Shadow and Bone is not the new Game of Thrones. It doesn’t need to be. Every now and then, groundbreaking, industry changing shows like Game of Thrones, or my personal favorite, Lost, come along and as soon as they’re wrapped, whenever a show in a relatively similar genre comes out, critics immediately start asking of the new show, “Is this the new version of that other show we all loved?” The answer is almost always no. There’s a reason groundbreaking shows stand apart from the crowd. Audiences want to see new things. And after that favorite show of theirs is wrapped, as much as the content-starved viewers might think, they don’t want to see a replica of their finished fave.
Imitations are inevitable, yes. When Game of Thrones hit peak popularity, there was an obvious surge in the production of high fantasy shows, most of which were cheap shots with no intent on making a story or characters audiences cared about, that functioned only as a cash grab and as such generated no great applause or fanbase. But just because imitations exist doesn’t mean that every high fantasy show to come into production after Game of Thrones is going to be, or is trying to be, the next Game of Thrones. Sometimes new shows are just trying to be their own thing, and that’s ok. And, in my opinion, that is exactly what Shadow and Bone does. It exists not as an imitation or a cash grab, but as a faithful endeavor into which much effort was clearly put to adapt a series of much beloved novels to the screen. And I love it for that.
So, let’s get down to it. The good, the questionable and the debatable.
First off, the thing the show did best: the casting!!!! When the very first photo of the cast came out (above), I was immediately turned off. At that point, I had only recently finished reading the Six of Crows duology and, having found a new set of fabulous characters to fall in love with that felt so alive on the page, I didn’t want to see any adaptations because I felt like no one could do the characters any more justice than Leigh had. I saw that cast photo and I was angry, angry that they were going to screw it up and do it dirty. By the time the teaser trailer came out, at which point I had read the Grisha trilogy and King of Scars in addition to the Crows duology, I was definitely more okay with the casting and I was even positively excited for the show to come out. That being said, I still had some reservations, particularly about the Crows who I hold so close to my heart. Could Kit really manage to sell Jesper’s wit and humor without making it over the top? Could Amita pull off Inej’s balance of badassery and kindness without leaning too far into one or the other? Could Freddy depict Kaz, my favorite character from the books, the way I imagined him in my mind without screwing anything up? The answer to all of those questions and more was an overwhelming yes.
Every character was perfect, it was clear that the cast were genuinely enjoying themselves and that they were dedicated to portraying their assigned characters. It would have been so easy for the actors to underperform or overperform depending on their role, but they didn’t! Everyone in this show did an incredible job, from line delivery to facial expressions to physical motion, it was all amazing!
I wasn’t planning on really liking the cast, let alone obsessing over them and watching every scrap of content I can find on the internet, but here I am. Their energy, their chemistry, it’s all fantastic! What I wouldn’t give to be one of them!
Let’s take it to Freddy, specifically. Like I said, Kaz Brekker is my favorite character from all of the Grishaverse books. I could gush about him right now, but I know you don’t need me to. Odds are, you love him just as much as I do. In that case, you probably understand my apprehension about his portrayal as the show’s release approached. From that original cast photo, through the trailers, all the way up to the day of release, I was terrified. Terrified that Freddy was going to get it wrong, that he was going to screw up the portrayal of one of my most favorite characters. He didn’t. He was everything I could have wanted and more. The intensity, the thirst for revenge,the little droplets of emotion that slip by in his gaze before his cold, unfeeling mask slides back into place, the genuine but never confessed and hardly expressed love he harbors for his fellow Crows, it was all there. All there, all just I had imagined, all perfect.
Alright, now it’s time to talk about some of the things I liked less than the casting. First off, Zoya Nazyalensky. I’m not a huge Zoya fan. I think she’s cool and all, but she’s not on my stan list. And even I know she deserved more in the show. More lines, more screen time, more development. It’s clear that Zoya was a victim of the eight episode series limit and because of time constraints she wasn’t given the time and attention she deserved. For the sake of the hardcore Zoya stans, the people like me who know she deserved better and the people who’ve only watched the show who may not have a full comprehension of Zoya’s depth as a character.
Another piece of storytelling that I really wish was included but was also a victim of time constraints were character backstories. Specifically, the backstories of the Crows. Despite the Crows having much more screen time than Zoya, much like Zoya, I feel like it would be very easy for people who are not familiar with the books to lack a full understanding of the Crows without witnessing their backstories. At least we got to hear a little about Inej’s past when she was going after Arken, but other than that, we really didn’t get anything, leaving non-readers blind to the fact that Kaz wears gloves and uses a cane not just for style, but for a reason, and so on.
The last two paragraphs encompass what I found to be the series’ weakest point: it was difficult for non-readers to understand, comprehend and follow. We start off in Ravka, then we’re thrust into Ketterdam. We visit Chernast and Fjerda and hear mention of the Wandering Isle. The Grisha orders are never blatantly stated. A multitude of individual characters are introduced swiftly and there’s little time to get to know the characters before their thrust into action. All of this can and has, by the accounts I’ve heard of those who don’t know the books, leave non-readers feeling disconnected, confused and lost. Of course, those who enjoy the show despite their confusion can take it upon themselves to read the books and/or delve into the lore online to fill in the gaps in their comprehension, but others (like someone I started watching with before they gave up) will lack the energy and devotion and will just give up because they find it too confusing. I can only imagine the struggles the creative team faced trying to fit in the world-building with the complex characters and the plot, all of which they had to fit into eight episodes, but if they had maybe cut out one or two other scenes and replaced them with a bit of exposition to help non-readers feel more comfortable and less confounded in the Grishaverse, I think they would have found a lot more non-readers sticking around.
