The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Is a Stone-Cold Masterpiece

https://gizmodo.com/reminder-the-dark-crystal-age-of-resistance-is-a-stone-cold-masterpiece-2000574613

by adrian_mrd • 1 year ago

205 117 1 year ago

moomin• 1 year ago

I don’t know if I’d go quite so far, but it is very good. The Chamberlain remains a piece of work, and Lena Headey sometimes feels like she’s still on the set of Game of Thrones.

mjamesaustin• 1 year ago

A hidden gem, well worth the watch for fans and newcomers alike. This show wows on so many levels.

eldgfipo• 1 year ago

Incredible show, so disappointed Netflix cancelled it.

fowl338• 1 year ago

FWIW, it's unlikely that any other studio would have greenlighted AoR at anywhere close to the budget it got. It might have had more seasons elsewhere, but not at this level of quality. I'm glad we at least got one incredible season out of it.

Scavenger's Reign on Max got similarly cancelled after one season. There isn't much audience for weird shows like that, apparently. :(

teamonkey• 1 year ago

I think it’s a shame that shows like this need to be runaway hits out of the door, rather than slow-burners. Cult TV has historically had a long tail; you’d think that this was something that would benefit streaming services.

Loughla• 1 year ago

Scavenger's Reign is probably the best show I've seen, in terms of world building and creativity. Just absolutely stunning.

I'm massively disappointed it got cancelled. It really scratched the sci-fi itch that usually only gets scratched via books. Most sci-fi movies and shows are really just lazily dressed up romance.

socks2• 1 year ago

Scavenger's Reign was really excellent - but as I was watching it, I had an inkling that I would likely be in a small cohort of people who love it.

freetime2• 1 year ago

This is the first I am even hearing about it. Interesting that Netflix has never recommended it to me as someone who watches a lot of fantasy, sci-fi, animation, etc. Although TBH if it weren't highly recommended I would be pretty hesitant to watch a show with muppets, despite my other interests. Even with this glowing recommendation I'm still a bit skeptical.

muddi900• 1 year ago

They canceled it after renwing it.

Louis Leterrier is considered a journeyman Hollywood director, but his work here was insane.

And the puppetry.

raffraffraff2• 1 year ago

The problem with all this is the same thing great animation runs into. Because of the medium, many people choose to ignore the show or dismiss it as made for kids

This reminds me of Yonderland, an absolutely amazing TV show that has plot, characters and occasionally adult humour that will fly over the heads of children in the same way that a lot of great Simpsons gags did, in the good old days. Yonderland is made by the same people who did Ghosts (no, not the American rehash, the far superior original). Find it, watch it, it's brilliant.

https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2938522/

socks2• 1 year ago

Gravity Falls is another 'kids' show that is absolutely brilliant.

tigerlily• 1 year ago

It’s certainly darker than something like Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films...

Huh. Why not also compare Jackson's puppet/splatter films, Bad Taste, Meet the Feebles, heck even Braindead?

EdwardDiego• 1 year ago

Because very very few people know of those films.

"Ooh, aren't I lucky, I got a chunky bit!"

You could also have mentioned Heavenly Creatures and The Frighteners (filmed in my home town, was a blast seeing Michael J. Fox roaming around).

I suspect they mentioned LotR because you know, well known and, fantasy.

Not really comparable to Barry and the team vs. the evil aliens, or Harvey Weinstein personified in a walrus puppet.

But I'm rather glad you're aware of Jackson's earlier works.

whywhywhywhy2• 1 year ago

"dark" in the context of a fantasy movie isn't the same meaning as "dark" in the concept of a gross out or comedy movie.

skyyler• 1 year ago

Can you describe what you feel the difference is? I'm very curious to hear your personal opinion on this matter.

kermit___• 1 year ago

https://archive.ph/2025.03.18-084516/https://gizmodo.com/rem...

(Had a page crash and strange refreshes from ads.)

pavlov• 1 year ago

I remember this was the first HDR program I watched on my new OLED TV back in 2019, and the experience felt like all my life I'd been watching TV with foggy sunglasses that had been suddenly removed.

It's a really beautifully shot show.

donatj3• 1 year ago

The first season of Westworld was this far me. Started it the same day we got our first HDR TV. Blown away.

nottorp2• 1 year ago

Is it a masterpiece, or a 2 hour movie made with the best material in the 10 episodes would have been an actual masterpiece?

entropicdrifter3• 1 year ago

Cramming that much plot into a 2 hour movie would suck. You could maybe halve the runtime, but anything less than 5 hours would just not work IMO

nottorp2• 1 year ago

Are you sure, or most of the plot is padding to get to season length?

