Can Alina be what everyone wants?

With much of the scene setting done in the first half of the season it feels like the pace and the thrills start to arrive here in episode five and into episode six. These two episodes feel like a mini arc by themselves bringing all the different characters into the paths of one another but never making them chummy and never overdoing the familiarity they have with one another.

It is lovely to watch. The different threads bringing different cast members within inches of one another without knowing this is the case. Such careful threading by the show gives the audience a delicious sense of seeing the world from up above, hand to chest whilst waiting for each of those different characters to realise where they are and who it is they’ve just bumped into.

It feels almost like a comedy of manners or a farce but played straight (for the most part) and it’s delivered really well.

Alina remains the centre of attention with the whole world revolving around her whether she likes it or not. What the show captures quite well is her inability to have any kind of real control over such a situation because so many other players have agendas and aims they want to achieve which involve her doing as they want. The fact she’s an actual person is an inconvenience to them. It could have been easy to play her as a helpless Dame in need of rescue but actually what she is, is someone out of their depth and struggling to understand herself as a symbol rather than just as a person. I feel like they get the power dynamics here right, from the uselessness of the Royal family to the way in which everyone is trapped by the very power they want to exercise leaving almost nobody with real agency but most of them corralled according to paths they chose long ago.

In the midst of all this are the Crows, shown here as being decidedly working class but able to use that to be quite simply the most free people in the whole show. The complementary skillsets that Kaz, Inej and Jesper bring to their collaboration are lovely to watch and what is better is that they aren’t just three walking cyphers for getting the job done. Kaz is clearly buttoned up but we don’t yet know why – unable to relinquish control and moreover unable to truly trust. Inej is perhaps the most poorly served of the three although this is just a niggle – I don’t like the way they portray her faith. The show asks us to take it seriously but at the first opportunity she breaks with her faith for the sake of another and there was no real reason for her to do it because alternatives were available. Nevertheless she represents a strong force within the show not least because regardless of what she does the others take her views seriously and respond accordingly. In that sense her view of the world is baked into the series properly even if the choices she makes don’t quite add up.

My personal favourite is Jesper, played by Kit Young, who is freewheeling and committed to enjoying life whilst knowing he is slightly out of control and not in a good way. There is a vulnerability here beneath the bravado that leaves us rooting for him more than anybody else. I wanted to see him in action as often as possible because whenever he steps up the thrill of seeing Jasper act lifts the show to another level.

What I find equally enchanting is that Jesper is a gay man and this is shown clearly on the show – not to make some big plot point but simply as a part of who he is as a person. My feeling is they have got representation right on this count.

Once again a well fleshed out world dovetails neatly with character options and how the plot twists and turns. Although this is not some great mystery thriller, the excitement here does come from how the challenges the characters face are met – whether head on or from sneaking up to their side with a sharp knife. Unlike in the first four episodes the show has got to the stage where the challenges faced by the characters feel consequential and weighty and the complexity of their different agendas intersect with one another in delicious and unexpected ways. The show’s greatest strength is not particularly in its plot nor even in the detailed world Bardugo has created, but in the way the characters interact with one another.

As we reach the end of episode 6 it feels like we are about to enter the last act where all the different challenges fall into place whether they are the small and individual or huge and world shattering.

Verdict: Although it is clear we aren’t going to see all the stories finish in the last two episodes it feels like the stakes for this initial season will be addressed and resolved to some degree without leaving us some annoying cliffhanger to ache over. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind cliffhangers, but shows often mistake cliffhangers for good storytelling and it feels like Shadow and Bone has a clear ending to this first season in mind which is nice and refreshing.    

Rating? 8 train rides through danger out of 10.

Stewart Hotston