Shadow and Bone

That's the real magic trick a show like this has to pull off — creating a universe that feels fresh to newcomers, without alienating them or feeling too confusing. Like so many things in life, the key ingredient turns out to be the people involved. And in the case of both the fictional characters and the cast and crew, the people of Shadow and Bone deliver.

The success of “Shadow and Bone” Season 1 is that it works so effectively as the first installment of a potential trilogy. By the end, as the show is addressing ideas of hypermilitarization, class stratification, and the fraught nature of prophecy, it’s apparent that there’s more going on inside this season than is readily available on the surface. Here’s hoping there’s a chance for even more to shine through.

Shadow and Bone is good clean fun with a vengeance (with the potential exception of a coyly-shot gay sex scene). Those who watched Game of Thrones for the nudity and cruelty may find it lacking that spicy kick, but this is fantasy with heart, a towering imagination and a genuine new take on the genre. It could be a real phenomenon for Netflix.

Shadow and Bone Season 2 feels a bit crowded, but the writing remains strong, successfully merging stories from the books into one big picture.

Mei Li and Renaux truly give their all, imbuing Alina and Mal’s relationship with the right amount of earnest pining and steaminess. But the show still falls back on YA tropes, failing to ramp up the sexiness in the right way. ... Shadow and Bone accidentally lets The Crows snatch the spotlight, making every moment they’re off the screen — and there are a lot of them — annoying. ... Shadow and Bone isn’t great. But you can’t call it boring.

Complications ensue, super powers are wielded, all as you’d expect. Actors keep straight faces despite the silliness (possibly a real superpower) and the show maintains a young adult sheen. It flows by, which is all it intends to do.

Shadow and Bone fails to deliver any of the charm and emotional engagement of a Game of Thrones (when that show was at its best), or even a Winx Saga (which is objectively terrible, but in an enjoyably ridiculous way). Again and again, Shadow and Bone forces unearned story beats and melodrama. Its character-building is lackluster; its worldbuilding is mostly incoherent, and its script careens from one-liner to one-liner without much substance in between — all while the weak writing torpedos the efforts of its talented cast.

Really good show, one of the best Netflix fantasy series. Great acting, unique story.

In what is a crowded genre, this show does nothing to push it above most. The bones are there for a good show, but some poor casting and ordinary writing really hold it back

While there were plenty of entertaining aspects it was dumbed down to appeal to teenagers.

1st season 8/10, 2nd 1/10, fake 10/10 reviews 0/10 ^^ So an average of 3. The 1st season is cliche but decent, cute plot, actors, a few twists, entertaining. The 2nd season's quality drops to the floor, becomes nonsensical cr@p, with forced in wokism, 95% useless talking, and also ruins the cute love stories from the 1st season. Maybe it's the base material (books) but somehow i doubt it

The main character is awful. Boring, uncompelling, terrible acting on her part imho. The saving grace of this show is that, fortunately, a good chunk of it doesn't involve her. Most of the side characters are far more interesting. I guess the target demographic for this is girls because it is chock-full of idiotic lovey-dovey nonsense. Unfortunately, I'm not a girl and I don't care for silly romance jammed in everywhere. But if you're a female and/or really like romance stories, then this could be really good for you.