Haley H

When I first heard that Leigh Bardugo's novels "Six of Crows" and "Shadow and Bone" would be adapted into a Netflix series, I found myself both exhilarated and apprehensive. Its no surprise to anyone the difficulties and frequent failures of adapting beloved YA novels to suit the silver screen, and I was worried that Shadow and Bone would be yet another incredible story with loads of potential that fell victim to the curse of underwhelming world-building, poor casting, and cheesy scripts. Fortunately the trailer, as well as my faith in Ms Bardugo, gave me hope. Despite all my fears, however, I marked the release date in my calendar and eagerly clicked that “play” button when I saw the title appear on my Netflix home page. I binged the show in two days - and I have no doubt in my mind that it would have been 1 had I not had a busy schedule to manage. Upon completing the last episode of the season, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. It’s clear a lot of care was put into creating the beautiful world representative of the one we all imagined while reading Bardugo’s novels, I have no qualms about the world-building aspect of the show. Casting, in my opinion, was also done extraordinarily well. I have a deep appreciation for the fact that none of the characters were white washed, they were all perfect embodiments of the way the characters were depicted in the novels - save for Alina but I’m not disappointed about that (I personally loved the decision to make her asian, or from “Shu Han” as they say in the show). The acting was good - each actor does a wonderful job at portraying their given characters (its clear they’ve all read the novels themselves). The script was okay - they could have done a better job at being more intimate with the characters, it feels as though the characters are too undefined (I would likely have a hard time falling in love with them if I had never read the books and didn’t already have an idea of who they are). One problem I do have with the show is that it was clearly made for people who have read the books. I see it’d be difficult to follow the plot and characters/concepts of the show if you didn’t already have an understanding of the world. I don’t like how the writers seem to have written the story with the assumption that the watchers will already know what’s happening and why. I also don’t really like how the crows were downplayed a bit - they didn’t have that umph to them that they had in the novel, especially Kaz. Inej and Jesper were great, but Kaz seemed to be a bit dull (to no fault of the actor), his character just didn’t do much but brood and mutter his cryptic lines reinforcing the idea of his cynical ideals. In all, the show is a good watch. It could have been better, but for a YA novel Netflix adaptation, Shadow and Bone is outstanding and I will be patiently waiting and crossing my fingers for a second season. TLDR: Its an excellent watch if you’ve read the books. It may be hard to follow if you haven’t as it jumps back and forth between storylines throughout the show and they don’t do a very good job at explaining the whole concept of grisha power - they just assume you’ll already know which isn’t a very good way to make a movie or show. It’s visually appealing, the CGI isn’t appalling, and the characters (as well as the actors) are charming.