User Reviews

After the first episode I was hooked and impressed, I gave it 8 stars. But this episode is up there with the best fantasy series/movies of all times. It can easily compete in creepy scariness with "The gentleman" from Buffy. Looking at the diner scene makes you queezy like the the monkeybrains in Indy and the temple of doom and the pace and emotion of the final scene is up there with the final scene of Avengers Infinity War. I am mightily impressed and can't wait to see the rest.

What a fantastic episode. We are finally introduced to the hunter who is incredibly intimidating, well voiced and brings a lot to this episode. This episode is definitely the most focused so far with world building, and a tight script with some great moments. The ending is what it's all building up to though and it doesn't disappoint. Although it's not my favourite scene... my favourite scene in this episode was the warm and foreboding exchange between the Archer and Aughra, the scenes building up to this are wonderfully mysterious with the Augrhra walking through the woods as she follows the path of arrows narrowly missing her as she goes and it's just a beautiful scene overall. This show does so much for the lore of Dark Crystal and hopefully it will help Hollywood and show runners alike that we want more of this style of filmmaking. Everything here is gorgeously realised and I need more of it pronto. 9.1/10

Brea's storyline was the most compelling. There's an overly long eating scene, just like in the film, and if you don't like eating scenes it's worth skipping. However, it does show how much Emperor skekSo is affected by the Darkening. Speaking of whom, skekSo acts like one of those climate change deniers, or a chairperson of Bayer-Monsanto, and denies the Darkening's existence to skekTek, who despite not caring about the creatures of Thra also warns of the dangers of using the Crystal to draw essence too much. Honestly, while skekTek is far from innocent, he was basically blackmailed into what follows two episodes later and becomes just as high on power as the rest of them. Still, despite everything he is one of the most pragmatic Skeksis. He did suggest killing Gurjin, but listened to the Emperor's advice in case the son of the Drenchen Maudra provides information on Rian. He and skekVar underestimate Gurjin's loyalty but he was slightly more in the right when skekVar uses Crystal to give Gurjin an unauthorized torturing. The scene between Aughra and urVa- our first Mystic in the series- was great. And skekSil summoning the Hunter (voiced by Ralph Ineson and performed by Kevin Clash) is a beautiful shot. Lore is an impressive creation. At first he was going to be CGI but then they figured he could be an actual puppet. He's a kind of R2-D2 figure with a hidden message recorded on his arm. My problem with this episode is also my problem with the entire series. Some shots move so fast that sometimes you don't know what's going on. I don't know why they do that. Is it to make it look more like modern action movies? What's the point of having the action such a blur that you can't even admire the expert puppetry?