I might be biased, but the ‘90s were a killer time for Children’s Literature.

The first Harry Potter book was released in 1997, and just a couple of years before that, in 1995, Philip Pullman gave us the first installment of the His Dark Materials trilogy: The Golden Compass. I devoured both of these series with great enthusiasm, and they obviously both still hold a sacred place in my heart. My Harry Potter fanaticism was bolstered by the movies, which are by no means perfect but are still fun to watch.

The film adaptation of The Golden Compass? Not so much. The movie was pretty boring and devoid of the spirit of its source material, and unsurprisingly, the next two books were never made into films after the first one bombed. I soon gave up hope that there would ever be an adaptation of His Dark Materials that would be anywhere close to worthwhile.

And then… November 2019 came around and brought us the promise of a gorgeous and thoughtful HBO series starring James McAvoy, Dafne Keen, Ruth Wilson, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Andrew Scott, and like, a ton of other cool people? I knew what I had to do. I had to recap it.

Obviously, I have read the books, but I haven’t revisited them in nearly ten years. So with that in mind, I intend to write these recaps without spoiling plot points from the books that haven’t yet happened in the show.

So this cast is stacked. I think most people are excited about James McAvoy, but the person who stood out to me the most in this first episode was Dafne Keen who plays Lyra. You might recognize Keen from Logan, but she didn’t really have any lines in Logan, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. So far? She’s perfect. She’s vulnerable when she needs to be and she’s scrappy. And thank goodness she’s perfect, because she does have to carry this show. Surprise to those who haven’t read the books and thought this was going to be James McAvoy’s story. It’s not. This is Lyra’s story.

The daemons are one of my favorite things about this series, and so I was excited to see them. The show quickly explains what the daemons are in some opening text, which is fine. There are a lot of clunky lines thrown throughout to try to explain the lore of the daemon: wondering about why daemons disappear when their humans die, wondering what form their daemons will settle in. But I will forgive this because the daemons are SO CUTE. Seriously, just look at Pan.

I can already tell you right now I will not be able to deal with all of these cute animals. It’s too much. I’m dying.

There is a lot that has to get set up for the series here in this first episode, and the show does well with pacing it, for the most part. The concept of The Gobblers: a strange “urban legend” about people who take children. But it’s not an urban legend, and kids are disappearing. Dun dun dun!

The concept of dust is briefly introduced. What we know so far: Lord Asriel (James McAvoy) has been exploring the world. He has discovered that dust gathers around adults. And also there are other worlds, worlds that aren’t controlled by the Magisterium (the “bad guys” — they’re basically, like, an evil MegaChurch that also controls the government, to put it in simple terms).

Lyra’s uncle Lord Asriel comes to Jordan briefly to tell the scholars about his findings. He nearly gets poisoned by the Master in order to keep this information from getting out. But Lyra saves him. Asriel promptly destroys the evidence of the attempted poisoning and then gets the hell out of dodge almost as quickly as he came. Lyra tries to run after him, but he refuses to let her come along because she is a child and he doesn’t have time for her. When Lyra’s friend tries to admonish Asriel for his treatment of Lyra by explaining that Lyra is special, Asriel replies, “Everyone’s special.” What a way to treat the girl who saved your life.

But look at Asriel’s GORGEOUS daemon Stelmaria… she’s STUNNING.

Get ready. I’m going to be squealing over the daemons this WHOLE TIME.

Rewatching this episode with Ben, he pointed out an interesting line that Lyra delivers to Asriel before he leaves her. She asks if the aircraft that he’s traveling in is similar to the one her parents were on when they died. At first, I thought this was an innocent enough question, but Ben thinks Lyra is trying to catch Asriel in a lie. What do we think? Is Lyra suspicious?

The Gyptians are also introduced in this first episode, but this was the weakest part for me. The daemon ceremony part was a little dull, even though Billy Costa got gobbled by the gobblers. Little Billy Costa’s disappearance is what sets the Gyptians off on a journey to find their missing child. Maybe in future episodes when we get to learn more about these characters, I’ll be more excited about them. For now, eh. There are other things that are more interesting.

Like… THE GOLDEN COMPASS. Before Lyra leaves Jordan, she is gifted with a Golden Compass, an item so powerful that it’s illegal to own one unless sanctioned by the Magisterium. But, you know, scrappy Lyra is into some illegal shit. The only problem? She doesn’t really know how to use it yet. When her friend Roger goes missing, she tries to ask the Golden Compass where Rogers is and if he’s with the Gobblers, and the Golden Compass is straight up like, “That’s not how this works, honey.”

Then there’s this fierce bitch…

I truly feel like we missed out on something that could have been REALLY GREAT when Nicole Kidman was cast as Mrs. Coulter in the film adaptation of the book. I mean, talk about a PERFECT Mrs. Coulter. It’s really too bad she wasn’t able to live up to the true Mrs. Coulter we all know lives inside her. But with that sadness behind us, let’s look to our new Mrs. Coulter, played expertly by Ruth Wilson. She didn’t get to do much in this first episode, but she did establish this character as a strong presence that I think will intrigue most viewers.

What I loved (and found heartbreaking) about Mrs. Coulter’s time onscreen was how easily Mrs. Coulter endears herself to Lyra. It’s clear Lyra has never had a woman she can look up to and see as a mentor. From the moment Lyra lays eyes on Mrs. Coulter, she’s enthralled. And then on top of everything, Mrs. Coulter promises Lyra the life of adventure that Lord Asriel denied her. You can practically see the hearts in Lyra’s eyes.

Overall, I was very happy with this first episode of His Dark Materials. It seems to understand its source material beyond just the surface storyline stuff. The tone of this series is just right. The casting is superb. The animals are cute. The sets are beautiful.

I forgot to mention how much I loved the design of the Golden Compass itself, which is a lot less flashy than the film version. When Lyra talks to the compass, it almost seems like she’s looking at an everyday compact mirror. The inside of the compass is also more utilitarian. I thought this was a nice touch. I’m looking forward to seeing the other design choices throughout the series.

A promising start. Looking forward to talking about the next episode next week!