'His Dark Materials' Season 1 Episode 5 Recap: "The Lost Boy"

One could argue that the problem with His Dark Materials so far is that it insists on staying slavishly faithful to the source material. It's an understandable decision, especially in light of the 2005 film, which excised all of the religious overtones to reduce it to a story about Lyra and her cute animal friends. But in being so intensely literal, the show has perhaps gone too far in the other direction, erasing the magic of the world in a quest to make it as realistic as possible. The result so far has been a workman-like adaptation, which would have been remarkable in say, 2012. But in 2019, especially facing competition like the high-concept Watchmen, it's merely ho-hum.

That's why the best parts of the show are those that go over the top -- Ruth Wilson as Mrs. Coulter, Lin-Manuel Miranda as Lee Scoresby, and, of course, the armored bears. But it's when the show chooses to finally zag instead of plodding along the book's well-worn predetermined pathways that things also finally light up, narratively speaking. Lord Boreal's forays into our world aren't just exciting because a character is somewhere other than where the book places him. They're fascinating because they're unexpected, and allow the show to go its own way.

That's why this week's decision to spend half the episode with the Parrys was great. We got to know Will (Amir Wilson) a high school wrestler who suffers from bullying due to his father's disappearance and his mother Elaine (Nina Sosanya). Will doesn't show up at all until the second book and is then only really seen and understood via Lyra's pint of view. Elaine is all but a non-character, and Will's life on our version of Earth is something only recalled in dialogue. To spend an entire half episode filling out Will's backstory, so he becomes a lead character in his own right, is one of the best decisions the show has made so far.