Trailer for the series "Shadow and Bone" (Netflix)
When you sit down to watch one of its great genre series on Netflix, you never know what you're going to get.
On the one hand, she is willing to invest a lot of money in beloved fantasy titles;
And on the other hand, this creator often produces shallow products that flatten the stories, or completely miss the magic of the original works.
When the first season of "Shadow and Bone" premiered on Netflix in 2021, its apprehensive fans breathed a sigh of relief - the adaptation of the books in "The Grisha Universe" by the Israeli-American writer Lee Berdogo turned out to be successful, and the series was quickly renewed for another season.
Two years of production delays later, and here this month the second season is up for viewing.
The plot follows Alina Strakov (Jesse May Lynn), a cartographer-soldier in the royal army of the kingdom of Rebekah, who grew up in an orphanage alongside her childhood friend, the tracker Mal (Archie Reno).
The relationship between the two is one of the pillars of the series, a relationship of family-by-choice that turns into great love.
From the first episode, it is clear to us that the left will follow Alina until the end of the world, and she will also be ready to sacrifice everything for his sake.
Rebekah's kingdom is split in two by a supernatural phenomenon called "Shadow Double", a dark area full of murderous monsters, to cross it to the other side of the country is an almost impossible task, certainly not without an army of "grishts" - the people who are born with the ability to manipulate nature - To influence the wind, summon fire or water, heal the sick or stop the hearts of enemies.
In short, there is magic in this world, but not everyone can use it.
"Grishos" are also the only hope of the state and at the same time it is also a group that arouses hatred and fear in the rest of the population.
In the first season, Alina discovered that she is in fact a "grisha" who possesses an extremely rare power - the power to summon the sunlight in enormous intensities.
Within a day she becomes the hope of an entire nation, because the legend says that the "summoner of the sun" will be able to destroy the "double shadow" and put an end to suffering and danger.
Everyone around her has different interests in exploiting her power, and at the head of all the conspirators is General Kerrigan, the commander of the "Grisha" army, who possesses enormous power in himself - and Dark.
A relationship that turns into great love.
Heroes of "Shadow and Bone" 2 (Photo: COURTESY OF NETFLIX)
This world - rich in laws of magic and mythology, but also in social hierarchies, politics and cultural structures that are generally based on 19th century Czarist Russia - immediately draws us into its magic.
For the television adaptation, some brave decisions were taken, and the creators (among them Bardugo) allowed themselves to deviate from the source material to just the right degree to adapt it to the screen.
The series is actually a combination of plots from several books in the world created by Bardugo, and does not follow exactly the narrative development of the original.
The changes in general work in its favor, especially the decision to recruit the group of "ravens", characters from a later trilogy, into the plot of the main trilogy.
The adventures of this group add great charm, plot diversity and humorous balance.
It may not be fair, but it's hard not to compare "Shadow and Bone" to "Carnival Row", another fantasy series that also returned this month after a fairly successful first season, and a break of several years due to the corona epidemic.
Both paint highly complex fantasy worlds, with mythology, a class system, and a host of colorful characters, and both have a larger-than-life love story that is the heart of the plot.
In this comparison, "Shadow and Bone" wins hugely, even though it doesn't pretend to do as much as "Carnival Row", and to a large extent is also less original than it, and is much more reminiscent of many stories that we have already seen in many versions in the past.
And yet, she has a big advantage: she is very focused and knows exactly what her direction is.
The interests of each character are clear from the beginning and already from the first season the movement of the plot always flowed to that specific point at the end of the second season.
She provides enough air and manages to introduce lightness and color, even when she shows us difficult and violent scenes,
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"Shadow and Bone" unfolds an ordinary fantasy story, but the characters in it evoke sympathy
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So it is true that you can find here many of the well-known patterns of a fantasy story, well-known deaths of a war of light in the dark and the temptation of the dark side;
of social gaps and power-hungry people;
And of course, the well-known pattern of the young woman who thought she was the most unspecial there is, and suddenly discovers that she has a destiny that will change the fate of the entire world.
But of course what's important is not how many times we've seen it elsewhere, but what we do with it this time.
The Netflix series manages to maintain energy and interest throughout, and is beautiful to the eye both in its design and in the fine special effects.
And the best part: it has an abundance of fascinating and complex characters that go through processes, with a cast that demonstrates restrained acting that helps you fall in love with them one by one and be invested in their relationships.
From here on: spoilers.
Chief of all plotters: General Kerrigan.
"Shadow and Bone" 2 (Photo: DÁVID LUKÁCS/NETFLIX)
If Alina Strakov started the series as a young and rather naive girl, who felt small and insignificant in the world, then at the beginning of the second season she is no longer so innocent.
She already knew the immense power that exists within her as the Summoner of the Sun, and was also exposed to boundless evil and ambition in the fight against General Kerrigan, from the Dark Age.
All she ever wanted was to be a soldier and cartographer, and never leave Mal.
Instead, it finds itself as a servant to all kinds of vested interests.
Some call her a saint, some blame her for all the disasters that have befallen the kingdom since her power was discovered, the bounty on her head is huge and the whole world has an interest in capturing her.
She is forced to fight for the fate of the kingdom as well as the chance of a life of happiness with the love of her heart, and deal with the realization that these two things cancel each other out.
In the new season we are also treated to the background story of the mysterious criminal Kaz Barker (Freddie Carter), one of the most fascinating characters in the series.
As his war with his nemesis, the dangerous arch-criminal Pekka Rollins, reaches its climax, we also get to understand the trauma that lives in his soul and drives him.
Suddenly it is very clear why he is the way he is, and why he does not allow himself to get close to anyone, not even people who are willing to die for him, whom he loves with all his heart.
One of the most fascinating characters in the series.
Kaz and Inge from "Shadow and Bone" 2 (Photo: TIMEA SAGHY/NETFLIX)
The second season is bursting with storylines that weave around the main story, which is the search for the means to defeat Kerrigan.
Everyone is draining for the expected climax - the final battle in the war between the forces of light and the forces of darkness, between our sun summoner Alina and the dark Kirigan.
Although as mentioned, everything has been leading up to this throughout the series, somehow this final confrontation between them is a bit anticlimactic.
Compared to the rest of the season, the directing in the last episode is a bit faltering.
Big and important moments that are supposed to be full of emotion, like Mal's death, fail to penetrate the heart or convince in their believability (I don't think anyone believed even for a split second that the left would stay dead).
Ironically, the important and fateful love story of Alina and Mal suddenly pales in comparison to a beautiful and breathtaking scene between Kaz and Inge, for which it seems we have been waiting forever.
After being in love without words and without romantic gestures other than longing glances, we got the moment when the really important things were finally said.
A lot of ends were closed in this episode, and we definitely got the impression that there was a chapter in Rebecca's history, and our heroes can finally rest a bit and start rebuilding relationships, and also countries and nations.
And yet, enough things remained open without an answer, hinting at a sequel to come.
What will happen to Inge and Kaz, and what is the dangerous mission that the "ravens" have just undertaken?
What will happen to Mathias who remains stuck in prison?
And most of all, what the hell happened to Prince Nikolai and Alina herself in the last scene?
Although Netflix has not officially announced the series' renewal for a third season, the way it ended gives hope that we will still get answers to all our questions.
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