On the run and plagued by nightmares, Alina finds a moment of peace with Mal. Trouble awaits Kaz, Inej and Jesper upon their return to Ketterdam…

Shadow and Bone – one of the rare series on Netflix not cancelled somewhere around halfway through its first season – finally arrives with the second season.

Interestingly it continues its hybrid approach of mixing together the Crows and Alina Starkov. The series also effectively closes off Alina’s story (although more on that in a minute). It does this by changing a large amount of what’s in the books.

On the whole those changes (as they were in season 1) make the story better – gone is the simpering waif with unfathomable powers who’s really, in many ways, just a fantasy version of Fifty Shades of Grey and here is a character with agency, feelings and ideas that don’t revolve around men. Especially men old enough to be a very creepy grandfather.

What remains and what’s been added is a more interesting story about power and what you can do with it when the world thinks you’re evil by design. Equally interesting is the exploration of what it means to be extremely powerful when everyone around you lacks that power – how they might feel about you, how they might think of a future in which you’re the only power with which they can’t effectively negotiate.

After all, if you’re all powerful, what need have you of compromise if people choose something you don’t like?

Equally, the fact that there is a deeply Jewish perspective on the idea of pogroms, social exclusion, dangerous mythology and hatred of difference, and how one might respond to that as the hated, is there right on screen and is, although understated in many ways, possibly the most interesting thing the show has to say.

It does a good job of showing how traumatised people can respond by becoming the perpetrators of the same traumas in an attempt to make themselves safe from what traumatised them in the first place. This lack of self-awareness, driven by fear and trauma, is seen all too easily in the real world. The bullied become the bully and do so driven by the need to protect themselves from ever being the bully again.

Away from this we have the Crows. A D&D group acting on a global scale and impacting armies, kings and chosen ones almost by accident. They remain extremely fun, enjoyable and riven with angst. Indeed, the angst here feels a little overdone and a hindrance to their obvious effectiveness. If the romantic conundrums of Shadow and Bone have been dialled down, the same can’t be said of the Crows.

That is a little bit of a problem for me. It feels quite immature (which is fine in itself) and that kind of emotional lack of depth doesn’t sit well with the other stakes on the table – at least for me as a viewer. The story obviously has its own path to tack.

Equally as challenging is how the two different stories, drawn from two different novel series, are woven together. It feels a little creaky at times, normally when they intersect. When Alina is off doing her own thing the show is good. When the Crows are doing their own thing it is great. When they come together? The creases and soldering lines are on display and it can feel not just like they don’t quite come together but that the pace at which the stories are moving aren’t in sync.

Having said that there’s barely a flat character in the show – everyone has some moment of fun or trauma or jeopardy and they land them really well.

My personal favourite remains Jesper who gets the best jokes but also a surprising amount of tenderness and development. Although the others have their moments, it feels like he’s the one who properly ends up in a different place emotionally from where he started. It’s fun but also leaves you wishing the others got a little more of that love.

Verdict: Overall this season was a lot of fun but, as with so much serialised television, the last couple of episodes shoehorned in the obligatory references and open ended plots to permit the next season to carry on. I understand why this is the case but it also leaves you feeling a little bit dissatisfied with the conclusion which shifts from being definitive and clean to frayed and undisciplined as characters make decisions out of keeping with who they are to ensure there’s more story to tell. Alina suffers the worst fate here – destined I think to become something the original books steered her carefully clear of.

Anyway. Shadow and Bone season 2 was a lot of fun and well worth your time. We can only hope it gets its next season.

Rating? 7 summoners out of 10.

Stewart Hotston