#david costyk

[thequietesthing]

SHADOW & BONE SEASON 2 THOUGHTS

SPOILERS AHEAD - read at your own risk

Ok, I think I made it clear enough

So, yesterday I finished watching the second season of S&B and I have contrasting thoughts.

Let's start with the good ok?

THE ACTORS. Cannot stress this enough. That is definitely a bunch of very talented people. They had one job and boy if they delivered. I liked everyone but my favourite performances were the ones of Freddy Carter (the Bastard of the Barrel psychotic gaze couldn't have been done better, and also his relationship with Inej... chef's kiss – straight out from the books) Amita Suman (if possible she did an even better job than in the first season, I loved Amita in every scene, from the fight ones to her SCENE with Kaz, and especially what she says to him after that "Hope is dangerous", which I don't think is very much in line with the Inej from the book, but it fits really well in the storyline of the tv series) Daisy Head (THE WOMAN WAS AMAZING, thank god she was given a bigger role in this season! the way she portrayed Genya was brilliant, the hurt, the shame, the fear you could read everything from her face, simply brilliant) Patrick Gibson (my love Nikolai, he also did a very good job and I liked his transitioning from a very swaggering and outgoing performance of Sturmhond, to his portrayal of Nikolai – I've seen some critics in the way he portrayed Nikolai, but in my opinion it couldn't have been better. Sturmhond is not the same as Nikolai otherwise it wouldn't have made sense to create the alter ego; for as much as he has the confident exterior, Nikolai is extremely thoughtful (and I think that you can recognise that by reading KOS/ROW) and Patrick was able to show the thought process that we read in the books, so I liked him). All the others were all extremely good, Ben Barnes off the charts as always, Jessie Mei Li and Archie Renaux did a brilliant job to give us Malina (sometimes definitely too diabetic but alright), the rest of the Crows, Danielle, Kit, Jack and Calahan were AMAZING, they embodied their characters perfectly (Wesper was done beautifully, different than the books, but Kit and Jack are so good that it just came flawless anyway; Helnik was pure angst and I LOVED IT). Also special mentions to Lewis Tan and Anna Leong Brophy because they NAILED the twins performance.

Then we have the plot. Now I wouldn't discard the thing as necessarily bad, because in its own right it wasn't. The issue with book adaptations is that we have such high standards given by the books that we always expect too much. I have to say, some things I liked some things I didn't. Shadow & Bone parts I have to say I'm partial to the second book, especially the whole attack at the Little Palace is just one of my favourites scenes ever and it felt a bit meh. Other issue they have not tackled at all was the religious role Alina had (especially with Tamar and Tolya that in the tv series look more like Nikolai's sidekicks) that instead I wanted to see. A character that basically disappears is the Apparat: I don't like the guy but he was kind of important (how he always schemes around, how he imprisoned Alina, now he's just a guy that gives shady advice to everyone who'd listen). I wish I could have seen more Zoya simply because I love her very much and the fact that she and the Darkling didn't have any type of scenes together is absurd to me. All the scenes where Nikolai was were better in my opinion but I may be a little biased, but I just don't want him to pine over Alina for too long! Not with Zoya right there! But we'll see. Also the whole thing Mal/Alina/Darkling was done in a pretty good way; could have been done better? obviously, but since the objective was not to copy word by word from the books I think it went well. Six of Crows parts I liked how they portrayed Kaz (his childhood story I wanted to cry everytime), very on point BUT I didn't like how rushed it was the vengeance against Pekka Rollins; it was done too quickly for the sake of giving the Crows something to do the first half of the season and it deserved more time for me. I like the new dynamics with the integration of Nina and Wylan, but once again we couldn't really see much of it because there was always someone else and never just the Crows. I've said it before but I'll say it again, Wesper was majestic, Jack must have understood Wylan to a soul level because it was the same as reading Leigh words. I don't particularly mind the fact that Wesper had a thing before rather than not having met at all. Also Jesper embracing its powers was really nice if not a bit rushed. Then, KANEJ SCENES PEOPLE. The talent of Amita and Freddy shone through so brightly it's amazing (the "How will you have me" scene pierced me to the core – not to mention Inej's dream.... ughh so good). KOS foreshadowing They killed David and I was so not okay with that, but then I thought "Did they though?" bc there was no body no anything, so maybe and I say maybe he still alive somewhere (he better be bc he has to marry Genya and be happy and I'll be in denial until it is confirmed). WHEN THE BEE LANDED ON ZOYA SHOULDER the scream that came out of me people thought I was possessed I swear. Nikolai as he finds out he's the nichevo’ya was really well done. What Nina said to Zoya "someone will sweep you off your feet so hard you won't know what hit you" I wanted to cry, I swear if they don't give me Zoyalai next season I'll riot. I didn't particularly enjoy the Genya,Zoya and Alina triumvirate, but I'm feeling it may be short lived. (Also Zoya's "I could fix him" energy is what we want in S3)

Now for what may happen next, I'm really happy about the jurda parem storyline because it affects everyone in different ways. I hope that now that they'll tackle KOS it won't become the Alina show pt 2 but they'll give Zoya the story she deserves. I need Zoya to be the general and right hand of the King and Alina is kind in the middle of that but then I thought that Alina will probably go on her own journey with the fact she has the sword to return to Shu Han and now dark powers and so she may enter her villain era with maybe Mal bringing her again on the right path (also let's not forget that the tree the Darkling goes into is in Shu Han, so I think they'll play around with that a bit), idk honestly all I care at this point is that by the end Alina's hair have to be white. I hope the Crows finally free poor Matthias from Hellgate and finally finally go do the Ice Court heist, that it has been a long time coming.

All in all I honestly liked the season, there was only one main issue that affected everything else: too many characters. In Italian there is a saying "troppa carne al fuoco" which means literally "too much meat on the fire" which translates to the fact that there were too many things to follow to do it properly. Too many stories to follow, too many people on the move with too many things to accomplish, and even with good writing it can easily become a shitty thing. So whatever it is to come (hopefully season 3 and also the rumoured SOC spinoff) I'm glad they are planning to separate the cast.

Ok I'm done.