Prepare yourself for His Dark Materials’ fiery finale

Take, for example, the scene where Lyra and Roger reunite after her time with the armored bears. As Roger emerges from the cave, he doesn’t rush to embrace Lyra: instead, he spouts a bunch of exposition from a distance, before then sharing a moment with Lyra. It’s a bizarre staging of a scene that, if you invert those two events, becomes so much more logical: during their embrace, Roger excitedly tells her of the adventure he had in her absence, while she only cares that he’s okay. The show is filled with scenes like this where you feel like even a cursory set of notes could have dramatically improved the storytelling function of the scenes, as opposed to the scene’s cursory role in the story.

We’ll see if Jack Thorne and company can at least stick the landing when the first season comes to a close tonight. McNutt and Lisa Weidenfeld are on hand for our experts and newbies recaps, respectively.

Regular coverage

Wild card

The Price Is Right At Night: A Holiday Extravaganza With Seth Rogen (CBS, 8 p.m.): The second of two Price Is Right holiday specials—the first being Sunday’s The Price Is Right At Night: A Holiday Extravaganza With The Cast Of SEAL Team—Seth Rogen plays to benefit the Alzheimer’s nonprofit, Hilarity For Charity, he founded with his wife.