Every time I try to watch a tv series the padding starts to burst at the seams by at best the 3rd episode. Then I give up for a few years, let myself be tricked again and nothing has changed ...

techterrier• 1 year ago

Given it was so obvious that the team had bottled lightening with this creation, it stands as a monument to the failure of bean counter driven programming. Surely any creative person looking at the quality of this work would have kept this team in the groove. It's not like they didnt have the money.

They could easily have made the cash back on some reality thing that cost nothing but made bank.

ReptileMan• 1 year ago

I mean they had to finance rebel moon, the idol and the electric state.

This is what I also hate about the gaming industry. If you have a team that works good - find something to do for them.

The guys behind Prince of Peria lost crown were brilliant in every aspect. And Ubisoft disbanded them instead of giving them time to get their footing. But we have a bloated AC:Shadows crap coming our way.

ekianjo• 1 year ago

The guys behind Prince of Peria lost crown were brilliant in every aspect.

You seem to assume that people want to keep working together forever. Gamesdev can be really intense and for a lot of devs the end of a game is the opportunity to part ways cleanly and try something else.

hibikir• 1 year ago

A great game, but one that had a very poor product market fit. It might be better than most games of its genre, but it also had a much higher budget, and with that, a much higher price. People buy metroidvanias for 20 or 30, on steam. They released elsewhere, for $50. They didn't have to just be very good, but make Hollow Knight and the like look like relics, and they didn't. The closest thing at selling at that price was Metroid Dread, and it did only fine, not great, despite carrying a higher value IP.

They were always doomed by the budgetary limits, kind of like how the latest Indy movie was doomed to lose money unless it was as big as Avatar.

lsllc2• 1 year ago

I thought the Rebel Moon duology was a little so-so ... until I watched the directors cut(s). F-ing fantastic. If you haven't seen them go watch it -- so so so much better than the original release(s), different movies really, they even have different names: Chapter One: Chalice of Blood and Chapter Two: Curse of Forgiveness.

Really good stuff IMHO, I suspect it was the movie(s) Snyder actually set out to make.

beloch• 1 year ago

This was a brilliant show, but it had the misfortune to come along at a time when Netflix was cancelling even moderate successes after one season and slashing the budget of hit shows for their second season before cancelling them too (e.g. Altered Carbon). Only very rarely does a show turn into the kind of pop culture sensation that seems to make the bean-counters want to go past two seasons (e.g. Stranger Things), unless it's some executive's idea of a tent-pole for their platform (e.g. Rings of Power).

Given how fragmentation and enshittification of streaming services is driving users back to piracy, one can't help but feel like the current model may not persist much longer. Heck, I wonder what the impact of the trade war is going to be! A lot of people in a lot of countries are cancelling Disney Plus, Netflix, Amazon Plus, Apple TV, etc. just because they're American.

whywhywhywhy2• 1 year ago

A lot of people in a lot of countries are cancelling Disney Plus, Netflix, Amazon Plus, Apple TV, etc. just because they're American

Think you might be over-estimating the size of your algorithm bubble there. Normal people don't even make that connection.

ziddoap• 1 year ago

I mean, I wouldn't say "a lot of people" but... "normal people" absolutely make that connection, and some moderately-sized portion of them are indeed cancelling some services.

The antics of the US have been a perfect excuse to clean up under-used subscriptions.

metabagel2• 1 year ago

I think it's likely that many people do make that connection.

There has been a surge of antipathy towards the U.S. in Canada and Europe; owing to Trump's threats with respect to trade wars, annexation of Canada and Greenland, and undermining NATO and the ability of Europe to defend itself.

icu9• 1 year ago

Yeah I was upset at Altered Carbon being cancelled. It was very good. I've been hoping a video game studio picks up the rights and makes a good AA or AAA game. I sadly didn't find Altered Carbon: Resleeved as good as the main series.

Kipters• 1 year ago

IMO only the first season was really good, while the second one was very bad, I almost wish they had cancelled it after the first instead.

lsllc2• 1 year ago

Loved the books, 1st series was great, not so much for the second.

cultofmetatron• 1 year ago

cancelling even moderate successes after one season and slashing the budget of hit shows for their second season before cancelling them too (e.g. Altered Carbon)

I seriously don't understand who's in charge of this idiocy. its not like they are relying on nielson boxes. they have good data on what is bringing people to the streaming platform. there's no reason for them to be cutting shows prematurely that people love.

