Spoilers - Episode three, another swing and another miss.

The show so far tends to be flat and boring. John Faa's "rousing speech" to the Gyptians was formulaic and unconvincing. And the desperate attempt to pump it up with increasing volume, swelling music and foot stomping didn't work. And Lyra's little speech to the Gyptians was in tone more like a reminder to put the bins out on rubbish night.

I haven't seen Dafne Keen in anything else but I thought she had a reputation for being a talented actress. Judging by her performance so far I can't see it. She seems to have a limited repertoire of looks that she uses over and over. Smiley face, glowering face, pouty face and blank face. Lyra is supposed to be a very animated girl, a charmer with the gift of the gab. Able to get people to do what she wants by her quick wits and the sheer force of her personality. Dafne Keen's Lyra so far is not close to being that girl and of course at fourteen she is three years older than book Lyra which doesn't help.

The other big problem is the casting more generally. The only characters I care about are James Cosmo's Farder Coram ( Fart A Quorum ) who seems real and genuine and Ruth Wilson's Marisa Coulter. And that's only because it's Ruth not because I'm enjoying watching a nutty as a fruitcake Mrs Coulter. When the boy falls backward down the lift shaft to his death who cares, who is he ? When Boreal crosses over to presumably our world who cares ? Dafne Keen isn't cutting it as Lyra and her little friend Roger is the kind of kid you'd slap on the side of the head rather than travel all the way to the frozen north to rescue.

I will continue to watch it and hope for the best. But then that's what I did with ' Sharp Objects ' and what a mistake that turned out to be...