Shadow and Bone

[Greg]

The next big thing! If you need to fill the void left by the ending of Game of Thrones, this is for you! Blah! Blah! Blah!

It's sort of a russian tinged fantasy epic. And I'm probably going to get a bunch of things wrong because there is so much stuff. There's a country riven in two by a misty black are where sunlight can't penetrate and monsters live in there. You can' go around the void because of an antagonistic nation on one end and mountains on the other. The army needs to go through the void but it's an impossible task ending in certain death to go through the void.

There is some sort of war going on. There are regular soldiers and there are the magic using soldiers. The two types of soldiers don't like each other very much. And then there are the two lovers who aren't yet lovers in the center. The boy is a scout and the girl is a cartographer. They are orphans who met at the orphanage. She's a half-breed but I never saw how she looked any different from the other kids. The other kids beat up on her anyway.

The army is on one side of the void. There is a lawless town on the other side. A gang of crooks are putting together to go on a job back through the void that could earn them a million Kruna. There's fighting with another gang to get the million dollar job. It's all very sketchy and every time I see these scenes I feel like I've missed some important bits of information. Maybe it would help if i read the books upon which the series is based.

Anyway, turns out the girl orphan actually has a very rare power that the rest of the world is going to want especially the group of criminals on the other side of the void.

I'm two episodes in. It's got some good visuals but the story isn't grabbing me. I might have one more episode in me.

[Greg]

Ep04S01 Otkazat'sya In most episodes, they follow three storylines. The first is about Alina, the sun summoner and her training at the Little Palace. The second is Mal, who is in love with Alina and they grew up together. Mal is still with second army and is desperate to find out where Alina has gone. Then their are The Crows, a group of thieves hired to kidnap Alina. They do a lot of plotting and traveling to where Alina is. In this Ep, the Crows have to travel through the dangerous Fold where the monsters live. Alina settles in at the Little Palace where she is being wooed by the main general Kirigan. Meanwhile, Mal writes letters to Alina and volunteers to go on a dangerous mission to find a mythic stag. It's all very slow and romance novel oriented.

Ep05S01 Show Me Who You Are. Alina continues to have problems proving she can actually do the magic. Mal finds the stag and is dispatched to the Little Palace to tell people he had done so. The Crows also end up at the Little Palace, one step closer to kidnapping Alina. Alina wants to forget about Mal to be able to better access her powers. But she also finds out that Kirgan might not be all that nice of a person to fall in love with. There's a big party for the king. All sorts of shenanigans happen. It's a lot more lively that previous episodes but still looks like is trying to be on the Lifetime channel.

It could be just my TV and the fact there is a lot of light falling on the screen, but I can barely see most of the scenes. Everything is shot very dark. But again, it could just be my TV arrangement.

We will continue to carry on. If we can get through Sweet Tooth, we can get through this. Thank god, for Loki Wednesdays.

[Greg]

Yay. We finished. The whole show was very harlequin romance oriented. All the dynamics were between couples. All were Yin-Yang dynamics ie the witch in love with the witch finder.

There was more adventure in the final episode as the Sun Summoner finally battles against the fold and the heretic.

But in the end, there was a bit too much soap opera.

[Drunk Monk]

So DOOM recommended or no?

[Greg]

I'm going to say no. But then, when do I recommend anything?

[Drunk Monk]

I'm going to say no. But then, when do I recommend anything?

Fair. I'm thinking now I should watch this because Lewis Tan got added to the S2 cast. Hopefully he won't Shatterstar me again.

[Drunk Monk]

[Greg]

Shadow and Bone 2 coming March 16. The T-Mobile guy is back!

It's been like a decade since this came out, right?

[Drunk Monk]

I watched the first ep since the new season with Lewis Tan is imminent. Ya know, I watch a lot of escapist fantasy, but man, I can’t remember being so inundated with fantasy babble in a premiere ep. I couldn’t quite keep up. Too many ideas, not fleshed out, just wacky names for stuff in this magical world. Mediocre effects and somewhat plodding of a pace, although I do like the rusky angle of the world. That’s the only but that feels fresh. Maybe I need some monster. The Grisha concept reminds me of AtLA. It wasn’t so bad that I’m going to bail. If Greg can take it and make it to the end, so can I. Or I might skip a bit. I’ll definitely watch e2 to see if it congeals well.

[cranefly]

I watched most of 2 eps while doing exercises.  Think I'll bail.  I really get tired of people who can shoot power, or light, out of their hands.

What I'd really like to see is a character who can shoot light out of their ears.  They'd have to stand sideways to hit someone.  That could really be cool.

But for some inexplicable reason, nobody in Hollywood seems to be listening to me.

[Greg]

If I was shooting power out of my ears, I would twirl.

[Drunk Monk]

Binged thru ep5. I’m rather enjoying it - not in a totally engrossed way but more amused. I like the Russian accent; it’s refreshing after so many euro-middle age set fantasies. I also like some of the characters - Alina and the Crows. And Baghra - HP1 for Madame Hooch. Ironic that she walked away from the wizarding world claiming the money was too low and wound up here. She’s Shakespearean trained and it shows.

It picked up for me when they got to the Little Palace because the costumes and pageantry leveled up. Also there’s some humor it it now with Jasper. And there’s killing - stabbing, shooting, bayoneting, sodomy - I was only half tuned in so the Alina double caught me totally by surprise.

I see what Greg labels as harliquin romance. I would say it’s so CW. That does detract a bit and Alina’s falling for the General didn’t work for me with all the pining for Mal. 

I like Inej and Kaz, particularly Inej but Kaz is a good foil for her.

Re: Greg’s initial half breed looking like all the other orphans - bro, srsly? She’s hapa. The Shu Han are Asian. SMH.

I’ll probably finish this to be ready for s2 when Lewis shows up.

[Drunk Monk]

For some reason, my Netflix didn’t show that I watched e5 so I started watching it again - got a few minutes in before everything was so familiar that I realized I saw it. Maybe I dozed off and didn’t remember some. 

Anyway I switched to e6 but dozed off quickly and woke when e7 was starting. I need to go back and watched the bits in e6 I slept through. Or not. Maybe I’ll just push onward.

[Drunk Monk]

I didn't go back. Didn't seem worth it. Although this ep started with a major prelude story about how the fold was created, and for a moment I was rather confused, but sorted it out later. The digitally-botoxed Madame Hooch was the tell. 

Still plugging at this. Turns out Tara is rewatching it too so it'll give us one more thing to nerd out about together.

[Drunk Monk]

Finished S1. Got a tad confused because I had lost track of who was who character-wise but that’s on me. It ended just about how I thought it might end - the main protag finds her power at the last minute and defeats the villain. 

Onward to S2