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Shadow and Bone returned with a sophomore season on March 16, bringing back a lively adventure from Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse, which has become much more popular since the first season of Shadow and Bone dropped on Netflix over a year ago.
Disclaimer: This article purely reflects the author's views, which may be subjective in nature.
The new season is bigger, more complex, and has way more to take away. Thankfully, unlike the second seasons of almost every other Netflix show, this one is not a massive disappointment, at least not on the surface.
Shadow and Bone had already done enough interesting things with the plot of the YA novels by combining the timelines of various sets, creating a cohesive universe that felt more pacy and fit for a television adaptation (take notes, YA adaptations).
The new season added some more weight to the already full carriage by introducing a set of new characters, including the fan-favorite Wylan (Jack Wolfe). It also managed to merge more storylines in a limited span of eight episodes, which in itself is quite a feat.
Did it lose some of its charm by putting too much on the plate? Perhaps, but it will barely matter when you are being swayed through the oceans of fantasy tales in the faraway land of legends and monsters.
Shadow and Bone season 2 review: Blink and miss pace could be the only downfall of an otherwise perfect adaptation
The promise that the debut season of Shadow and Bine showed was enough to make sure that the series was not one of the slackers in the genre. Creator Eric Heisserer and his team of diligent writers made sure that there were a few mistakes to pinpoint in the sophomore season, which somehow also managed to be more daring than its predecessor.
Picking right off after the first season, the tale is yet again based around Sun Summoner Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li) and her best friend/romantic interest Malyen Oretsev (Archie Renaux).
Jesse Mei Li often fits into Alina's shoes in a way as if the character was specifically written for her. While at her remarkable best, she is aided by some strong visual and auditory boosts from some very talented crew members.
The plot is dense. Maybe too dense at times. With new characters and arcs pouring in, eight episodes were always going to be a little too short to fit in this much material. But honestly, Shadow and Bone did it better than anyone else could have done.
Though short, the character introductions were well-maneuvered and poised, the characters had their own space to grow inside the intricately woven plot, and there was also enough time to see and feel each character, including even the villain Darkling (Ben Barnes), who has been humanized to some extent in the show.
While some may argue that cramming multiple timelines together and jumping to and fro from plot to plot this soon ruins the experience of the books, it is perhaps a better way to create a television series from a novel series that had such a huge world-building.
The second season may not be as perfect on paper as the debut season of Shadow and Bones, but it is in no way lagging behind either. All shows have some criticism to their name, this one just happens to give very little scope for that.
All the episodes of Shadow and Bone are now streaming on Netflix.
