Shadow and Bone Season Two: Entertaining But Confusing

The second season of “Shadow and Bone”, an adaptation of the fantasy young adult trilogy Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo, was released on March 16, and this season has left fans with mixed feelings. Unlike the trilogy, the show consists of characters and plot points from Bardugo’s duology “Six of Crows.” Both the books and the show take place in the fictional world of Grishaverse, which is named after the magic welders of the universe. This season combines the second and last book of the trilogy.

The first season is focused on Alina learning about her powers and getting the first of three power boosters known as amplifiers with the help of her childhood best friend Mal Oretsev played by Archie Renaux. While the second season is centered around her getting the other two amplifiers, tearing down the fold, defeating the Darkling and leading the Grishas.

The season picks up right after the protagonist Alina Starkov played by Jessie Mei Li runs away from General Kirigan, played by Ben Barnes, after he used her to destroy an innocent village for his own agenda. Alina is the one and only Sun Summoner and was destined to take down the Fold, a dark and dangerous split between Ravka, with General Kirigan. But, she soon figures out the General intends to use the Fold as a weapon and to control Alina with an amplifier.

One of the highlights of this show for many fans was the subplot consisting of the “Six of Crows” characters. The duology is incorporated into season one of the show when the main characters of the books, also known as the Crows, plan to kidnap Alina and ransom her on the black market but eventually help her. This season the Crows have a more independent role when Kaz Brekker (Freddy Carter), Inej Ghafa (Amita Suman) and Jesper Fahey (Kit Young) are framed for murder.

This season the Crows introduced two new members Nina Zenik played by Danielle Galligan and Wylan Van Eck played by Jack Wolfe. I feel like this series was made a lot better by putting the Crows in it, and that a lot of fans tuned into the show because of them. The actors did a phenomenal job at representing the characters, especially in emotional scenes. Like when Kaz exacts revenge upon Pekka Rollins played by Dean Lennox Kelly or when he faced his trauma with Inej. The actors also did a great job at showing the complex relationships between their significant others and as a team.

Although the show benefited from the gravity the Crows and their world brought, I think that their storyline suffered due to producers trying to stuff them into the main plot. Yes, it was entertaining to watch but some of the choices that were made in the show regarding the Crows made no sense. For example, Inej being freed of her indenture, was a completely absurd decision because the only reason she decides to go on the Ice Court heist (the whole plot of “Six of Crows”) is that she can use her share of the money to pay off her indenture. So, I don’t understand how Inej is going to be a part of the whole Ice Court heist, which was mentioned at the end of the season.

In general, I don’t understand the ending of the season and to be completely honest, I think the show should have stuck to the book on this one. I also didn’t really understand their whole Shu Han quest and felt like that storyline kind of fell short. I also don’t think that Matthias Helvar, played by Calahan Skogman, got the amount of screen time he deserved, so if the show gets another season, I hope we get more of him. 

Besides the Crows, new character and fan-favorite privateer and Ravkan prince Nikolai Lantsov, played by Patrick Gibson, joined this season along with his loyal friends Tolya (Anna Leong Brophy) and Tamar (Lewis Tan). I really enjoyed having Nikolai on the show because his character brings a lot of charisma and fun. And some of the season’s best moments were because of him and his crew. One critique I would have with his character is that the fans didn’t really get to see his inner conflict as much as we would have liked to. A perfect example of this is when Nikolai tells Alina that he may be illegitimate, in the book it was a really big part of his character because it determined how he and his county viewed him.  But in the show, it’s kind of brushed over, so I hope that if the series gets renewed for another season they dive deeper into his family history.

Another problem I had with the plot was the weird pacing of the show and how some plot points weren’t even necessary. I think this was caused by the producers trying to encompass three books worth of characters and content into eight episodes.

Another major flaw of the show was that it didn’t really give Alina a lot of character development. One of my favorite things in the books is that Alina constantly walks the line between being a tyrant and being a strong leader. This leads to the whole reason she and General Kirigan are alike. Their strange connection is forged through loneliness, another huge thing the season barely talks about.

Even though the show is pretty different from the books, I think that it understood the main reasons people love the books. And I hope that if the show does get another season, it can go more into the character’s backstories and hopefully give “Shadow and Bone” the conclusion it deserves.