“From the little I’ve seen of the film, I don’t feel Richards could have portrayed what Lyra has to go through” - Given that I (and San Francisco Chronicle critic Mick LaSalle) have seen the film, albeit not even the shot-but-cut ending, you’ll excuse me if I hold my own, correct opinion on this count. ;)

Thanks for the reply! Yep, after Logan, I’m certainly not one to question whether Keen can play fierce. As far as I’m concerned, her misguided performance is entirely the fault of the showrunners.

Helping re-elect Trump by pissing off the masses for no good reason level: intermediate.

Yes, and yes.

The key to basing a story around an amnesiac protagonist is for the discovery of their past self to fundamentally change the protagonist. The Bourne trilogy works because it’s about a decent guy who’s profoundly and increasingly disgusted by his past. Carol Danvers, on the other hand, learns she was fighting for the…

“You don’t hate them, you don’t love them, they’re just OK. That’s the majority of movies. These are not those movies.” - Captain Marvel is the epitome of okay cinema.

I don’t think Asriel’s meant to have superpowers of any kind; he’s just a world-class rogue who’s spent decades making friends in all kinds of low places, so even when he’s under house arrest in the far north, if he writes a few letters cashing in old favors asking for a kid that no one will ask questions about, he’ll…

The book mentions they have opposable thumbs, though I don’t think either screen version portrayed that.

We must now ask: is the series’ portrayal of Lyra a fail? San Francisco Chronicle critic Mick Lasalle, who hadn’t read the books, wrote of Dakota Blue Richards/the movie’s Lyra: “A 13-year-old girl with no previous screen experience, Richards has slightly messed-up English teeth, wide-set eyes and the alert, knowing…

I’ve seen it. For all its many, many faults, at least its Lyra acts like Lyra. Movie Lyra lies with conviction, whereas series Lyra (in, say, her fibbing to Iofur), is visibly bad at it, stuttering and darting her eyes all around. I can accept a lot, but I can’t accept a Lyra who isn’t a total badass from the start.

“Including this part of the story was still a powerful choice.” I believe you misspelled the words “non-negotiable bare minimum” there. ;)

That’s a totally serious suggestion, in certain quarters! The thing for me, though, is that as much as I love and admire TSK/TAS, I’ve never been all that interested in seeing them on screen; they’re just too grim and heavy, so the idea that the series might get better from here just doesn’t inspire me at all. From…

There are plenty of jerkwads in the world as-is without you attempting to be one also. And: read the damn books.

Even if HBO has pitched in a lot more money for the next two seasons, the story’s scope expands so much that their money will surely still be stretched to the limit even so...

Those are all valid questions, and, as I recall, the answers don’t really matter, because this trilogy is fundamentally about Lyra and Will. (But primarily Lyra, to the point where when she goes missing from the narrative for a bit later on, both Will and the reader are freaking the hell out until she returns.) And…

“But probably the best thing (for me) was that this was Nebula’s movie.” Yeah, to say the female characters were sidelined just isn’t true. Were there fewer of them? Yeah. Were they sidelined? Nah.

Soooooo... all told, not that either adaptation is any patch on the book, would the best way to put the story in your eyeballs be to watch the movie, and then this final episode? (And, through the dark magic of fan editing, restore the proper Bolvangar/Svalbard order, and cut all of Will’s story/our world?) :p

Sure - blame all around! :P

Jennifer Lawrence was only contracted for 3 X-films; her return to Dark Phoenix, and so her openly contemptuous performance therein was as much her fault as it was the producers’ cowardice to not replace her. (And that’s assuming, very generously, that the character was still needed at all.)

“I’ve really loved this show and I’ve been stumped why io9 and avclub weren’t covering it more.” Because it’s not Star Wars, Marvel, or DC.