OisinMoran2• 1 year ago

Hard disagree with a lot said here. Watched both the film and this series (though haven't got around to finishing it yet) for the first time last year, and the series lacks a lot of what makes the film great.

The film has some interesting zen-like qualities like duality, and a more complex set of morals. The series just feels like most modern creations with a pretty bland right vs wrong.

The film is also almost entirely practical effects, which are incredible (the behind the scenes footage is amazing), while the series leans a bit too heavily on CGI in parts, which detracts from the action a bit (à la LoTR vs The Hobbit).

Given this piece I might go back to finish it now (and from another comment possibly upgrade my TV), but I still think I'll prefer the film.

jhbadger2• 1 year ago

Yeah, the whole point of the original is that the Mystics and Skeksis were both flawed societies (even if the Skeksis were closer to the normal meaning of "evil") and the ending unites them rather than having the Skeksis destroyed.

engineer_222• 1 year ago

The Netflix show is a prequel, setting up the story of how the gelfling were wiped out

donatj3• 1 year ago

If you have not seen "Princess Mononoke", I highly recommend it. I rewatched it recently and the people and creatures on both sides of the conflict are neither really good nor evil. Just two opposing forces with different goals.

It offers a level of subtlety I have not seen often in film, particularly since Star Wars.

tmountain• 1 year ago

Very common in eastern storytelling. Ghibli films are some of my favorite for many reasons, but I particularly love how they contrast ideas.

thelaxiankey2• 1 year ago

Somehow a lot of TV seems far more subtle (or at least nuanced) to me than popular movies. The Wire or Scavengers Reign are a couple off the top of my head.

OisinMoran2• 1 year ago

Yes, I have—it's excellent! I'm a massive Mononoke fan (and Ghibli in general, though I've still got a few I haven't seen)

donatj3• 1 year ago

How strange, the most positive review I heard from anyone I know was that "It ruined my childhood" and that it let's say "craped" on the source material. Mind you these are the nicest things people said.

I have not seen it nor the original film to be fair, but this is quite literally the first positive thing I have heard about it.

icu9• 1 year ago

If you're a sci-fi and/or a fantasy fan I really recommend watching the original film and the prequel in that order and make your own mind up.

I was young when the original came out so I found it good but scary. I felt the prequel was excellent and it left me wanting more.

These days I feel a lot of my youthful nostalgia has been vandalised for a quick corporate buck. Probably the worst has been Willow on Disney+.

There are so few examples of good follow-ups to nostalgic media. The only other example I can think of is Blade Runner (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017).

domador• 1 year ago

What happened to Willow?

the_af6• 1 year ago

There are so few examples of good follow-ups to nostalgic media. The only other example I can think of is Blade Runner (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017).

I know this is controversial, but I disliked Blade Runner 2049. It feels made by someone who just didn't get Blade Runner and was both copying it mechanically in parts, and improvising unfaithfully in others. (Coincidentally, I liked Arrival but the changes Villeneuve introduced to make it more "sentimental" ruined the reigned-in emotions in Ted Chiang's piece -- again it felt like he just didn't "get it").

I obsess about Blade Runner -- to me almost every scene is artwork, and the music is amazing. The plot? I mean, yes, there are plot holes aplenty, but I don't think this movie is truly about the plot, beyond the philosophical themes.

Blade Runner 2049 in contrast seems so cynical and shallow to me. It just didn't work.

PS: also, the insufferable Jared Leto. And the non-entity that is Luv. While Blade Runner has the best anti-hero ever in Roy Batty... and the best dying speech (vs Luv's "I'm the best!". Ugh).

the_other• 1 year ago

I found Blade Runner 2049 painful to watch. The story is ok, but the presentstion, with its reliance on memes from the earlier film, ruins it for me. Also, the principle malevolent force is vacant and tepid. The story would have been better without him. If they’d just set it in the same world, without trying to look and sound like thenold film-but-updated, I’d have liked it… but they brought back Harrison Ford just for nostalgia, and copied loads of the shots and music. Sorry, no, they didn’t copy those things, they ‘extended” them. Copied-but-bigger. The story might have stood by itself without pandering to the entitlements of fans of the ealier film and I wish they had been brave enough to make it more unique.

stuckinhell• 1 year ago

Yea I feel the same.

trentnix2• 1 year ago

If you liked the original, you should absolutely watch Age of Resistance. It’s not a masterpiece but it was clearly made by people that care about the original, its legacy, and its lore.

duxup• 1 year ago

I love the film. The film is a real masterpiece.

