His Dark Materials (TV Series) The Fight to the Death (2019) User Reviews

Another solid episode with a few minor missteps

[Ritchie07 · 9/10 · 16 December 2019]

I really enjoyed the episode. Iofur looked amazing and the voice acting was great. I do agree that the bear fight was way rushed but that's about the only part I believe felt truly rushed. I get that they couldn't show the jaw thing on the show to keep it TV14 but just the overall fight was so quick. And it makes no sense why they both had no armor on, even after the king yelled for his subordinates to "PREPARE ME FOR BATTLE"

I saw someone on here say the scene with Lyra and Roger riding Iorek was corny. I agree and disagree. I absolutely loved the wide shot and thought it was gorgeous and perfect. I felt the closeup stayed on Lyra and Roger way too long and it did seem corny.

I know a lot of people will disagree but a part of me does feel like they should have waited for season 2 to introduce Will-just because it feels like we keep leaving the main story to spend 5 minutes with Will every episode. Sometimes I'm just not ready to leave Lyra, even though Will is great. I think my favorite scene was Mrs Coulter at the end manipulating her way into the expedition to find Asriel. There was a big smile across my face. Also loved the scene at the beginning when she turned around to face the camera and let out that scream. Truly feral and scary. Loving the music on this show too. That music that was playing as she was looking at the destroyed machine was amazing and that music seems to always happen when Coulter is on the screen. I'm not complaining. My main problem with the episode was James McAvoy's terrible/over dramatic acting at the end. When he said "I DID NOT SEND FOR YOU" for the third time with that fake cry I truly felt embarrassment it was so bad.

Overall, another great episode. CGI is amazing on this show. Music is amazing. Cinematography is breathtaking. My only wish? That HBO was the one handling production. We all know this isn't REALLY a kids story. I wish it didn't have to be clearly watered down to keep it TV14. I want to go all the way.

Side note: the reviewers that keep name checking Jack Thorne and saying how pathetic his adaptation is... you guys CLEARLY went into this with the intention of hating it. I don't know if Jack beat you up in high school or what but it is so clear you are just being petty and overly critical.

The bear fight scene.

[cruise01 · 8/10 · 17 December 2019]

4 out of 5 stars.

The episode continues to be strong with the characters in an adventure. Lyra comes across with the conflict with the polar bears and the fight between them. It wasnt as brutal like the movie. Still entertaining. Great cast. Script. And direction. The ending leaves you on the edge.

A decent ep

[Zakmair1 · 7/10 · 22 December 2019]

After Lyra takes a tumble out of Scorby's balloon and lands at the bottom of what seems to be a mountainside crevasse she then miraculously gets up and pats off her bruises, like it's nothing. She is then captured by the armoured and imprisoned in the cells of Scalbard. In response she plans her escape by posing as Lorek's daemon and tricking the king of the bears into fighting Lorek one on one. Lorek wins the fight and regains control of svalbard. Lyra is reunited with Roger and is then taken to the laboratory where her father was kept captive. When reunited with her father, he is horrified and angry and wishes her to return to the college, but changes his mind when he sees Roger. Meanwhile Will's mother is visited again by Lord Boreal, in which he claims that he is working for intelligence and needs to search het house as feels there may be evidence that her husband, Colonel John Parry, is still alive. However she refuses to believe him and proceeds to kick him out of the house. She then tells Will of this incident, who believes her and keeps her safe at his boxing coach's house whilst he goes back to his house to fetch his father's letter. As this happens Boreal's lackeys break into the house looking for the letters. Will confronts one of the lackeys by knocking him down the stairs, leaving unknowingly dead or unconscious and then running out of the house as possible fugitive. Thoughts: Acting- fine Visual effects- Good Writing- Ok, it felt a bit lazy at times and derivative of the movie. Could've dwelled more on Svalbard. The bear king's storyline was a bit rushed imo. Directing- Good

One of a kind

[ljagate · 15 December 2019]

For me, each episode is a marginal improvement on the last, diving deeper and deeper into Pullman's wonderful trilogy and leaving fans buzzing with excitement for the next.

