REVIEW: Netflix’s Shadow & Bone Is Everything Fans Will Want & More from Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse
Since Shadow & Bone was first released in 2012, fans have been begging for a live-action adaptation of Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse series and, now, Netflix is making their dreams come true. Tomorrow, April 23, the streaming platform will release its new series, Shadow & Bone, but don’t let the title confuse you. The series is based on the Grisha trilogy (Shadow & Bone, Siege and Storm, and Ruin and Rising) and the Six of Crows duology (Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom), not just the first book in the Grishaverse.
Shadow & Bone follows Alina (Jessie Mei Li) a young woman fighting in the First Army as a junior cartographer’s assistant. There is nothing special about Alina. She is an ordinary woman who just wants to do her job and spend time with her best friend, Mal (Archie Renaux). But when May is placed in danger, Alina unleashes extraordinary powers that will change her life forever. With these powers now unleashed, Alina is taken from her ordinary life in the First Army and thrust into the world of the Grisha, an elite army of magical soldiers. There, General Kirigan (Ben Barnes), the leader of the Second Army, intends to train her to become the key to saving their war-torn world. As her training begins, Alina begins to questions everything she have ever known and who she can and cannot trust to survive.
When I began watching the series premiere, I was completely confused at what was going on. There were so many characters and so many stories going on at one time that it was hard to keep track. I will note that I had only just begun my delve into the Grishaverse when I started watching, so the characters from the Six of Crow series were completely new to me. However, as the series went on and the stories got more fleshed out, the confusion began to fade and intrigue instead took its place. Each storyline, no matter how complex, provided precise detail and depth for the characters in order to help propel the story. Many times too many storylines are introduced, the story becomes a mess and basically a distraction from the overall theme. The screenwriting team behind the series has done a wonderful job of making sure that those types of distractions do not happen.
Watching the two book series play out on screen allowed the writers of the series to delve even further into the plots of each of the book series. I didn’t think I would like it at first, but it ended up really working in the show’s favor. The writers managed to touch on all the important moments from both book series without losing any stories or characters along the way. For instance, the Grisha trilogy portion of the story did not just focus on Alina’s point of view, but Mal’s as well, which helped shed some light on questions I had when reading the book. Whereas, the of Six of Crows portion actually got divided into two different storylines for the show, which allowed the writers to explore the backstories of some of our characters, such as Nina Zenik’s (Danielle Galligan).
With that being said, you have to be paying attention to this series if you intend to understand what is going on. With all these characters and so many things things happening all at one, you can easily get lost and loose focus on what is happening. Plan to have no distractions when watching this series.
Jessie Mei Li leads the cast as Alina Starkov and is everything fans will want from their Alina. Mei Li easily navigates between Alina’s naïve side and her strong side, while her scenes with Archie Renaux are just as swoon worthy as you would hope. Ben Barnes is charismatically creepy as General Kirigan, which is exactly what you want from this character.
However, the real winners for me in this series are our Six of Crows trio, Freddy Carter (Kaz Brekker), Amita Suman (Inej Ghafa) and Kit Young (Jesper Fahey). These three are fantastic together. The three played off each other extremely well and added some very, much needed, comical moments to what could have been a very dry series.
Fans of the book series will love this adaptation. The series easily captures everything fans loved about the Grishaverse and amplified it to the extreme. The only negative they will find is waiting to see if the show will be renewed for a second season when all is said and done. For those who have not read either series, give it a go. But, it is probably best to wait until you finish the first season to read the books, so you won’t be as confused as I was.
Source: Netflix