shadow and bone season two review

This review includes spoilers.

Before beginning, it's important to note that Shadow and Bone does not exactly follow the plot of the novels. Season two in particular strays away from many key turning points featured in books two and three of the Shadow and Bone trilogy. I had initially aimed to point out a bunch of differences and weigh in on what was done correctly and what should not have been changed, but there were so many changes—which yes, I could have foreseen from the fact that the Crows existed in the show at all—that a review like that would have been incredibly repetitive and boring. 

Still, as a side note, I firmly believe that the Crows should not have been part of Shadow and Bone in any capacity. The group outshines the regular Alina-Darkling-Mal plotline in every single episode. At its basic level, I wouldn't say this is the showrunner's fault, or the scriptwriter's fault, or anyone's fault—six kids with vastly different personalities all being psychotic vigilantes with little to no moral compass is just far more interesting than Alina's running around killing things to make her own light power go boom. I also believe that with the lack of Six of Crows from the Shadow and Bone storyline, there could be a lot more focus on the contents of Shadow and Bone. Siege and Storm and Ruin and Rising, the books, were about a lot more than love triangles and amplifiers. I simply felt there were a lot of missed opportunities throughout the season, a lot of really good bits from the books that just didn't show up on screen.

And to further die on this hill, I'm confused about how any sort of Six of Crows sequel is going to happen now. Yes, they haven't started the whole prison heist and Matthias is still rotting in Hellgate, but at the same time there was so much emotional development that occurred in the Six of Crows books that has already happened in the Shadow and Bone season. Jesper and Wylan are already together, so many integral moments between Kaz and Inej played out, and it wasn't only the featured romance that got this treatment. After all, with season two we already see Kaz's backstory.

But regardless, in season two specifically, there were a lot of good things and a lot of bad things. Completely dismissing the books' plots, the way the story from Shadow and Bone was manipulated to include the characters of Six of Crows was done very effectively. I loved how they highlighted the self-serving and immoral tendencies of Kaz even more this season because it made later events, like the burning of the Crow Club and the whole standstill regarding Pekka's son, make even more sense. 

While Kaz got a deserved spotlight on his trauma and backstory, I think the same treatment was lacking for other characters. Inej's struggles were barely mentioned and the one scene where that could have been featured—the hallucinations—was taken up by some fantasy between her and Kaz. Making Inej a vessel simply for a Kaz-Inej romance is a terrible disservice to her as a character. She has so many layers and is in many ways so different from the rest of the Crows in terms of values and it's a shame to see that stripped away. In a similar vein, I think that Jesper and Wylan could have used some individual development [especially Wylan], though their scenes together were cute and fun. Nina, and particularly Matthias were largely forgotten and didn't have a lot of substance. This is what I mean when I categorize season two as a missed opportunity—at its current state, yes, it is a good show, but I think those who read the books may be wishing for a little more. 

The Darkling, on the other hand, was completely reduced to just bad guy in love with Alina and kept saying the same tedious and annoying lines over and over again. Alina and Mal were absolutely insufferable this season—I said what I said. Never have I wanted more for two characters to just leave. That being said, I think that both the reveal of Mal being the Firebird and Alina's conflict afterwards were done pretty well. And to weigh in on the whole controversy of Mal leaving to be a privateer, I think that it was the right decision. Yes, Mal in the books may have never done that but I think we are all glad that the Mal in the books is not the Mal in the show, because book Mal is one of the more annoying characters I've encountered. In the books, Mal's development is not really relevant and he really only exists as a companion of Alina, so then in the books, him staying with Alina to the end and some beyond makes perfect sense. However, in the show we see Mal in scenes without Alina. He's a little more tolerable, and his decision to figure out who he really is, untethered from Alina, is a perfectly sane choice to make. 

Moreover, Genya's abuse under the Darkling and her reconciling with her appearance with David was short and sweet, which I really liked. As always, Nikolai, Tolya, and Tamar stole every scene they were in and I love them for it. And one of my favorite scenes in the entire season was at the end, where Genya, Alina, and Zoya were together getting ready for Nikolai's ceremony. They have a really interesting friendship and sure, it is the whole getting over differences and coming together as one spiel, but I enjoyed it and I think it spoke a lot for them as people to be together in that way. It's too bad the happiness didn't last long, since five minutes later, everything fell apart. 

Speaking of everything falling apart, the actress who played the Grisha who was addicted to jurda parem and ruined the coronation in the last episode was working to change lives. She was asking for an Emmy and she served. I can't find her name anywhere but her performance was so realistic and slightly frightening.

Finally, I'm instating a ban on all slow-motion scenes in movies and television, effective immediately. Those scenes in this season genuinely took me out of the whole show because they weren't needed at all. I don't need to wait for five seconds for the knife to impale the other guy. Along with that, I had some problems with general cinematography and editing. I don't like to rave on about these aspects too much because I know very little about the process and if given the opportunity to take their job, would definitely do much worse. Still, there were so many oddly intimate close-up shots, and the color-correcting sometimes made everything have a weird orange/yellow tint. 

Because I wasn't exactly impressed with season one of Shadow and Bone, I can't say I thought season two suffered from second sequel syndrome. If anything, season two was better done in terms of merging the two storylines for a smooth and comprehensive story. I'm not sure what the showrunners are going to do after this season, considering the Shadow and Bone trilogy is over, but there is talk of a Six of Crows spin-off. While I may not have much faith in what they will do in this spin-off, I'm still pretty excited for it. I also want to see whether they will completely ditch the Shadow and Bone characters or continue their stories with this new ending—like, for example, showing Mal's privateer life, Nikolai ruling, Alina dealing with the shadow magic she wielded at the end, etc. Whatever it is, I'll be watching it.