Yet again with perfection

[saenabyte · 10/10 · 16 December 2019]

Again for the seventh time I am taken aback by how very well put together this story is put together. Even the way they integrated Will's back story from the first few chapters of the second book makes sense. The scenes do take place at the same time, the book just shoves Will at you real quick while this story puts it in the right place in the timeline. Pretty much every detail of this show is spot on and I am just enthralled by how good it is. I have said it before and I will say it again. Can the show creators for this take on Eragon? Those books really do deserve a proper do over.

Perfect Episode

[alfiebullickoliver · 10/10 · 15 December 2019]

Mix of action, conversation and cliffhangers. When you thought that you were going to get all the answers to so many questions, the episode ends. Fights, tension and science all make up the perfect episode.

Masterpiece of an episode

[LuluAndLeia · 10/10 · 15 December 2019]

Perfect continuation from the cliffhanger of the last episode and just as amazing as the the last episode, true perfection.

Best episode so far

[LordAsrielGr · 10/10 · 16 December 2019]

For me it was the best episode to see.

1st. it sets up the Character of Will properly. We are to see a great meeting and I can't wait to it.

2nd. I was convinced that Lyra was in danger on Ioffurs' palace. Although again not bloody (which it no longer bothers me because its the road that BBC chose), you felt that the battle was strong (Also, yeah, armored bears without armor, but give the CGI a break. It's not like CGI is easy)

3rd. The episode stayed way too true to the book. I loved the way McAvoy played and I believe that in 2 minutes on screen he depicted exactly what Asriel is. By the way I loved the voice of Stelmaria!

So hard to please all the fans

[ed_teddysupercool · 10/10 · 18 December 2019]

This episode is so epic and amazing! Just getting better with every week! I think the fans (the hardcore hater fans) will not going to like this episode. But if you like an epic fantasy story! This episode nails it! Let's see what happen next week, I read the book so I have an idea of how epic will be! Just enjoy the raid.

This series only gets better!!!!

[jonnymimn · 8/10 · 17 December 2019]

I have not read the books or seen the film adaptation, but have really got into this series. Yes it has been slow to get going and the "earth" based story line is confusing and only one episode to complete the series.

Are They Speeding everything up?

[boudybob · 6/10 · 16 December 2019]

Are They Speeding everything up? It's the second or third episode that I notice that.

What is happening? Where is the story? It's like they just put the conclusions on your face but you Don't see what really happened in front of you. It's a collection of glimpses of events.

Stop Jumping Into The end of events we need to see the actions our Ourselves. I'm afraid where is the direction of this show is going.

Amazing

[brlngul-4646 · 10/10 · 18 November 2020]

So far everything was amazing but the bear fight could be a bit more brutal (like in the books)

The Fight to the Death

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 25 December 2019]

Who goes bear. Lyra needs to use her cunning to trick Iofur Ragnison the brutal warrior bear. It sets up a fight between Iofur and Iorek Byrnison for the crown.

It is a big fight scene but Lyra is placed in front of the screen so the little ones are not too frightened with the bear brutality.

Mrs Coulter shows her brutality as strangles that zombie nurse. Losing her daemon means she has lost her intelligence until Mrs Coulter realises the horror of what she is doing.

With Lyra, Lord Asriel and Lee Scoresby. You sense that everything is being set up for the finale.

However the Will Parry story is already being set up for the second series. Boreal has already set in motion a chain of deadly events.

The big stand out was the CGI bear fight but I felt that really this is a series that could had been wrapped up in six episodes.

Anti-climax

[chris_jackson-79312 · 5/10 · 15 December 2019]

I was really looking forward to this episode. The fight between Iorek and Iofer was a huge part of the book, especially the killing blow. Where was the jaw breaker? Where was the heart eating?! Just a massive cop out in my opinion. I was really enjoying this series up until that point, and now it has me worried they'll cop out with the ending too when it comes to Roger's fate. I really hope not though.

Lyra Silvertongue

[deepakdst · 9/10 · 19 December 2019]

What a superbb move Lyra played to trick Lofur! That was really a perfect plan but I think Lofur ended very easily. The visual effects were too much good in case of bears. It was really amazing to see how real the fight between Lofur and Lorek was looking.

