Netflix Archives - The Wide Screen

March 23, 2023

“Shadow And Bone” Season 2 Makes Big, Bold Changes

**SPOILERS FOR SHADOW AND BONE SEASON TWO AHEAD!**

Netflix’s Shadow And Bone has never been a straightforward adaptation of the book series by the same name, which has proven to be both a blessing and a curse. A blessing, because Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow And Bone trilogy by itself is not particularly compelling source material and fans are generally in agreement that the author’s later books are significantly stronger due in large part to their more complex, multi-faceted characters, and a curse, because removing these characters from the context of Bardugo’s later books and creating a space for them amidst the events of her original trilogy, showrunner Eric Heisserer’s galaxy-brained solution to the problem he created for himself by refusing to adapt both stories separately, ultimately did a disservice to everybody in the first season. I am happy to report the second season has a “fix” for that too; less so to admit that – while it worked for me – it has only further enraged book purists, and without their support the show may not get another chance at this.

Archie Renaux as Mal and Jessie Mei Li as Alina in Shadow And Bone. They are standing in the dimly-lit cabin of a ship, but Alina illuminates the small room with balls of golden light hovering above her hands. — Mal and Alina | polygon.com

Let me be more clear (and if the message in bold lettering at the top of the page wasn’t enough, let this be your final warning that spoilers will follow). There are a total of seven novels set in author Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse – comprising the Shadow And Bone trilogy, Six Of Crows duology, and King Of Scars duology, published and intended to be read in that order, though many fans will tell you they started with Six Of Crows, a great entry-point to the Grishaverse, and gradually worked their way backwards and forwards from there. Netflix’s Shadow And Bone only properly adapted the trilogy’s first book in season one, with the Six Of Crows duology’s characters having relatively inconsequential original storylines written for them – set prior to the events of the book in which they first appeared – so they could be present without upstaging Shadow And Bone‘s actual protagonists.

Understandably, fans were left wanting a little more from the Crows, and I think the writers took this to mean that adapting more of their story was essential in season two. One thing about Shadow And Bone‘s writers, they clearly take every criticism into consideration, which is admirable, but they have a tendency to…over-correct, in response to criticisms both great and small. One fairly innocuous example of this that stood out to me, just because I remember how viewers complained of being unable to keep track of characters’ movements throughout the first season, is that every other scene transition is now accompanied by a map. But entire subplots have, for better or worse, been discarded because they were poorly-received.

Don’t get me wrong, the first season’s surface-level depiction of anti-Asian racism as a relentless barrage of microaggressions was not something that needed to make a comeback, but Ravkan discrimination against the Shu played an unexpectedly significant role in shaping the show’s half-Ravkan, half-Shu, biracial heroine, Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li), and her barely-explored complex feelings towards her home-country made her a more interesting protagonist in my opinion. But with racism in the Grishaverse suddenly ended (along with homophobia!), Alina is no longer tormented by these feelings, which once stood in the way of her becoming Ravka’s Sun-Summoner while simultaneously giving her crucial insight into the plight of the oppressed Grisha – magic-users – and the Darkling (Ben Barnes).

Ben Barnes as The Darkling in Shadow And Bone, standing in a wasteland with a dark sky, wearing a black hooded kefta with faint gold embroidery. His hood is thrown back, and he is screaming. — The Darkling | netflix.com

Other characters in Bardugo’s Grishaverse are murderers and manipulators and former members of the fantasy Hitler Youth, but none are as divisive as the Darkling, the immortal Grisha tyrant responsible for creating the Shadow-Fold, a towering wall of darkness severing Ravka from its coastline and trapping it between hostile neighbors to the north and south. In both the books and the show, Alina falls in love with the Darkling because he’s the first person to see her as something more than a mapmaker, but only in the books do they continue to have genuine feelings for each other after it’s revealed that the Darkling planned to use Alina’s unique abilities to move the Shadow-Fold for his apparently nefarious purposes. Any hint of a real emotional connection between the two was scrubbed from the second season’s scripts, probably in response to accusations that Shadow And Bone romanticizes abusive relationships, but to the obvious detriment of the entire series. Alina’s refusal to even treat with the Darkling for eight whole episodes makes her satisfied expression after becoming a Shadow-Summoner in the final scene…confusing at best, while the Darkling comes across as a downright pitiable villain, practically groveling at Alina’s feet for attention he will never again receive and resorting to empty threats when she ignores him. Where once there was a mutual understanding that came with drawbacks and advantages for the both of them, now there is nothingness – nichevo’ya in Ravkan.

And yet, Shadow And Bone still places great emphasis on the singular nature of Alina’s very literal connection to the Darkling, a bonding in their bones (or rather, the bones of Morozova’s Stag now grafted onto their own) which allows the one to invade the other’s dreams, then their mind, the space behind their eyes, and at last even their physical location. The mechanics behind it are fairly simple, but the show takes its time explaining how the bond is supposed to work and how it can be weaponized, leading to some gripping sequences where the two characters train to do just that. Still, it’s weird that Shadow And Bone has time in its busy schedule to play around with the bond when nearly every other plot-beat in Alina’s story fails to register as she and her supporting characters speed-run through the events of Siege And Storm and Ruin And Rising.

