His Dark Materials Season 2 (Mini-Review)

His Dark Materials Season 2 picks up shortly after the first one ended. Lyra Silvertongue and Will Parry find themselves in the abandoned city of Cittàgazz which is an a world unfamiliar to the two children. The pair soon finds themselves having to go after the Subtle Knife which is hidden somewhere in the city. Other characters experience their own journeys which start to bring them all closer and closer to Cittagazz.

His Dark Materials Season 2 is based off of The Subtle Knife, the second book in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. It is the shortest book of the trilogy and I find it is there to set up things for the third book. So if you felt that this season was slow, the third season will more than make up for it. Prepare for things to get really weird by the end.

The show stayed very faithful to the book even when adding in scenes that were a show only thing. Such as the fact it turns out Will Parry has racist grandparents. This wasn't included in the original book because Will was white in it. Also his plot from the first season was only in the second book because that's when he was introduced. I liked that they messed around with when he first appeared so viewers were ready for him in the second season and it helped with the pacing the showrunners were going for.

I was very happy with the appearance of the specters. Like in the books, they send chills through your spine because of how utterly evil they appear. While this season hammered in about the Subtle Knife and its relation to Cittagazz, there are still a few twists and turns with all three things.

Whenever a book/book series is adapted from something I love, there are always a few things I'm excited about seeing. I couldn't wait to see how they would portray where Lord Asriel has found himself. Unfortunately that is something that will have to be explored in the third and final season. There is a brief show of where he is, but nothing that will explain much to anyone who is a non-book reader of the series.

I was more than overjoyed with Doctor Mary Malone. She is one of the most innocent characters in the books. She is interesting in that she once was religious but eventually gave up religion to embrace science. While she did have a small part to play in the second season, she will become integral to events come the third season.

Lyra has to overcome her own selfishness this season. She doubts the alethiometer and doesn't care about Will near the beginning of the season. By the end she overcomes just enough of her faults to start to change her ways. The fact that her daemon allows Will to touch him...yeah, that solidly points to a growing...friendship.

As I've read the books multiple times before, there were a few moments in the second season that caused me to tear up. Not because they're sad now, but they will become bittersweet by the end of the series. This adaptation of the books has remained faithful to the source material so I think it's safe to say the ending will be both happy and heartbreaking.

I would recommend His Dark Materials Season 2 to fans of the first season and those who enjoyed the books.