Shadow and Bone: Season 2

Ravka has descended into civil war as a result of the Darkling's attempt to seize power. Both the Darkling and Sun Summoner are feared dead, but they both re-emerge to form new alliances and raise new armies. Meanwhile, the criminal gang known as the Crows return home to Ketterdam to find some major changes have taken place in their absences, changes they cannot abide.

Shadow and Bone is an adaptation of the Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo, drawing on other books set in the same universe to add more details and more characters, and enlarge the scope of the story. The first season, released in 2021, was enjoyable and competent, gaining strength from its solid cast and, perhaps, the fact that many other fantasy TV shows that had hit the ground in the preceding few years had been quite weak.

The second season picks up where the first dropped off and immediately makes some bold choices. The most obvious is that whilst the first season only adapted Shadow and Bone by itself, with some additions from the novel Six of Crows, the second season adapts the latter two Grisha Trilogy novels, Siege and Storm and Ruin and Rising. This immediately results in a faster-paced, punchier season with major events happening at a more frequent clip. Netflix also continue to tell the story of the Six of Crows characters, setting up their "big heist" story from that novel (although the heist itself sounds like it might be its own spin-off series, not part of a future third season for Shadow and Bone itself).

The show's trump card remains its cast, a mix of steely experience (Zoë Wanamaker has an expanded role this season, Ben Barnes gives great scene-chewing villainy) and younger up-and-comers. It's hard to fault any of the cast for their work this season, although perhaps turning Barnes into an outright villain does waste some of the nuance he brought to the role in the first season, when his character's motivations were more ambiguous. There's also a number of solid newcomers, with Jack Wolfe and Patrick Gibson doing solid work and Lewis Tan and Anna Leong Brophy adding some serious action chops. Amongst the established hands, Jessie Mei Li continues to be a good lead and Danielle Galligan arguably emerges as the MVP of the season with her dry, comedic observations on what's going on at any moment.

There's some excellent action setpieces, and a number of intersecting storylines. The quickened pace keep things moving along nicely. Occasionally this rapid pace and busy story means that motivations and travel times are neglected, and the way the Crows characters are drawn back into the "main" story cannot help but feel contrived. The world also feels extremely small, with characters flitting from one side of it to the other in less time than a between-episode break. The tone also distinctly remains YA-ish, with a strong focus on character romances but dialled-back on sex; the occasional, if fleeting, graphic violence of the first season occasionally returns, though.

To give a lazy review, if you enjoyed the first season of Shadow and Bone, you'll enjoy the second, whilst I doubt this season will do much to change the mind of anyone who wasn't keen on it. It is a stronger season, helped by the storyline only having two elements to it (Alina and her battle against the Darkling versus the Crows doing their thing) that intersect, rather than the three that had relatively little to do with one another in the first season. It also feels more confident, one wonders if because the fantasy shows that have emerged since the first season have largely been something of a letdown.

Shadow and Bone's second season (****) perhaps remains a little lightweight (not necessarily a bad thing, not everything needs to be wrought and grim), but its humor, strong cast, better pacing and more epic battles result in an improvement over its debut season. The show is available now worldwide on Netflix.

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