Ladies at the Round Table: A Journey into the Realms of Sci-fi and Fantasy

Show Name: His Dark Materials

Season/Episode: 2/3 Theft

Date Aired: November 30, 2020

Where Aired: HBOmax

We might want to make a mention that there is violence towards animals potentially or something and cut saying skip to ___ time stamp to skip over that part i know it can be hard for some people to hear about and stuff… 

Plot Summary in a sentence

Getting all the key players on the same page - it’s a race to find Lyra, Lyra needs to grow up, but that’s bad right?

Whatever you do, don’t lose the… what do you mean you lost it?

Lyra leaves to try to find more about dust, does not tell Will and gets in a bunch of trouble.

While lyra is in the other world being found out her world is slowly dying and some serious bonding is happening.

What’s your word?

Race

Oops

Feels

Slow

Story talking points: (I am going to lead the conversation by character rather than sequence since it jumps around so much finishing up with Lyra)

Witches and iorek-

Bird tells Iorik about Lyra’s destiny and he is mad that they are usingLyra as a toy.

Azreal hole in the sky is messing with everyone because of the weather (seals, fog cant see with telescope, fog stops Mrs coulter from traveling)

It's nice to see Iorek again.  I thought it was going to be a massive spoiler.

I think I missed this.

Lee and Mrs Coulter-

Starts with Grumman calling to the wind and Lee “return”

The ring is not what Joey expected

Lee in the bar “now that we are friends” lol 

Lee’s face when the guy calls Grumman a heretic - he and Hester have a look like we gotta get out of here. He says “amen” cool as can be

I thought Ms. Coulter was pretty consistent but Manuel’s acting just ruined Lee for me in this scene. Both of them interacted weirdly because of it.

Hester and Lee : “he gave you no choice, you didn't shoot to kill” obviously doesn’t like killing people...

Did anyone else notice Lee’s Texan accent all but disappears in this moment? And I don’t think it came back. 

^^^ THIS ^^^^ 

I was thinking it was def less pronounced in this episode and it just slowly disappears like wut.

Mrs Coulter “I’m her mother.” Lee “so”

Lee sees on her face that she went through the same abusive childhood “of course you did” 

I believed it, I was grateful when it came. - it wont break me and you know it because it wouldn’t break you either.

Hester nuzzles him and Mrs coulter goes to the brick wall. Monkey tries to tentatively hold her hand (she allows it)

Boreal decides to tellMrs coulter. It must have been before the happenings with Lyra this episode because of post taking time, so why tell her now?

^Joey has a reason for that

“People will be looking for her not all of them good. If you find her please, keep her safe”

Also do daemons bleed?

hester didn’t seem as injured as lee

THE MONKEY JUST TOSSES THAT SNAKE DAEMON AFTER SMASHING ITS HEAD INTO THE GROUND WHATTTTTT SO GOOD AND SO UPSETTING

Why didn’t the snake dissolve into nothing like the other daemons?  Guess he’s not dead?

Mary Malone- (No y) 

Saves Lyra helps her get away.

Asks simple question need simple answer - cave doesn’t give it to her, but universe does.

At home great with her niece and nephew too. Sister says break through at home. 

She reads I Ching at home and the cave reacts.

I liked that she was more worried about how she was doing instead of where she was like everyone else seems to be focusing on. And once she found out she was safe her whole demeanor changed

Will left behind-

Conversation with creepy girl #1 - ghost in the tower built by the guild (group of men) philosophers.

Tabitha is the creepy girl 

Wiki says her name is angelica  I came back to fix that just now, I’m glad you caught it too! 

It was cool to get the information this way vs in the book. You hear the same thing twice which was annoying but kinda fun to see an adult tell it vs a kid telling it.

Lyra and Boreal in the car-

He calmly explains to her how to fasten her seatbelt. “My mother will be worried.” “I’m sure she will”

Did anyone else scream at Lyra right then? Just me? Okay. 

Boreal’s Face omg!

Lyra and Will-

He so quickly forgives her and they work together to try to solve the problem

Pan watching the movie is the cutest.

Cheesy Paddington Bear going through a portal window.  

Are they gonna bench switch on me? 

Legit haven’t seen paddington sooooooo does that movie connect with this show in a way or what is the connection why this movie?

Hahaha her eating popcorn (my comfort food) “this tastes horrible, then stop eating it, no” dead.

Lyra and will and Boreal at the end-

I’m a collector - you’re a thief )this is a bit of a heavy conversation, but important. 

Shoshie for the win- not specifically the magisterium getting the knife, but Boreal is the more worthy nemesis I think.

“We’ll get your knife” will standing up and the look on his face like Lyra you are crazy to be so brave, but I got your back, while still being cautious.

This scene in the book is intense! Pan leaps out in cat form to attack and he isn’t freaked by it at all and will catch a glimpse of his snake daemon oof so cool.

Favorite character this episode?

Hard today. - Hester

I had typed something but I changed my mind, I have a lot of favorites.

Kinda don’t know who to choose… coulter perhaps.. You see a lot of her and learn more about why she is the way she is and she opens up a little and trusts someone

Technical Talking Points (music, lighting, editing):

The clothes in the mining town Lee goes to 

Shot above chili Anne

The color palette in the town with Lee was absolutely luscious. Best part of the episode LOL

I Ching - bagua map matches the interior seating of the magisterium

The book that Mary uses for her journaling! Love it.

The leather snapping pouch that the letters are kept in

Using Pan as a look out on the run was so much fun.

Boreal has the coolest car, I’m disappointed I do not also have the coolest car. 

