And yet, all of that is undermined by a horrible ending in the last two episodes. The climactic confrontation between Asriel (James McAvoy), Mrs. Coulter (Ruth Wilson), and the Big Baddie looks like something from a '90s B-movie, and then the slow-mo scene of all three falling to their deaths, their expressions frozen, is a trope that's been done before. It's a low blow to those characters (Asriel and Mrs. Coulter) to end them that way, to the actors who played them so well, and to the audience who missed the chance to see more great scenes between them and Dafne Keen's character, Lyra.
And then we get to the real steaming turd in the room, the final episode: The two young lead characters, Lyra and Will, who have already spent three epsides in season 3 on an overly dismal, dreary, deep side quest, finally get a break in a different world, and it's good to see things looking up for them at last. But, the multiverse is still dying, there is still work to do. Suddenly, a show that until now had featured zero sexualization (which was refreshing to me, I'm honestly bored with every story featuring sex and romance) suddenly has not one, but two scenes of Lyra and Will bathing together. Suddenly they're in love, they kiss (definitely not a teenagers first kiss either), and magic happens. The universe is healing, love has conquered all, and all that crap. Who knew that after all this time, all it took to fulfill prophecies and restore balance to the multiverse was two teenagers wanting to bang each other.
And then, for some complete bull**** reason that is invented on the spot, they're not allowed to be in the same world together. So, the rest of the episode is spent in goodbyes and tearful declarations of eternal love, even after the last scene fades to black. Both Will and Lyra are sent back to their old lives, as is a supporting character who seemed much happier in the new world than she did in her old one. (This bothered me in the Narnia stories too: what's the point of showing someone a new world with so many possibilities if they're not allowed to stay, but have to return to their old lives?) A unique, nuanced story becomes a massive cliche: yet another tale of thwarted, yet never-ending teenage love. I was almost ready to turn it off and throw the DVD out the window. It's as if the writers wrote up to the last two episodes and then said "Oh **** me, what do we do now?" and then handed it off to the B-movie writing team, but apparently this is how the book ends, too. What the ****, author? The story, the characters, and the audience all deserved a better ending.