I'm struggling to get through the series. That ultra clunky opening narration is not a great sign and the world building and underlying plot feels shallow in the series.

I'd LOVE for more Dark Crystal content but I would like them to start over...

yownie• 1 year ago

just so you know there are some graphic novels that accompany the new series.

throaway1989• 1 year ago

If Gizmodo said its great, you know its not.

Supermancho• 1 year ago

It's a bad show, for obvious reasons. Poor writing (thinly veiled political themes), bad characterizations (stupid weak characters), convoluted cruel plot, trying to be whimsical, all in the name of Fan Service. As a youtuber quipped, it's like the Flintstones + 12 years a slave. It's not for anyone and the script is mostly to blame.

gglitch• 1 year ago

Is there any way to buy and own a copy of it?

Sporktacular• 1 year ago

It's true. An amazing feat of manual, analogue artistry in our age. It's almost criminal, but definitely heartbreaking they didn't pick up season 2.

chuckadams2• 1 year ago

I loved DC:AoR but I never expected it was anything more than a one-off. Keep following the struggle as much as you like, but you still know that in the end, the Gelflings lose. I mean yes they pull it off in the end and maybe the Ur-Skeks magic them all back, they discover a lost tribe, whatever, but in the meantime they pretty much get wiped out. Making a good story in the face of that dark inevitability is what the writing craft is about, and they pulled it off and left on a high note. Best thing they can do is leave it that way.

pcmaffey• 1 year ago

The writing in the series is unfortunately terrible. It sinks the otherwise beautiful show with sterile and laborious narration/dialogue, telltale signs of over workshopped writing room slop, from which no real living plot ever emerges. Such a disappointment.

jandrese• 1 year ago

This was my problem too. I really wanted to like the series and the visuals were nice, but the Netflix writers room strikes again. The whole thing felt like the middle season episodes from a Netflix Marvel series.

dash2• 1 year ago

The author seems to conflate "dark" with "adult", so let me take the chance to point out this common mistake. Horror films, Warhammer 40K and 2000 AD comics are all famously dark, but they're for kids or teens. A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Importance of Being Earnest are light but grown-up. It's a weird deformation of the past generation to think that being depressing makes you deep.

ericmcer• 1 year ago

Oh man yeah I hate this trend.

It has especially worked its way into popular literature. A books writing is at a 5th grade level, has almost zero depth, but then is full of sex and violence which makes it an "adult" novel. Authors like Sarah J Maas are almost comically bad writers but have achieved immense popular success using this setup.

7357• 1 year ago

Can I mention Jay Kristoff as well?

guyzero• 1 year ago

54% of [US] adults have a literacy below a 6th-grade level - https://www.thenationalliteracyinstitute.com/post/literacy-s...

Not surprising that books like this succeed.

pjc50• 1 year ago

America gradually reinventing the Japanese "light novel". Or even its own "pulp" tradition, which these days are only remembered for their cover art rather than any of the content.

the_af6• 1 year ago

The author seems to conflate "dark" with "adult"

Oh, how I agree with your comment!

This is a bizarre trend I've also noticed. Also unfortunately helped with the "adult" monicker for anything showing sex, which is in reality generally more aimed at horny teenagers and so-called "young adults" rather than grownups.

FrustratedMonky• 1 year ago

Also, maybe related.

Ultra-Violence is for all ages, great for kids.

One small shot of side boob -- OH NO, that is ADULT, porn.

fellowniusmonk• 1 year ago

Another similar conflation is Serious with Somber. Taking an issue seriously can be amusing as hell, it all depends on what mood allows you to best explore the problem space, if you are serious about knowing or solving an issue you won't necessarily lock into a particular mood in that exploration.

chachacharge• 1 year ago

Gizmodo and all of gawker media= useless waste of electricity

globnomulous• 1 year ago

Nicely put. I like Lauren Oyler's formulation of a related thought, in her review of a work by Otessa Moshfegh, when she refers to Moshfegh's "bored manipulation of the fallacy that the more unpleasant something is, the truer it must be."

https://www.bookforum.com/print/2701/ottessa-moshfegh-s-affe...

Edit: and for the life of me I could never understand what anybody saw in that vile show "Euphoria." It seemed so obviously just to want to do nothing but luxuriate in its own vulgarity and graphicness and expected audiences to be very impressed by how big everybody's feelings are. Same for "The Power of the Dog," which was as unsubtle and uninteresting a melodramatic turd as I've ever seen.

Micoloth• 1 year ago

To be fair-

I was agreeing very much with both parent comment and yours, until your edit.