I’ve seen a lot of people on Twitter really upset by the Darkling’s name drop. I, personally, don’t have a big problem with it, but I do think it would have been better if the Darkling didn’t reveal his name was Aleksander until the moment he does in the books. It’s such an iconic, crucial part of the story in the books and I don’t understand why the writers decided to have the moment occur so much earlier, and in such a casual manner, no less. The show always felt very in-tune with the fanbase, but in this one moment, it faltered terribly, to the disappointment of many.
While I didn’t have a huge problem with the Darkling name drop, I did have a problem with one particular prop. Overall, the show looks gorgeous. The visual effects are stunning, the costumes are amazing and I desperately want a kefta, the cast is beautiful, the sets are great and all of the props, except one, are fantastic. Kaz’s cane. It didn’t look anything like I imagined, it didn’t look like something Kaz would own. I always imagined the cane being made of a dark wood, almost black, so when it was revealed to be brown I wasn’t very happy. I wasn’t opposed to the gold crow head, but it didn’t exactly feel right, either. Besides the coloration of the crow head, it didn’t look intense enough. It looked like more of a fashion statement than a weapon, more flashy than useful, and not anything like the pictures I had in my head or any of the many depictions I’ve seen in fanart.
Quick aside here before I dive into my last big point. I’ve seen some criticism online of Kaz being portrayed as ‘too soft’ in the show. When I started watching, I was a little put off by the face that Kaz’s menacing intensity, his real malice, seemed to be missing, but it was never something that bothered me a whole lot and by the time I was done watching I didn’t have a problem anymore. Kaz’s ‘softness’ makes sense in this story. In numerous interviews, Freddy has described Kaz Brekker as ‘a rising star in the criminal underworld’. At the start of Six of Crows, Kaz is already the star and his ascent is described mostly in flashbacks as is his backstory. Show Kaz and book Kaz are the same character, but they’re the same character at different points in that character’s life. Show Kaz is still climbing the ladder, still building his reputation, still learning what it takes to be the man he wants to become. During my rewatches, I have come to the conclusion that this was a great decision on the writers’ part. They understood that there wouldn’t be time for flashbacks or exposition or anything at all regarding Kaz’s backstory. Making him that ruthless, star criminal we meet in Six of Crows without any context as to why he is the way he is would have made it very hard for audiences, non-readers especially to like the character at all and might have left audiences wondering why this horrid monstrous man was so loved by the fanbase, they might have even hated him, and that might have made it that much harder for audiences (non-readers, specifically) to fall in love with Kaz in later seasons even as his backstory was unravelled.
Now we’ve come to it, the last big discussion point of this review: racism. On the screen and behind it. Before I get into it, I am a cishet white woman. I am not the leading authority to speak on this topic. I am barely an authority at all. The opinions of BIPOC folk on this matter are much more important than mine, and it is crucial that we lift up their voices and give them space to share their thoughts.
Let’s start with the racism on the screen. Shadow and Bone is one of the few high fantasy series I’ve watched that directly addresses racism in the plot. I’ve seen mixed opinions about this in the fan community, and for me personally, I thought it was a good decision to incorporate racism into the plot. It helped steer the show away from relying on the crutch of the overused ‘she’s not like other girls’ trope even though there is nothing that separates the protagonist from other girls. In Shadow and Bone, there is. By making Alina Starkov part Shu, she experiences a torrent of racism from quippy microaggressions to being denied food because of how she looks. This gives the show, and Alina specifically, a depth and complexity that Alina lacked in the books, not to mention the huge positive impact of seeing an Asian woman as a strong lead in popular media, let alone fantasy, a massively white-washed genre.
Then the stunt double issue came to light and my perspective on the racism on screen changed. For those who don’t know, a white woman was hired as the stunt double for Inej Ghafa and brownface was used to make the white actress resemble the character she was doing stunt work for. This is disgusting and shameful and racist and a reminder that diversity has to be prevalent in all areas of art, be it writing or acting or producing or working as a stunt double, or an artist or a visual effects person or anyone else involved in the creation of art, especially film. I still think the racism plot in the show was an interesting one that added depth to an initially flat plot and character, but it feels uncomfortable now watching the scenes in which Alina experiences racism knowing what was going on behind the scenes. It’s less of a ‘look at this great show with a diverse cast that is exploring the oppression faced by non-whites in fantasy setting that mirrors real world occurrences’ and more of a ‘yikes, they really made us think they were trying to take a stand against racism by including this in the show, but behind the scenes it’s more of the same old cycle of white supremacy and racism that, on screen, the show seems to be trying to fight against while actively engaging in racism offscreen’.
Hire brown people. Hire black people. Don’t tell me you hired the best person for the job and they just happened to be white when I know full-well there are plenty of non-whites with adequate talent for the job. I want to see the racism plot continued in future seasons, I want to see how Alina fights the stigmas surrounding her race as she gets more and more power. But I only want to see if it has real meaning and weight, if it’s not being done to be an edgy show checking the ‘diverse and different’ box and is instead one that actively fights against racism by hiring non-whites not just for acting roles, but for the multitude of roles involved in film making.
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