His Dark Materials - Episode 4: Armour
HIS DARK MATERIALS (Dafne Keen) - BBC + HBO
His Dark Materials is not entirely done setting the table in Armour. Introducing a few new players and trying to put the many chess pieces in place, the fourth hour — directed by Otto Bathurst — has the heroes make a purposeful yet somewhat tiresome episode-long stop before continuing its adventure.
While one cannot be sure of how much the fans of Phillip Pullman's beloved trilogy are enjoying this, the sluggish pacing of the new series adaptation is starting to feel like a chore to watch for the non-book readers.
The show has failed to display any actual location mapping in most of its outside settings. Rather than immersing its audiences with a grounded fictional reality, the choppy editing makes everything evident that they are watching actors in random sections of the same movie set.
A probable budgetary constraint also hinders the verisimilitude of the show's established lore. The Daemons are the physical manifestations of every human soul; the majority of the Daemons never leave sides and yet they are noticeably absent, especially with any of the extras. It is becoming apparent that they will only be appearing when the script needs them to be. This is what seems to be the worst aspect of what His Dark Materials is. Things happen when the script allows them to. Characters — including Daemons — show up only whenever the script wants them to. It just further fractures the already broken illusion of realism this show has been trying to achieve. The most notable example is Ma Costa (Anne-Marie Duff) who is nowhere to be found in the episode, even though it has established a strong relationship between her and the main character.
However, Armour is not overly tedious. Dafne Keen is at her most charming yet as the fiendishly clever Lyra Belacqua. With her newfound skill with the alethiometer, her arc starts to feel more like a moderately engaging adventure quest as she works her way into gaining the trust and companionship of the two worthy additions of the show.
One of them is Lee Scoresby (Lin Manuel Miranda) who has yet to impress — a scene involving a brawl with him and a few strangers fails to evoke excitement to viewers and is entirely unnecessary — but his shining presence is a welcome change. All of the adult characters are excessively self-serious and borderline uninteresting but how Miranda portrays the troublemaking aeronaut-for-hire makes it look like he is just having plain-old fun with the role.
The other is an entirely CGI character. The armoured bear named Iorek Byrnison. What seems to be a one-note figure turns out to have quite a scene-stealing appearance. The VFX in the show has been one of its strengths and seeing the panserbjørne come to life is both intimidating and exciting. The effects team nails an excellent level of authenticity, from the fur and the movement of the character to even the subtle breathing and vibrating roaring of the beast.
His Dark Materials is released on HBO and BBC every Sunday and Monday, respectively.
