His Dark Materials (The Complete Third Season) (Blu-ray Review)

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

His Dark Materials in its third season brings the final confrontations between the Authority and Asriel (James McAvoy), Mrs. Coulter (Ruth Wilson), Lyra (Dafne Keen), and Will (Amir Wilson).

With Will now firmly the “knife bearer” and Lyra on a quest to the land of the dead to rescue her late friend Roger, on which she is joined by Will. Asriel begins the final phase of his campaign to bring down the Kingdom of Heaven and free the world from the authoritarian rule of the Authority. Meanwhile, Mrs. Coulter, who had kidnapped Lyra and kept her drugged, is captured by Asriel and her intentions are in question. Is she trying to help or just plotting something in her usual self-serving way?

The season is an 8-episode arc that answers many questions and maintains the high level of production values the previous seasons had. There are magnificent visual effects and a good blend of exposition and action. It all culminates in some heartbreak for many of the main characters. Saying more would be too much of a spoiler. Let’s leave it at, fans following the series will notice the palpable pain.

The Video

His Dark Materials: Season 3 was shot on the Arri Alexa LF and the Sony CineAlta Venice on Zeiss Supreme Prime lenses in 4.5K and 6K respectively. A 4K digital intermediate was used, which had to be downscaled to 2K for this Bu-ray release. It comes in a 1.78:1 and 2.00:1 framed AVC 1080p encodement. The image is clean and detailed with greatly extended depth of field. Some very mild banding can be seen in some places in areas such as skies, but other than that this is a brilliant transfer.

The Audio

His Dark Materials: Season 3 hits Blu-ray with a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix and a French Dolby Digital 5.1 dub. This series, like most of the marquee series on HBO, has always had good audio engineering. There is a wide dynamic range and superb balance of sound effects and the score, the latter of which fills the soundstage with clear, clean, ear-pleasing quality. The low end is hefty, supporting the sound effects and surround channels carry a lot of atmospheric effects, ambience, and solid sound effects.

The Supplements

This third season of His Dark Materials on Blu-ray is a completely barebones release with no bonus features, not even a digital code.

The Final Assessment

His Dark Materials: The Complete Third Season brings this series to a magical, thrill-filled conclusion that also contains lots of heartbreak. The cast continued to impress, including Ruth Wilson who steals all of her scenes, and the now visibly matured Dafne Keen and Amir Wilson. This release is barebones with no extras included, but is still the superior way to view this season.

His Dark Materials: The Complete Third Season is out on Blu-ray April 25, 2023 from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.

• Rating Certificate: TV-14
• Studios & Distributors: Anton | Bad Wolf | British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) | Home Box Office (HBO) | New Line Cinema | Scholastic | HBO Max | Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
• Show Creator: Jack Thorne
• Run Time: 471 Mins.
• Street Date: 25 April 2023
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 | 2.00:1
• Video Format: AVC 1080p
• Primary Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1
• Secondary Audio: French DD 5.1
• Subtitles: English SDH | French | Dutch