Before we get started, a few caveats. First, I haven't read The Shadow in the North. My complaints are going to be entirely about the BBC's adaptation. I understand the plot is essentially unchanged from the novel, but I don't know how Pullman treats the issues I'm going to highlight. Second, I'm going to spoil the hell out of the material.
There's a lot to be said for Pullman's first Sally Lockhart novel, The Ruby in the Smoke. It's dark, it's violent, and it features a refreshingly good heroine. Sally is strong, smart and independent without too much resort to the usual clichés about feistiness or vulnerability or whatever. Ruby is a kid's novel, so coincidences tend to be a little too neat and resolutions a little too perfect. But Pullman doesn't pull his punches: it's a pretty grim book. A lot of people die, and all fairly horribly. I'm sorry I didn't know about Ruby when I was a kid; I'd have loved it.
And the BBC's 2006 adaptation does the novel no injustice. The cast is good, the direction is good (if unremarkable one way or the other), and it's faithful to the source material. Ruby retains the book's surprising violence and adds some welcome ethnic diversity to the cast. And, at a mere 93 minutes, Ruby moves at a tight clip. There simply isn't time for grandiose indulgences, and the film is stronger for it. I was surprised by how much I liked it.
So I popped The Shadow in the North into the DVD player full of good will. A day later, I'm still fuming.

































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