#Dark crystal age of resistance season 2 series#

Netflix didn't even get around to confirming the show had been canceled until more than a year after season 1 premiered, by which point the announcement came across as little more than a courtesy. This was clearly a labor-intensive, big-budget show to make, and the odds were always stacked against it, well before the series' lack of social media buzz made it obvious that it wasn't doing great numbers. Netflix never released any official viewership statistics for 'Age of Resistance,' but in this case, it didn't need to. Instead, Netflix dropped the entirety of its first season at once (as it does it all of its series) and the majority of people who watched it were probably already members of the 'Dark Crystal' fanbase. It was a show that would've almost certainly benefited from a weekly release model, allowing it to gradually build word of mouth.

#Dark crystal age of resistance season 2 series#

So, even though it's a prequel show that doesn't require anyone to know a thing about 'The Dark Crystal' going in, that made for yet another barrier the series had to overcome.

'The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance' was in the same boat, only with the added complication that it was part of an older franchise that a lot of people just didn't have any nostalgia for. It also uses its fantasy setting to address such prickly topics as racism, tribalism, and social inequality in a way that's considerate and acknowledges that sometimes people (er, Gelflings) will fight to maintain the status quo despite knowing that others are being actively harmed by itВ - if they decide it's in their own personal interest. 'Age of Resistance' is all about just how hard it is to start a much-needed revolution, even when the beings who rule the world (like the Skeksis) clearly have malicious intentions and are barely doing anything to hide them anymore. This brings me to my earlier point about the show being political. This, in turn, freed up director of photography Erik Wilson ( 'Paddington 2') to capture both the scenery (a pre-apocalyptic Thra bursting with splendid colors and life) and action through a wider range of compositions, including lots of handheld camera-work to make the whole thing feel less staged. With green screen and CGI at their disposal, however, 'Age of Resistance' director Louis Leterrier (2010's 'Clash of the Titans') and his puppeteers could make the residents of Thra leap, run, fight, or fly with far greater fluidity. While Henson and Oz did find ways of making it seem like the puppets in 'The Dark Crystal' could move of their own accord (like having an actor dress up as Jen and filming them from a distance), they were often limited to static shots that only showed the Gelflings and other non-Skeksis from the waist up. The many advances in technology since 1982 serve 'Age of Resistance' equally well.

and all the more frustrated when, ultimately, nothing would come of it. If anything, though, that just left me all the more excited when, starting in the 2000s, news of a 'Dark Crystal' film sequel being in the works popped up every few years. It wasn't until I was older that I began to focus less on the movie's inventive visuals and more on the cracks in its story and characters. Of course, none of that mattered to me watching 'The Dark Crystal' growing up. At the same time, it has a pretty bare-bones hero's journey plot in which the hero, the Gelfling Jen, is sadly less interesting than just about everything else in the film. There's plenty to admire about the movie, from the eldritch designs of Thra's architecture (based onВ Brian Froud's spectacular concept art) toВ the majestic exteriors filmed in places like the Scottish HighlandsВ andВ Gordale Scar, as well as the groundbreaking puppetry and animatronics used to bring all manner of imaginative and often frightening creatures to life. Critics were also mixed on 'The Dark Crystal,' and not without reason.