Sombra e Ossos

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.

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.

This series really runs the gamut on storyline and acting quality. Not a lot of shows out there that are this hit and miss.

The Crow gang is fantastic and Netflix really should do a spin-off with just them (or make the show about them). The characters are interesting and the actor who plays Kaz is fantastic.

Meanwhile the main storyline with the Sun Summoner is dull and her love interests are frustrating to watch on screen. It's really hard to stay invested when the main character is unlikable.

But no matter, the Crow storyline makes up for it and I've enjoyed both seasons one and two. Here's hoping for more.

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.

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.