The Bet

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 27 February 2023]

Lyra survives the fall out of Lee Scoresby's balloon. She calls for Iorek Byrnison and is taken prisoner to the palace of the bears. She plots a plan to lure the king of the bears, Iofur Raknison. The guard takes her to Iofur and she tells him that she is Iorek Byrnison's human daemon. He believes in her lie and he tricks him again using the alethiometer and telling to him who was the first animal he killed. Then she convinces him to tell the guards to give free passage to Iorek Byrnison, since he would have summoned him to dispute the throne in a fight. Then she would become his daemon. In Oxford, Carlo Boreal presses Elaine Parry to give John's letters to him and she sees his snake inside his shirt. Mrs. Coulter learns what happened with Iofur Raknison from Hugh MacPhail, but she refuses to return to the Magisterium.

"The Fight to the Death" is another full of action episode of "His Dark Materials". Lyra's smartness is impressive and she is capable to trick her powerful foe with a witty idea. The situation in Oxford is becoming dangerous to the Parry family due to the attitude of the ambitious Carlo Boreal. The meeting of Lyra and her father is too cold. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "The Fight to the Death"

[7.2] White fight in the dark

[cjonesas · 7/10 · 10 September 2022]

Episode 7: A well-done episode, on its own terms, with right amount of acting, suspense, thrill, semi-enthralling bears fight, few good visual effects, mystery and a strange ending reveal.

A well-done episode, on its own terms, with right amount of acting, suspense, thrill, semi-enthralling bears fight, few good visual effects, mystery and a strange ending reveal.

A well-done episode, on its own terms, with right amount of acting, suspense, thrill, semi-enthralling bears fight, few good visual effects, mystery and a strange ending reveal.

Serafina wearing legging! Not quite needed and required for her.

Disappointing

[sarahjcady · 5/10 · 17 December 2019]

Very disappointed in how poorly they are handling this story. I'm not sure why they decided to introduce Will this early on, but it completely detracts from the story at hand and the cut scenes offer nothing of value. Having the armored bears fight without their armor made zero sense. This part was done so well in the book, I have no idea why they'd change any of it. Everything has been rushed and sloppy and more CGI than storytelling.

What fight?

[bestford · 4/10 · 16 December 2019]

Call that a fight lol.... Watch the film for a real bear fight. Remember kids it's not real.

Just because your subject matter is dark dosn't mean you need to turn off the lights while filming

[felix-bergman · 5/10 · 17 December 2019]

Seriously, a lot of shots in this whole series has been so darkly shot that it's hard to tell what is going on.

Other than that, yeah, the "fight" in this was awful. Despite this part of the story getting a full hour to itself, everything felt rushed and sped up. We hardly see the fight and the "armored bears" don't wear their armor. In the books their armor is what makes them armored bears, it's their souls, and it's described in detail how Iroek, who made his himself to fit him perfectly, is much more fitting and functional than Iofur's, who had his made extra fancy with unnatural decorations that he was insipred to by Mrs. Coulter. In the movie it was a good way to tell them apart. Also, I don't know what age rating this has recieved in GB or US, but in Sweden, the 2007 movie (where we did get a much better battle with the true ending, even if it lacked blood) was rated 11, which ment 7 year olds were allowed in the theatres if someone over 18 accompanied them. On HBO Nordic this series currently rates as 15, the highest possible age rating something can recieve in Sweden.

Also, I wasn't a fan of cutting to Will all the time. I guess setting his character up earlier than in the books is fine, though I wish they'd waited, at least a little longer. But I still don't see why Boreal cares so much. And while the character introduction/setup could have taken place at any time during Lyra's timeline, what we see happening in this episode does not take place during any part of what we read Lyra do. This part of Will's story all happens over one day, he drops his mom of in the early morning (at his old pianoteacher in the book), goes to Oxford, finds the window and meets Lyra during the night of that same day, by which point Lyra claims to have wonderd around for several days or even longer than a week since the end of the first book, which we haven't reached yet, so there is really no warrant for interupting the interesting part of the story to show this part of Will's story right now.

Voiceacting was good, and while McAvoy isn't who I imagined as Asriel he does do a great job, all other performances feels meh. Not any Emmy-winnig achievements.

And lastly, how does the magisterium know so quickly that Iofur has been killed? It's not like phones exist at all in Lyra's world, and even if they have an aletheometer, they would first have to think to ask that question, which, why would they, then they would have to give it top priority or it would be put aside for several months while Fra Pavel did all the other questions in queue, then it would still take days or weeks before they had the answer. In the book it's specifically stated by the aletheometer that Mrs. Coulter haven't heard about Iofur yet and that she goes to Svalbard thinking she can still manipulate him to work for her some more.

