Anybody watched or is watching this?

Sounded a little interesting. And was bored w/ nothing else compelling to watch at the time. I've watched a few episodes and not am about to stop watching. But there are 3 seasons already - so must have a crowd I'm assuming.

Anybody watched this? Is it worth continuing - it gets better? Or just stop watching - not worth watching?

I'm about halfway through Season 3, and overall the show is hit or miss. There's enough good about it to consider sticking with it, but understand that it never quite hits "great". It drags in a number of spots, and the plot doesn't always make total sense, but the visuals and the acting are overall quite good.

(And if nothing else, it's certainly way better than the earlier attempt at a movie adaptation... That was a downright stinker.)

However, it has an overtly anti-religious theme, so depending on your personal beliefs, that might be enough of a reason to bail right there. The grossly oversimplified premise of the books/series is: "God is a tyrant that needs to be killed or overthrown, and organized religion is merely a means of oppression". It was basically the athiest author's attempt at an "Anti-Narnia" fantasy series.


The funny thing is, the books came out and were gaining traction around the same time as the Harry Potter books, which was another young adult fantasy series that somehow managed to catch all kinds of flak from the ultra-religious types over very dubious claims that they were designed to teach kids witchcraft, and represented a path to Satanism, and such. The usual "Satanic panic" stuff, y'know.

Meanwhile, there wasn't hardly any stink made about this Dark Materials young adult fantasy book series that was getting to be almost as popular, despite the fact that these books were quite explicitly like: "Listen up, kids... God is an asshole, and you should strive to throw off the shackles of your religious overlords!"

Nope, no time for that... All the church ladies were too busy trying to analyze the hidden meaning of the the word Hogwarts, which apparently if you rearrange the letters, and substitute some more in, and then squint at it, actually reads "Hail Satan".

Thanks! Yea, that sounds about right after a few episodes. Hit or miss. That’s why I’m wondering if it’s worth continuing.

I haven’t hit any anti-God stuff yet. Either that or it’s completely going over my head. Sounds like that might be a turn off.

I’ll keep with it for now I guess. But might bail if it doesn’t command at least a little more interest and engagement soon.

It was a great series and enjoyed it.

Some plot lines made no sense. Smart characters do obvious stupid things to fix a plot problem.

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
I haven’t hit any anti-God stuff yet. Either that or it’s completely going over my head.

Not "Anti-God" so much as "anti-religion." They are not the same things.

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
Sounds like that might be a turn off.

If you're deeply religious, likely it will be. It's pretty overt.

My wife and I enjoyed it, plot holes, occasionally dragging narrative, and all. But, unlike, say, Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, I think it rather forgettable. I doubt we'll ever re-watch it.

I'm struggling w/ the daemon thing. Seems like the bad guys are trying to 'free' themselves by figuring how to disconnect the 'person' from the 'daemon' as if the daemon is somehow constraining. Maybe in comparison to people (here?) where daemon's don't exist and the gobblers find that 'freeing' somehow? I'm not sure. I'm sure there's a metaphor here that is going over my head. Detaching the soul from the body - this is a good thing? Is this one of the anti-religious stuff I'm not getting yet?

The theme is - no matter how inconvenient and constraining the soul might be, it's better to keep body and soul attached? Without souls, we're just empty shells that wander aimlessly unless a way can be found to keep the body and become independent of souls? Somehow, we become better and can live more freely without souls?

quote:

Originally posted by konata88:
I'm struggling w/ the daemon thing.

The daemon is the physical manifestation of a person's inner self...their soul. When they are young they can change form but during puberty the daemon takes a permanent form which reflects it's persons personality

quote:

Seems like the bad guys are trying to 'free' themselves by figuring how to disconnect the 'person' from the 'daemon' as if the daemon is somehow constraining.

Severing the bond between a human and their soul is believed by the Church to prevent the developing troubling "adult emotions"...questioning the Church's values; morality

I'm seeing it as the classic conflict between the Church's desire to establish Morality as the default for Society as opposed to a person exploring and developing their personal Ethics

On S3 now. Like indicated above, some parts are good. Others drag on (I just fast forward a lot now. I don’t understand the physicist storyline.

Actually, I must be stupid. I’m barely following the superficial storyline; I’m completely lost and confused with the religious allegory.

And why doesn’t she ask the alit-thingie whether she can trust / follow her mother and/or father?

Okay. Finished. I didn't realize that this would complete and wrap up. I thought this was series and S4 would come.

But I'm glad it ended and wrapped. I'm not sure exactly what happened and why and how. I'm not gonna think about it and just leave it as (mostly) happy ending. I think? Was it happy? I dunno - not sure what the story meant. I'm gonna leave it at face value and not think about allegories.

On to the next story - not sure what to watch yet. Maybe Perry Mason S2 (but I really like the original Della vs the one here in the new series).