ONE star crossed set of lovers with Will and Lyra. It’s really a dual story of two, with Will and Lyra taking up one set, and her father and Ruth taking up the second. There’s bittersweet moments, full on tragedies, and the tearful end that we all knew was coming if any of you have read Pullman’s The Amber Spyglass.

The show doesn’t exactly hold your hand (whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing) throughout the season. Gone are the training wheels of explanation, and the viewers are forced to dive head long into the plots and live without filler or over explanation. Personally I really liked this approach as it allows long time viewers to get the most out of the season without the writers sacrificing too much plot. The negative flip side of that coin is that casual viewers will have an easier time getting lost in the narrative twists unless they go back and watch most of the previous two seasons. Simply put, this is a dense and CHEWY season that really requires all of your focus to get the full grandiose epic nature of the show to completion. Excellent, yes. INTENSE, again yes.




Rating:

Rated TV-14 by the MPAA




Video:

The 3rd season sports the same near perfect encode that we’ve seen from the previous two. With all 8 episodes spread across two BD-50s, there is still plenty of room to breathe. The 2.00:1 framed transfer sparkles with natural clarity during Will’s world endeavors, and takes on different stages of blues and grays depending on which world they are in otherwise. There seems to be better CGI and more judicious use of color timings in this season, as I feel digital quality went UP this year over the previous two (just by a hair. I’m guessing the 2 year interim between the 2nd and 3rd season allowed a less rushed approach to the production). Blacks are deep and inky (the purgatory world is especially fantastic when you consider how gray and dingy it is, and how that plays hob on Blu-ray black levels). I did notice some banding here and there, but overall, this is a fantastic looking encode for the series.





Audio:

The show features another well done 5.1 DTS-HD MA track in English, pretty much cloning the quality of the previous two years. The episodes are highly immersive, with the screaming of a monster coming from the back, or the rattling of rocks echoing from front to back in the world of the dead. Soft sounds like birds chirping or the whispering of cloth as a minister walks down the imperium halls come through incredibly well. A few high intensity action pieces bring out the bass in spades, but it’s really the scoring that takes front and center for the low end. Dialog is spot on perfect, making this an all around amazing audio mix.






Extras:

•

Final Score: ​

As someone who grew up ignoring Phillip Pullman’s novels outside of casual glances (even though I worked part time at a bookstore when they were being released) and someone who was rather bored with The Golden Compass back in 2008 when I watched the Blu-ray, I was rather impressed with the series. Actually, I AM impressed rather than just “rather”. I was silly nervous that it was going to be canceled before any payoff arrived, but luckily the show was allowed to go to fruition, completing the arc successfully, and being one of the few young adult shows that I’ve seen recently that actually was GOOD and not just “good enough”. The Blu-ray set for season 3 looks and sounds great as usual, but surprisingly is barebones as can be when it comes to special features. Still a very fun 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 DD 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French
Studio: Warner Brothers / HBO
Rated: TV-14
Runtime: 471 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: April 25th, 2023

Recommendation: Good Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I will need to start with season 1.

 

[mechman]

I like this series a lot! Thanks Michael!