His Dark Materials episode 2 review, Culture Whisper
There are points in His Dark Materials that emulate the experience of many 12-year-old children: straddling the line between delightful childish things and upsetting adult realities. It’s this difficult balance that Jack Thorne’s BBC adaptation finds its transparent weaknesses, and its immersive strengths.
Episode two revels in Lyra’s naive eyes, as she travels with her daemon Pan (Kit Connor) and the explorer Mrs Coulter (Ruth Wilson) to London — or, rather, the Philip Pullman version of London. Coulter lets Lyra stay in her apartment, which takes up an entire floor in a building that rises into the sky, and shows Lyra around. But the restless 12-year-old, predictably, can’t sit still; she can’t look comfortable in shiny dresses; and she can’t sustain Coulter's aristocratic rules and manners.