I loved Euphoria.

graphicness - Was it graphic at all? how big everybody's feelings are - Were their feeling that big? It seemed so obviously.. - Maybe obvious to you? This might say more about you..

I found it brilliant and at times ironic and self aware and very explicit about what its target is (I think it's very much for teenagers)

So i don't know if it is a good example of this trend at all.

Just to say how nuanced these things can be, i guess...

sleepybrett6• 1 year ago

I do not agree w/ this in relation to the Dark Crystal series. But I see parallels in the Star Wars series Andor. Many will skip it because 'it's star wars', but it's a great series in star wars costume. The three people I've pressed into watching it came away with very favorable reviews.

There are some kinda deep cut star wars references that non-fans will miss. Mon Mothma the political head of the rebellion is seen only sparingly in the original trilogy and in rogue one (scenes were shot for her in the prequels setting her up as politically aligned with Padme and Bail, but they were cut) is a main character here. Other characters like Saw Gererra only appear in the clone wars series and Rogue One (a film for which this series is a prequel). However this didn't seem to effect my friends much only one of whom had even seen rogue one and the prequels, the other two only having seen the original series.

I'm so glad that it got a second season and am very excited to see it play out.

tunesmith• 1 year ago

I'm actually surprised to read the opinions of people who watched it and didn't like it. I thought the problem was always just that not enough people knew it existed, but if they watched it, they would have loved it. I guess I must just be in the camp of "who WOULDN'T want to watch high-budget puppetry for ten hours??"

devenson• 1 year ago

I feel the same way about Farscape.

staplung• 1 year ago

I think plans for a Dark Crystal sequel were stuck in development hell for decades and then Jim Henson died. It was actually announced in 2005 but never got made into a film. Think there was a comic series though.

Also, can't help pointing to this Robot Chicken gem: The Dark Cristal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RudzOqb-fRc

hoofedear• 1 year ago

I'm gonna disagree with the comments here and vouch that Age of Resistance is a fantastic show. It's what got me into the world of Dark Crystal in general. I saw the show first and then the movie, and I feel like the show perfectly setup the events that lead up to the movie. Even if the show unfortunately was cancelled before it could explore Deet's storyline, the creation of the Garthim, and the discovery of the Wall of Destiny. Sure, the rejoining of the UrRu and Skeksis is interesting, but it's certainly not the "whole point" of the movie/show.

raffraffraff2• 1 year ago

Can't get into it. But whatever about me, the wife straight up hated it. She's not a fan of LOTR and it felt way too LOTR, story wise. You're supposed to love the (beautiful or cutesy) entities, hate the (ugly, so obviously evil) entities, and care about wherever mysterious evil has gripped the land. You're supposed to want the protagonists to go on a quest that brings you on a rollercoaster of emotions etc. But I don't really care enough about anyone in this to finish the first episode.

My biggest gripe is that puppets have no facial expression, so this so-called "amazing voice acting" doesn't work for me. It feels like they're overacting to make up for lack of facial expression. Thing is, I've seen this work in shows like Yonderland where puppets make up less than 50% of the cast. If their human counterparts are good actors, the puppets interaction with humans work, especially if they have good lines and interesting characters (which, in the case of Yonderland, they do but with Dark Crystal they very much don't).

It's odd, but I also think that the CGI and lack of any physical actors is what kills this for me. I don't know anyone in the acting profession but one example I can relate is the amazing "Yes, Minister" political comedy series from the BBC on the early 80s. That was originally available as a radio show. Having watched and loved it, I decided to put the radio version on one day while cleaning. I had to turn it off. Even though it was the same cast of great actors, I think the fact that they were sitting around a bunch of microphones and not inter-acting completely stunted the dialog. I decided to put on the TV version and simply listen to it. Even though there were visual gags I couldn't see, it was far far better. Something about being the characters in costume, on a set, interacting with other actors, injected vitality and comic timing into the performance. You could listen between the lines and feel the gags you couldn't see.

I understand that a lot of time, effort, CGI went into this, but I just feel slapped in the face with beauty while not caring one jot about a single character. Or as the wife very uncharitably put it after 45 minutes "I hope all of these characters die in this".

Sometimes there are adult shows that also appeal to kids. Sometimes there are shows that appear to be aimed at kids but are really aimed at adults. But this wants to be the latter and fails as either.

tempodox2• 1 year ago

If you want to watch it:

https://archive.org/details/the-dark-crystal-a.-o.-r.-episod...

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Is a Stone-Cold Masterpiece

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