Armoured bears that take their armour off to fight. WTF?!!!!

[dr_gonzo-08238 · 1/10 · 15 December 2019]

I wonder whether Jack Thorne even read the books before this sorry attempt at an adaptation. Did he go to the same school as Rian Johnson?

The movie was blamed for X, this one suffers from Y

[sarakuralexx · 1/10 · 16 December 2019]

At this point I need a fan edit of the whole TV show, with two replacements using pfake: Bolvangar and Svalbard.

They might not even have to use it in Svalbard because the bears are similar. But Dafne Keen imprinted on the flawless movie Bolvangar battle would be everything this franchise needed, IMO. And the bear fight, as well. But Dakota is barely in it apart from a couple frames.

You cannot compare the bear movie fight with the G-rated version from BBC. Another one in the basket for the film. Properly underrated, IMO. Rushed, but everything else is on point. Imagine the 2007 film with the proper ending, and over 2h30 hours of complete work. An easy 8/10

It was simply much worse and much tamer compared to something released 12 years ago. SOMETHING is WRONG. In 2007 GOT didn't even exist on TV. In 2020, asking for a realistic approach to the bear fight especically since the one from 2007 won an OSCAR is not unrealistic. The dead fish irked me, but the no-jaw is a BIG NO for me. A fan edit will save this adaptation. Bolvangar and Svalbard are superior in the movies.

Edited into the film it would be the perfect fanedit imo. The movie OBLITERATED the TV show's two main battles and it's a SHAME.The Bolvangar and Svalbard battles are the crucial epic, focal points of Northern Lights.

The movie has many issues, but they executed both battles perfectly. I am very underwhelmed by this whole charade of budget restraints in Eps 6 and 7. Will LOTR's Amazon series suffer the same fate?

The bear fight was ridiculous. They chickened out where the movie did not. I am BEYOND frustrated.

Slipping standards.

[W011y4m5 · 5/10 · 15 December 2019]

Undeniably brilliant & supremely talented director Jamie Childs just can't seem to catch a break after clearly being noticed for his work whilst helming terrible scripts from Chris Chibnall; fresh off the train wreck which was Series 11 of Doctor Who, he's subjected himself to the similar tortuous duties of salvaging yet more atrocious writing from executive producer & sole writer of "His Dark Materials", Jack Thorne.

It's fair to say Mr Childs tries his best - as does the rest of the cast & crew of the show (who deserve major recognition for their obvious efforts) - but unfortunately, despite these attempts, there's very little he's able to realistically work with - to compensate for the irredeemably dire storytelling. Thus, in a similar vein to Mrs Coulter, he wanders aimlessly through the wreckage of the plot - almost as if to inspect the debris for anything usable or marginally advantageous.

Therefore, episode 7 continues the gradual nosedive in quality which noticeably started with the 5th installment of the lacklustre launch series; far too many plates are spinning in the air & not enough time is being devoted to each one in order to maintain it from crashing to the floor & thus, we're forced to watch the remnants of these tiny splintered little remains - strewn together through poorly constructed & badly edited set pieces.

Unfortunately, there's little more to say either as the creators seem resigned to the fact that this is all the show has left to offer from this point onwards... Dissatisfying, meaningless, hollow spectacle - & although incredibly grandiose, epic & visually stunning, for a production which began with such remarkable confidence & genuine promise, it's tragic to see it culminate as something so needlessly lazy, underdeveloped, brazenly simplistic, tonally inconsistent & painfully disappointing.

Yet more significant changes from the book

[simonjmorris-12905 · 2/10 · 19 December 2019]

The books were some of the most compelling, thought provoking story telling of the last 50 years. Why do these screenwriters feel the need to adapt it so much? The armoured bear fight was beyond disappointing. Did the same writers work on the recent star wars trilogy? They are turning literature gold and storytelling genius into garbage. Cant say I'm surprised though, this is the BBCs doing after all

Series is just "Golden Compass" broken into parts.

[dennis-25817 · 1/10 · 17 December 2019]

Saw the movie, nothing new here. Waste of time. All they've done is break the original movie up into short weekly segments. No new story, no new anything. Wish I could figure out how to remove it from my watch list.