I haven’t read the books but the trailer for the TV adaptation of “Shadow and Bone” looked intriguing enough that we started watching the show on Friday evening. Season 1 has 8 episodes so it only took us two evenings to finish it and the time was well spent!
Shadow and Bone takes place in the kingdom of Ravka. The story follows Alina Starkov and Malyen Oretsev, two orphans that end up serving in the Ravkan army. The army is actually split between two groups: Normal humans and humans that can also use magic. The magic users have long been hunted but more recently they’ve gained influence and are now more or less in control of East Ravka while still being seen with lots of suspicion by the others. While being at war with some other nations, the country is also split in half by a large wall of darkness called the Unsea, created a long time ago by a dark magician… And all of a sudden it turns out that Alina might also not only be a magic-user but also help getting rid of the Unsea.
The show completely surprised me! I usually really don’t like fantasy stories with lots of magic but here it was really well done! Great acting, a very interesting story, and despite all the darkness also a lot of humor (and a really cute little goat) made for awesome about 8 hours. I cannot wait for season two and I really hope there’s going to be one!
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