Adaia Ivory, August 26th, 2024
Shadow and Bone, a Netflix series viewed for nearly 200 million hours, came out with its second season in March of last year. Despite the cancellation of the series’s third season, the newest episodes were still a huge success, ranking high on numerous charts following its release. As we continue to follow our beloved cast of characters, stakes are as high as ever with Alina continuing on her quest to collect the needed amplifier in order to defeat the darkling once and for all.
Whilst watching Shadow and Bone’s latest season I found myself to be on the edge of my seat during a great deal of the season’s intense battles and emotional scenes. The high stakes situations the characters were often put in had me eagerly watching to see how they would be able to get out of another tight spot. This season also did an excellent job portraying Leigh Bardugo’s world as she wrote it. With the season’s outstanding visuals, it felt like I was watching one of my favorite fantastical worlds come to life. I also really enjoyed the character dynamics introduced in this season and they helped to keep me engaged throughout the duration of the episodes.
While I did love the majority of the series’s newest installment there were a few things I found to have been rather poorly done and caused my interest in the season to suffer a bit. First of all, I thought the writing went slightly downhill after the first season and lacked some of the intriguing elements that kept me invested during those episodes. The season focused on many primarily insignificant side plots and then failed to touch on some of the key events that took place in Leigh Bardugo’s original novels. The majority of the events of the second book in the Shadow and Bone series were either brushed over or completely forgotten. Whilst the season obviously couldn’t have included everything the books did, it left out a lot of crucial elements and replaced them with seemingly pointless ones. The dialogue also suffered a lot and I found many scenes to have been cringe-worthy or just painfully predictable. While these less-than well-done elements slightly hindered my enjoyment of the season, they did not make it an altogether unenjoyable experience.
Despite some of my complaints, this season of Shadow and Bone is definitely still worth the watch, even now. With the season’s lovable and formidable characters, as well as a very engaging plot, you won’t even notice the hours go by as you binge your way through the entire season.
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