Shadow and Bone Season 2 Crams Too Many Books Into One Season

Warning: This review contains spoilers for the entirety of Shadow and Bone Season 2.

Unfortunately, our return to the Grishaverse isn’t as magical as it could have been. Shadow and Bone Season 2 is riddled with pacing issues and buckles under the weight of too many storylines.

Despite cutting out significant portions of books two and three of the Shadow and Bone trilogy, the show still takes on too much for an eight-episode season.

The show feels the need to prominently feature as many beloved characters as possible, which ends up being its detriment.

Instead of focusing its efforts on finishing up Alina’s story well, Shadow and Bone Season 2 introduces relationships and favorite moments from later books instead of pacing itself and saving some things for future seasons.

There’s no reason Wylan and Jesper have to get together now. In fact, the entire Crows prequel in Ketterdam could’ve been cut. While it does give Kaz some wonderful character development, the takedown of Pekka Rollins has nothing to do with the war going on in Ravka.

Shadow and Bone Season 1 proved to us that it could seamlessly integrate Kaz, Jesper, and Inej into Alina’s storyline in a way that created a better story all around, but whatever magic was used when crafting Season 1 is nowhere to be found this season.

It seemed obvious going into Shadow and Bone Season 2 that it would be the last of Alina’s story and that afterward, the show (or a new show) would shift focus to Six of Crows, so all of these moments Shadow and Bone pulled into this season are unnecessary. Unless, the fear is that Netflix won’t greenlight another season, so it’s a now-or-never moment.

Even with characters more closely tied to Alina’s story, Shadow and Bone Season 2 doesn’t understand that sometimes the best way to use a character is to spend less time with them.

As much as I love Ben Barnes and the Darkling, we don’t gain anything by following him around. He should’ve only appeared in Alina and Mal’s mind visits and when his army is attacking. By not spending unnecessary time with him, the show would have made his appearances more impactful.

As mentioned, Shadow and Bone Season 2 covers the events of books two and three of the trilogy, so there’s a lot of ground to cover when it comes to finishing up Alina’s story. While the season does cut out portions of the books to speed things along, we still rush through a lot.

Mal speaks to all of one person before divining where the elusive sea whip is, but hey, he’s also the firebird, so fabled amplifiers stand no chance of hiding from him.

Then, there’s Baghra, who locates Alina and company underground quickly and then immediately solves Alina’s problems, depriving of us watching Alina be the badass we know she can be and do it herself.

Mal: Any chance is better than no chance.

Nikolai: That’s a very Sturmhond thing to say. Were he here, he would surely commend you.

Mal: It’s a little bit unsettling how you talk about him like he’s someone else.

It’s baffling the speed at which this season moves.

By rushing through and diverting our attention to other storylines, we’re robbed of some wonderful moments and character development. It would’ve been nice if Tolya and Tamar were developed a bit more, or if we had the space to really fall in love with Genya and David so that we might care when he dies.

Alina and Nikolai’s relationship (real and pretend) is also expedited.

We don’t get to see the beginning of their relationship, and how their engagement helps or hinders its growth at all. By the end of the season, it’s obvious how much Nikolai likes her, but I wish we could’ve seen more sparks between them and watched their bond grow.

It’s a shame the pacing of the season is such a disaster because there are so many absolutely delightful moments throughout these eight episodes.

You can’t deny that the show excels at casting and providing us with some great character moments, whether it is a single line of dialogue or a conversation taken from one of our favorite passages in the books. Shadow and Bone understands these characters and fans’ love for them.

This is why, despite my disappointment with this season, I’m still invested in this show and seeing some of my favorite characters and their stories be brought to life, especially since it’s time to watch the Crows embark on their heist.

The ending of Shadow and Bone Season 2 makes it clear that we’re not getting separate series for Six of Crows or King of Scars.

Instead, it’s going to be one show that continues to bring everybody into the (ahem) fold for the plots of those duologies, as evident with jurda parem making an appearance at Nikolai’s coronation on Shadow and Bone Season 2 Episode 8, “No Funerals.”

It’s an interesting move, and it’s too soon to tell if it’ll work in the show’s favor or not. If Shadow and Bone can learn from this season’s mistakes and tighten up its pacing and which characters we follow around, it could work really well. But I’m skeptical that this can be done.

We’re entering the era of the Crows, so the show needs to treat them as the main characters with everyone else’s storylines taking a back seat and appearing mainly to supplement the Crows’ overall arc and heist.

Jesper: We do have our adventures. We should hire a writer to jot down our story. What would we call it? The four charming rogues of Ketterdam. Yes.

Kaz: There’s five of us.

Jesper: Right. Five of cr-

Nikolai already has crossover with the Crows in the books, as both Sturmhond and the King of Ravka, so his involvement will most likely feel very natural. He’s not the character I’m worried about though.

By changing the end of Alina’s and Mal’s story, the show is signifying that it isn’t done exploring their journeys yet, especially since Alina’s shadowy cut hints that she’s about to start experiencing the negative side effects of using merzost.

For now, I’ll try to remain cautiously optimistic, but Shadow and Bone Season 2 doesn’t do anything to help lessen these fears about the future of the show.

What are your thoughts on Netflix likely doing one giant series instead of giving Six of Crows or King of Scars their own separate shows? Are you excited, cautiously optimistic, or not at all thrilled?

Stray Thoughts

• Sankt Milo helps Mal escape the First Army prison cell, and you can’t convince me otherwise.
• The title cards make the show look cheap.
• Mal and Nikolai’s interactions are delightful. I love their banter, and you can’t convince me Nikolai doesn’t love him a bit; after all, he gives up his lucky compass.
• The slow burn with Kaz and Inej is absolutely phenomenal.
• The new map transitions are not helpful.
• I don’t care about Genya and David; there’s too much going on for them to be properly developed.
• While I don’t like how quickly Jesper and Wylan became a couple, Jesper finally remembering Wylan as he’s on top of Wylan is utter perfection.
• This Mal is still infinitely better than the book version, but I still don’t really care about him and Alina.
• Patrick Gibson is a stellar Nikolai, and Jack Wolfe is a perfect Wylan.
• Who are those three Grisha fighting Nikolai and company in the final two episodes? They are acting as if they are main characters. It’s confusing.
• Any theories on how Inej will reunite with Kaz and company since she’s now hunting slavers with Mal/Sturmhond?
• Kaz giving Nikolai his cane is a moment I didn’t know I needed.
• I considered giving the season a 2.5 star rating, but the characters are why I landed on 3 stars.
• The Crows being involved in the fight against the Darkling’s Grisha is a bit weird, which even Kaz seems to recognize.

What did you think of Shadow and Bone Season 2? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Shadow and Bone Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.

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