If your favorite book series is Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, as it is mine, you’re pretty lucky. It’s been adapted into many different formats (a radio play, a stage play, a movie), its audiobook production is one of the best I’ve ever read (full cast with Pullman reading the non-dialogue parts), it’s got tons of wonderful variants and foreign language editions for the collector (I myself have several, including a French version of The Amber Spyglass which I picked up in Paris as a 16 year old), there are now three companion novellas with fun extras, and there’s a whole new trilogy that, while published as YA, seems well suited for now-adult fans who grew up with the books.

And now, of course, there is a TV adaptation.

I watched the first season last year, and just finished the second a couple of weeks ago. There will be a third and final season sometime next year. For the most part, each season parallels a book in the trilogy, with one big change: Will is introduced in season 1. It works perfectly well, since Will’s initial adventures from book 2 actually do overlap in time with some of Lyra’s adventures in book 1. We get to see more of Will’s backstory than is shown in the book, which is nice, and the actor is good. It also helps ground the story in something more familiar for the newbies.

While I enjoyed the first season, I didn’t really love it. Most critics have praised Dafne Keen’s performance, but I thought her acting was often awkward, and not in the “I’m a preteen so I’m always awkward” way. It’s a huge and challenging role for a child to carry – she’s in nearly every shot – so no knock on her ability, it just didn’t 100% work for me. Everything else was solid: armored bears, the performances of Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter, the extremely creepy facility in the North.

Season 2, though, really stepped things up. The Subtle Knife is my least favorite book of the three, but the television season was pretty impressive. Keen’s performance is markedly better, and she and Will grow more comfortable with each other as the episodes pass. Her delivery feels more natural and the way she reacts to Will – initially alarmed by his lack of daemon, then viewing him with wariness, then friendship, and finally as a person whose goals she must help achieve or die trying – feels gradual but also momentous. The witches get some good screen time, as does Mrs. Coulter, who is perhaps the most interesting character in the show, as well as the best-acted. And that scene with Lee – you know the one – is lovingly done and will certainly make you cry.

Season 2 also introduces us to Mary Malone, who is by far my favorite character as an adult. While I loved Lyra’s courage and unselfconscious attitude as a kid, Mary Malone’s life, research, and decisions resonate with me strongly as an adult woman. I’m really excited to see her interact more with Lyra in season 3.

Settings, costumes, and special effects are all pretty perfect. Perhaps my favorite special effect is actually the title sequence, which shows various artistic shots of Lyra’s world and then shots from others that eventually coalesce into a depiction of all parallel worlds, thinly placed one on top of the other, as if you could walk across them all without any effort at all. Cleverly, Lyra’s world is the last focused upon in Season 1, and Cittagazze is the last in season 2.

This is the best screen adaptation for fans yet, and the best we’re likely to see for a while. It’s not perfect, but it does the source material justice, not backing away from the trilogy’s big and more controversial themes. I’m especially curious to see how they deal with those themes in season 3 – do they portray them as the book did, or will the creators modify events and characters’ actions somewhat to avoid generating too much pushback? I’m looking forward to finding out.