Shadow and Bone Season 2: Overstuffed, but at least we got Wesper!
On Thursday, March 16, Netflix dropped the second season of its hit fantasy show Shadow and Bone, the TV adaptation of Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse books: the Shadow and Bone trilogy, and the Six of Crows and the King of Scars duologies. Unlike its first season, which, while ambitious in its conception, managed to combine its multiple central storylines, this new installment in the popular franchise struggles to keep up with the already established frantic pace.
The first season of Netflix’s Shadow and Bone found a balance when weaving together the story of the main trilogy and bringing the Crows’ characters into the show’s timeline (the novel, Six of Crows, takes place two years after the Shadow and Bone trilogy ends). Sadly, the same cannot be said about the second season. While the show remains entertaining and remarkably true to the spirit of all sets of characters old and new, narratively, this season can only be described as heavily overstuffed.
In their eagerness to want to cover as much of this universe as they can in only eight episodes, we can’t help but feel like the show got lost in itself. Shadow and Bone Season 2 includes events from the last two books of the main trilogy and both the Six of Crows and The King of Scars duologies, giving the narrative little to no time to explore the emotional fallout of the events all the characters go through let alone fully flesh out crucial plot lines.
But it’s still a good show, and as big fans of this universe and certain rainbow characters that live within it, we tuned in, had a good time while bingeing it – especially when the Crows were on our screen – and we’re ready to talk about it.
Shadow and Bone Season 2, two shows in one?
Shadow and Bone Season 1 primarily focused on the journey of Sun Summoner Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li) as she discovered and later claimed her power as a Grisha. The last time we saw Alina and her peers, all hell had broken loose. After an intense battle against the evil Shadow Summoner Aleksander Morozova (Ben Barnes) – aka the Darkling – and a failed attempt by Alina to destroy the Fold, which splits Ravka in two, our heroine and her best friend/soulmate Malyen Oretsev (Archie Renaux) were forced to flee Ravka as fugitives since most people believed that she had been working with the Darkling.
The Crows, who had initially been sent to Ravka to kidnap Alina but instead became part of her team, returned home to Ketterdam. And, since the Darkling was believed to be dead, all that was left to do was find a way to take down the Fold. But just as the first season was about to end, it was revealed that the Darkling wasn’t actually dead and instead he had gained a new power: the ability to create and control shadow monsters.
Season 2 picks up immediately after this. Alina and Mal are on a quest to find Morozova’s other two mythical amplifiers – the Sea Whip and the Firebird – in order to make Alina strong enough to destroy the Fold for good. Unbeknownst to either of them, the Darkling is on a quest himself to find Alina and contain her power – which threatens to ruin his evil plans – or somehow convince her to join him in his attempt to overthrow the King of Ravka, control all Grisha, and expand the Fold throughout the land.
The Crows, on the other hand, are dealing with the aftermath of their absence from Ketterdam. They return home to discover that their beloved Crow Club has been taken over by a local gangster named Pekka Rollins (Dean Lennox Kelly) with whom their leader, Kaz Brekker (Frederick James Carter), has a dark past with.
So to pull off an elaborate plan to get back what’s rightfully theirs and take revenge on Rollins for wrongs caused in the past and the present, the Crows find themselves in need of recruiting a couple of new faces: Heartrender Nina Zenik (Danielle Galligan) and demolitions expert Wylan Van Eck (Jack Wolfe). All this before they’re thrown back into the main narrative and end up working with Alina and Mal again to help them in the big battle at the end of the season.
So while on paper Shadow and Bone Season 2 follows the same path that Season 1 charted with two main storylines merging into one at some point in time, this one doesn’t feel or work the same way. In Season 1, the inclusion of the Crows in the show’s timeline felt right, like it was always meant to be that way, and all the emotional high points the characters experienced hit the right marks. That doesn’t happen in this new season, and instead, the show becomes a series of rapid-fire revelations that trigger one major event after another, without giving the story and its many, many characters any time to breathe.
The balance between the multiple central storylines is virtually non-existent, making it feel at times like we were watching two very different shows – an overstuffed take on what Shadow and Bone Season 2 and 3 should have been, and a Six of Crows spin-off. Of the two, we found ourselves 1000 times more invested in the latter.
And speaking of the Crows…
Long live Wesper! The queer main rep in the Grishaverse!
If, like us, you’re a big Six of Crows fan, then the introduction of Wylan this season should have had you cheering as loudly as we did. Not only because it’s now official and all the Crows are part of the show’s universe (of course they’re incomplete until Matthias (Calahan Skogman) can get out of Hellgate); but because with him, we finally have the other half of Wesper, aka the ship name of Wylan + Jesper (Kit Young).
Unlike in the book, in the TV show, Jesper and Wylan have already met by the time Wylan is recruited to be part of the Crows, but Jesper doesn’t remember their one-night stand. It’s only when they both get trapped under a carriage and Jasper ends up on top of Wylan (lol) that the Sharpshooter has déjà vu and everything falls into place. They had met before! They had slept together! And Wylan had even brought him stroopwafels!
Thankfully, the show gives us more than a funny scene and some banter here and there, and expands on their backstory, allowing Jesper and Wylan to talk about what happened back when they first met. We learn not only why Wylan left the morning after even though he wanted to have something more with Jesper, but what Jesper thinks about it. We’re not going to lie, seeing them have an honest and sincere conversation about what they expect from each other without leaving aside the light and fun tone that characterizes this couple, left us feeling hopeful for the future of our favorite Crows.
We won’t spoil what happens, but that scene was one of our favorite Wesper moments this season. Well, that one and the one by the piano, but you’ll have to watch the show to know what we’re talking about. The only thing we’ll say is that both Young and Wolfe capture the heartfelt feelings between Jesper and Wylan so well that you’ll immediately root for them and buy tickets to board this ship, even if there are a few storms to weather on the horizon.
And really, we’re not exaggerating, these two have one of the most beautiful, funniest, and most sincere love stories in the Grishaverse. They bring out the best in each other and complement one another in a way that we rarely see on TV. Simply put…they’re like a Cyan Morpho and a Datura Meloxia, they need each other to survive.
Shadow and Bone Season 2 has all the aspects that made its first season so visually impressive, but the pacing of the narrative leaves a lot to be desired and doesn’t quite measure up to its predecessor. The connection between its various storylines isn’t there, and while still entertaining, we’re not sure if people with no prior knowledge of the Grishaverse will find this new season as easy to follow as the previous one.
We hate to say it, but there’s just too much information being thrown at the audience in each scene, making it hard to focus on any particular character or group. If Netflix decides to renew the show for a third season, we truly hope they can find some footing again, if not, we’ll be campaigning for the Six of Crows spin-off we all deserve.
PS: If you think that Wesper is the only queer rep in Shadow and Bone Season 2, then you may be surprised to know that there’s another couple (a sapphic one!) getting their cute moments this season. It’s not much, but at least it’s something. So keep your eyes open for them too!
Shadow and Bone Season 2 is streaming exclusively on Netflix. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram for all queer stuff!