Was disappointed in Lyra a little this episode

Hester’s face when she watches the Daemon particulate. 

The shots were so nice! They really paid attention to how each town and place is different. You can tell there are different people living there with different cultures and languages and style of dress. There was lots of thought into how they live and stuff. 

Seemed like there were more daemons in shots like big shots 

The noise when the daemons walk is too cute! In the bar hesters little hops and pans everything

The fur blowing in the wind when hester is in the balloon and Ioreks neck skin flapping in the wind a bit haha 

Joey has a thing about wants/needs she wants to talk about

Joey will do a Pateron/ follow us ploy again. 

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Show Name: His Dark Materials

Season/Episode: Season 2 Episode 1

Episode Title: The City of Magpies

Date Aired: November 16, 2020

Where Aired: HBO/BBC

Plot Summary in a sentence

We are in a super beautiful, creepy place with random creepy kids and zombie adults: I know we just met, but you make a good omelet - let’s be friends, maybe, (but I still don’t trust you.), and also my mom is still up to crazy duplicitous shit in my old world.

Will and lyra start an adventure together and bond over eggs and how their worlds are alike but with the words mixed up.

Story Talking Points (plot, characters):

-glad we got at least a moment of sorrow for Roger

-Pan seemed to talk a lot more

-Witch killing other witch

-Creepy kids

-Specters only attack adults, super similar to dust, but obviously more evil

-What if the cat is Will’s demon but since his dad has magic (from the trailers) he can be far from it and just doesn’t know? That might be too far fetched cause how disconnected would he have to be with his soul to not know.

-still a bit meh on Will, want to like him more

I’m bored of lyra. Im worried they are doing the same thing that happened with hermione/ron in the movies where they made her too perfect (not the right word) and made ron almost not important. So she was a strong character but unrealistic. but there is something about her that just makes her seem so flat. The books she shows emotions other than independent nonchalant and does have to rely on will for some help. This book is more about will so far than lyra and the show just kinda shoves him aside.   

I like the chemistry between the two, they seem to joke well and get along so that is nice

If you keep acting like an adult the specters are gonna get you

Your world is like my world with the words mixed up OR your word is like mine

After meeting the girls will says lyra is the odd one cuz they didn’t have daemons

This is the first episode where i am legit grumpy and it was so hard to watch it a second time i kept getting distracted. Im so confused why they changed some of the stuff they did, like rutas personality and why are the witches so dang powerful?! That scene of her attacking everyone so easily was meh we knew it would be fine i have zero connection to it. I don’t mind when they do change things because different medium but this better make sense later on or what is the damn point.

Mrs coulter telling whats his face that she will kill that dude so he can be in charge. And the guys being all grumpy that a WOMAN cannot take control >:(   ← this is what they looked like hahaha

Mrs coulter taking her jewelry off to torture the witch with a pair of tweezers had me laughing.  (the book she was breaking fingers and they had been torturing the witch for a while)

WHATS HER FACE BIT THE CAPS OFF THE DRINKS WTF HOW!?

What’s your word?

Setup

Trust

Favorite character this episode?

Winner for me is creepy girl #1 I definitely recognize her from somewhere (game of thrones)

No one. i want to like will more but they took many of his moments from the book and gave them to lyra or cut them out. 

Technical Talking Points (music, lighting, editing):

-Love the staircases that are also in the starting credits

-Fun seeing Pan as a few new animals, maybe more time could be invested since there are less daemons around?

-Music still great

-Still feel that the quick second scenes are by far and away the best parts of this show (witch killing, the moment that Will and Lyra are both looking at the things they are keeping secret to find answers.)

-A few too many shadows for me, but maybe they did it on purpose.

-Looked up credits and less women than I expected. Lead writer is a man who also wrote Enola Holmes another strong woman lead. I am pleased with his take generally.

Seemed like there were more demons in this episode

The visuals were amazing! The stairs are such a fun visual and how they were repeated throughout

They did a good job of making the city look like how it was mentioned in the book. They were more prone to patching things than tearing it down and building a new one. 

costume/outfit choice for mrs coulter was horrible. Also lyras jumpsuit thing? Like outfits were not fun. So frumpy and ugly. Loved Paulas hair wrap thing tho and the witches hair and outfits were awesome.

How they introduced the knife even larger in the opening credits was an odd choice to me the other additions i enjoyed tho

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The Ladies at the Round Table discuss the upcoming season two of His Dark Materials after watching teaser/trailers.

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In this episode you get to know your four hosts better. Who are we? Why do we love Sci-if and Fantasy? How long have we been into this stuff? A great little intro!

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Our crew goes over the second half of Season One of His Dark Materials. We discuss what we loved, didn’t love and make some comparisons to the books. Content Warning! Some issues discussed are heavy. Lee Corso, Will and his mom, Boreal, Sarafina Pekala and of course the main characters we discussed last time: Lyra, Roger, Ioric, Ma Costa, Mrs. Coulter and Lord Asriel

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Maya

Shoshie

Maxx

Joey

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Ladies at the Round Table: A Journey into the realms of sci-if and fantasy. 

After our favorite shows air we aren’t done, so we will continue the stories with conversation, discussion and critique. 

Our crew of ladies are taking our place at King Arthur’s table to hold in depth discussions on characters, story arcs, burning questions we have, technical aspects we loved or hated, our favorite quotes, and so much more. 

On November 5th we begin with His Dark Materials Season one rewind and then will be jumping into season two.

Each episode will last about 90 minutes. 

Watch for new episodes every Thursday morning at 9am. 

Subscribe today!

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