Shadow and Bone

I LOVED the first season. It was pretty similar to the books it just combined two of the book series. Shadow and Bone and the Crows. It even made me buy and read the books. Season two took a turn the last few episodes. Without warning they changed the ending for a clear attempt at continuing the Netflix series. Making a certain character evil. And decreasing the value of several others. Disappointed in the outcome. Yet another string of disappointments for Fantasy genre. I feel like studio involvement got in way. It has been a little while but I remember certain characters dying, or dying in certain ways that they didn't.

The show is an iteration of the oldest story in the book, which is nice, it's worth retelling. The worldbuilding is phenomenal, the characters are fleshed out and well acted. I don't quite get the romancing of tsarian russia, but it's as good a basis for fiction as any other, I suppose. I understand the show's based on a book trilogy; the season finale doesn't conclude the story and is a clear setup for another season, hopefully we'll get it.

Not so much because of a tight plot that always made sense, but because the casting was really done, with engaging characters, with even some character development. This is the first Netflix fantasy in a long while I've found worth watching- most have been somewhere between horrid and utterly ridiculous. This YA offering does lapse into predictabllity at times, but the actors save it, with very fine direction. Don't look for deep and profound here- just sit back and enjoy, mostly, the ride.

I really enjoyed season 1 but season 2 was just a bit too messy with too many characters and too much plot! While that sounds good it was actually a bit confusing as to who was who and what the different story and character arcs were. By far the best thing about the show were the Crows and I do hope they get a spin off series to themselves. They were the most interesting characters with the best dynamics. Other than the Crows the actors in the rest of the show were fine but they - alongside their story arc - felt a bit generic fantasy and I must admit to getting a bit bored. All that said it's a fun watch overall and I hope that there is a season 3 to conclude the shadow & bone part of the show and I 100% hope that there is a Crows spin off with Kaz and his crew.

Well that was annoying.

I really enjoyed the first season, but half way through the second season it all went wrong.

So season 1 had solid screenplay, writing, acting, effects and felt like a great dark fantasy adventure.

Little bits of wit and humour woven in here and there resulted in a well balanced introduction into the backstory, characters and entire premise of the world.

Then along comes season 2.

It's continues pretty much as good as the first and all is good, but... about halfway through the season there's a really weird but clear shift.

All of a sudden it becomes incredibly cheesy, poorly acted, over theatrical, effects somehow get noticeably poorer and overall results in it becoming not very interesting at all.

It's almost as if someone else took over but with half the budget.

By the end of it, I had zero interest in the plot or the characters and just wanted it to hurry up and end.

Season 1 gets a solid 7, but season 2 drags it down to a 5.