His Dark Materials 2x06: Malice
Jul. 29th, 2021 08:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedi_of_urth posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
tori_reviewsHis Dark Materials 2x06: Malice
I’m having a hard time figuring out how to describe my take on this one. It wasn’t bad and I didn’t dislike it; but it was kind of…bland. Which isn’t quite right, because it was also contrived and unearned, and yet bland.
The show has completely failed to make me interested in Lord of the Flies town, and all I could think this time was that I bet these characters were written younger in the book. Also, the timing is hard to reconcile, because we’re told that the Spectors became a problem after Azriel split the world, and that it only took Lyra a couple days to get to town (which would sort of trouble the idea that the worlds match up so well since Lyra was in the far north and this town corresponds to Oxford…also it didn’t occur to me until they were trying to escape via window on the roof that I’m not sure how that matching up works with altitude. Last episode they could get lower in the basement, but this town is built on a very sharp hill that Oxford isn’t) but when she gets there it seems like the remaining kids are already half feral. Except that for the available food to still be good the short time makes more sense. In any case, Lyra and Will seem to have only left home maybe a week ago; Lyra left right after Azriel split to world (like, to the point where if he’d stopped to read a map on the other side of the tear she’d have run into him) and I don’t think the locals’ attitude works with that timeline.
Also now that they’re out of the city, why don’t we see any of these supposed refugees?
The other witches besides Sarafina seem to disappear when they aren’t needed. Which could actually fit, seeing as they could be flying ahead to scout or something, but this show hasn’t built up enough good will with me for me to just let it go even if it isn’t hard to explain.
Yet again I’m at a bit of a sticky point with regard to what kind of story to see this as. If the Spectors are attracted to Dust and Dust is something they can perceive and measure, then I need more explanation as to why Colter gets away so easily. If it’s more of a human spirit kind of thing, then I still need some explanation; I buy that she can seem inhuman enough, but it’s not very scientific in that way. Especially trying to factor daemons into it. Hmm, after all this time saying that I wasn’t doing much speculating about this show, I seem to be doing a bit more of it. Although it is somewhat more in the vein of wondering if this makes more sense in the book; maybe it does or maybe I’m mostly confused how to see this as a genre which would still be a problem in the books.
I just have to say it, I find Lee and John to be super annoying individually and they are not helped by putting them together. The each have a very specific energy to their performances; which I don’t like individually and clash badly.
The feeling I’ve been having for the last couple episodes is still pretty much there; that the book material is being poorly adapted, even though I don’t know what the material is. And I think there’s a chance this ties back into my point about the timeframe we’re working on. This feels like a section that had a collection of little events, possibly over a longer period of time in story, and where Lyra and Will aren’t really super important. Like in the book we’d be catching up with these other plot lines leaving the kids to their own devices for a few chapters. But trying to run them all together makes everything kind of wrong.
And I’m just confused by what’s up with Mary; I’m not even sure her plot makes that much sense as a book subplot. Maybe they’re trying to keep her in the story but she wouldn’t actually reunite with the story for even longer than these other plot lines. Also, as a note, what happened to the setup she had to get through last episode? Boreal had put in a tent and a guard, but neither is there when he and Colter head out. I would have let the guard go if the tent had been there, why would he have put it up in the first place if he was going to take it right down?
Really the Boreal and Colter stuff seems off; in a way that I’m not sure it would in the book. Boreal has been around and relatively plot important the whole series, and yet neither Lyra or Will are anywhere around when Colter takes him out? He’s had too much build up to be taken out this way. But if I’m right and he wasn’t such a consistent presence in the books, then sure, minor antagonist taken out by a major one maybe even off-page.
All around this episode was just…off, a little bit in a lot of ways that add up. Something like that.
I’m having a hard time figuring out how to describe my take on this one. It wasn’t bad and I didn’t dislike it; but it was kind of…bland. Which isn’t quite right, because it was also contrived and unearned, and yet bland.
The show has completely failed to make me interested in Lord of the Flies town, and all I could think this time was that I bet these characters were written younger in the book. Also, the timing is hard to reconcile, because we’re told that the Spectors became a problem after Azriel split the world, and that it only took Lyra a couple days to get to town (which would sort of trouble the idea that the worlds match up so well since Lyra was in the far north and this town corresponds to Oxford…also it didn’t occur to me until they were trying to escape via window on the roof that I’m not sure how that matching up works with altitude. Last episode they could get lower in the basement, but this town is built on a very sharp hill that Oxford isn’t) but when she gets there it seems like the remaining kids are already half feral. Except that for the available food to still be good the short time makes more sense. In any case, Lyra and Will seem to have only left home maybe a week ago; Lyra left right after Azriel split to world (like, to the point where if he’d stopped to read a map on the other side of the tear she’d have run into him) and I don’t think the locals’ attitude works with that timeline.
Also now that they’re out of the city, why don’t we see any of these supposed refugees?
The other witches besides Sarafina seem to disappear when they aren’t needed. Which could actually fit, seeing as they could be flying ahead to scout or something, but this show hasn’t built up enough good will with me for me to just let it go even if it isn’t hard to explain.
Yet again I’m at a bit of a sticky point with regard to what kind of story to see this as. If the Spectors are attracted to Dust and Dust is something they can perceive and measure, then I need more explanation as to why Colter gets away so easily. If it’s more of a human spirit kind of thing, then I still need some explanation; I buy that she can seem inhuman enough, but it’s not very scientific in that way. Especially trying to factor daemons into it. Hmm, after all this time saying that I wasn’t doing much speculating about this show, I seem to be doing a bit more of it. Although it is somewhat more in the vein of wondering if this makes more sense in the book; maybe it does or maybe I’m mostly confused how to see this as a genre which would still be a problem in the books.
I just have to say it, I find Lee and John to be super annoying individually and they are not helped by putting them together. The each have a very specific energy to their performances; which I don’t like individually and clash badly.
The feeling I’ve been having for the last couple episodes is still pretty much there; that the book material is being poorly adapted, even though I don’t know what the material is. And I think there’s a chance this ties back into my point about the timeframe we’re working on. This feels like a section that had a collection of little events, possibly over a longer period of time in story, and where Lyra and Will aren’t really super important. Like in the book we’d be catching up with these other plot lines leaving the kids to their own devices for a few chapters. But trying to run them all together makes everything kind of wrong.
And I’m just confused by what’s up with Mary; I’m not even sure her plot makes that much sense as a book subplot. Maybe they’re trying to keep her in the story but she wouldn’t actually reunite with the story for even longer than these other plot lines. Also, as a note, what happened to the setup she had to get through last episode? Boreal had put in a tent and a guard, but neither is there when he and Colter head out. I would have let the guard go if the tent had been there, why would he have put it up in the first place if he was going to take it right down?
Really the Boreal and Colter stuff seems off; in a way that I’m not sure it would in the book. Boreal has been around and relatively plot important the whole series, and yet neither Lyra or Will are anywhere around when Colter takes him out? He’s had too much build up to be taken out this way. But if I’m right and he wasn’t such a consistent presence in the books, then sure, minor antagonist taken out by a major one maybe even off-page.
All around this episode was just…off, a little bit in a lot of ways that add up. Something like that.