Not for the first time, a big-budget fantasy show has cheated me out of a sea-monster battle I feel I was rightfully owed by reducing the epic confrontation with the fabled Sea-Whip to a mere five minutes of characters thrashing around in knee-high water, losing a fight to a monster the size of an iguana, and my disappointment is immeasurable, but I will begrudgingly acknowledge that the CGI budget was probably better spent elsewhere (not on Alina’s powers, though, that’s for sure). I can also, to a certain extent, understand why Siege And Storm was not adapted separately from its sequel, because the book badly wants to be a suspenseful political thriller when in actuality it’s just…slow-moving and bloated. But to try and adapt the chapters of intricate political intrigue, divorced from the context of the book, is a writing choice I can’t rationalize or forgive. Alina’s fake engagement to Prince Nikolai Lantsov (Patrick Gibson, miscast in a role that called for slightly more charisma than he could offer), the cause for Prince Vasily Lantsov (Edward Davis)’s consternation, is one particularly complex storyline the show has no need for, and is forced to heavily abridge anyway, yet insists on adapting as if it’s vital.

Jessie Mei Li as Alina Starkov in Shadow And Bone, standing in a dimly-lit tunnel with her arms outstretched to either side, staring down the camera. She wears a brown military uniform with gold stripes across the front and her dark hair is tied back. — Alina Starkov | discussingfilm.net

But it’s had to be crammed into the first half of the season, along with what was Siege And Storm‘s climactic battle (which took place at the Little Palace in the book, rather than the Spinning Wheel – perhaps Netflix couldn’t afford to shoot at the Festetics Palace in Hungary again, or it was unavailable, but the Budapest Stock Exchange Palace, a reused location from season one, instead stands in for the Spinning Wheel, which was actually where Nikolai escaped in the book after the Little Palace fell to the Darkling). Ruin And Rising, the trilogy’s final book, is briefly summarized in the last few episodes; Alina, instead of fleeing into the network of tunnels under Ravka and spending months in hiding, escapes with Baghra (Zoë Wanamaker), the Darkling’s mother, immediately after the attack on the Spinning-Wheel and chases after the third of Morozova’s Amplifiers until Baghra quite casually reveals that the Amplifier is Alina’s boyfriend, Malyen Oretsev (Archie Renaux), and that to harness his powers Alina will have to kill him, before she – Baghra, that is, not Alina – sacrifices herself to break the bond between Alina and the Darkling (the last remaining interesting aspect of their relationship). None of these developments are dragged out for the sake of angst, which I suppose I should be grateful for, but fast-forwarding through the story isn’t a great alternative.

Not ten minutes into the finale, the Shadow-Fold is no more, and both Mal and the Darkling are dead – for now, at least; a bumblebee landing on Zoya (Sujaya Dasgupta)’s shoulder while she stands by the Darkling’s body foreshadows the arrival of Sankta Lizabeta, a character from the King Of Scars duology who helps resurrect the Darkling – and everyone is standing around awkwardly in what used to be the Shadow-Fold, saying their goodbyes. Alina refuses to part with Mal forever, though, and forces his soul back into his body using hastily explained dark magic, with one tragic side-effect: he no longer feels anything for her. In the books, this doesn’t happen, and Alina and Mal get the happily-ever-after ending that Mal always dreamed of, where Alina loses her Grisha powers and they retire to a farm and raise lots of children.

Needless to say, many readers felt cheated by that conclusion to Alina’s character arc, so the show has done away with it completely (another correction, but one that I think almost everyone can get behind). Mal decides to become a privateer like Nikolai, traveling the high seas, while Alina becomes Queen of the Grisha, all while still “engaged” to Nikolai. I love that this is the route we’re going with, because I’ve always been a proponent of platonic “Malina”, but again, this is something the show needed to establish earlier, and it just never carved out the time to do so (and on a side-note, everyone’s “ships” are breaking down the middle as a result of this change: Alina is with Nikolai but now reminiscing about the Darkling; Nikolai seems genuinely infatuated with her, and still hasn’t even glanced in Zoya’s direction; Mal is single and apparently ready to mingle).

It’s abundantly clear that the writers’ interest lies with the Crows, on the other side of the Shadow-Fold. No surprise there. The morally ambiguous, eccentrically-dressed (and for the time being at least, predominantly queer) Crows have a certain panache that Shadow And Bone‘s archetypal protagonists lack. Even outside of Ketterdam (the Crows’ home-turf, a precarious stack of casinos, nightclubs, and brothels clamoring over each other for tourists’ money), or separated from their veritable rainbow of a rogues gallery, the Crows are not only the more eye-catching characters but by far the more three-dimensional and real. Some of that can be attributed to the actors and their obvious delight in the roles they were practically born to play – Freddy Carter and Amita Suman, standouts among the ensemble cast, deliver equally phenomenal performances as the criminal mastermind Kaz Brekker and assassin Inej Ghafa, doing Bardugo proud in every scene; those where they act the part of Crows, indecipherable and unfeeling, and those where surprisingly eloquent confessions slip from their lips unbidden in each other’s presence, before they shamefully begin bricking up the gaps in their armor. Even though Inej boldly pushes Kaz to open up in the final episode and he rather hesitantly admits that he wants her to stay in Ketterdam with him, Inej realizes then and there that they still have a long way to go before they’ll ever be comfortable expressing how they feel through physical gestures of affection, and that she doesn’t have all the time in the world – so she chooses to leave the Crows and search for her family, giving Kaz time to consider whether he’s willing to begin healing and become the person she needs him to be.

(left to right) Jack Wolfe as Wylan Van Eck, Danielle Galligan as Nina Zenik, Freddy Carter as Kaz Brekker, and Kit Young as Jesper Fahey in Shadow And Bone, seated around a table in a diner, all turning to look at the camera. Kaz wears a black bowler hat and overcoat, Jesper a maroon jacket, Nina a dainty hat perched on the side of her head, and Wylan a waistcoat. — (left to right) Wylan Van Eck, Nina Zenik, Kaz Brekker and Jesper Fahey | elle.com

A less complicated love blossoms between Jesper Fahey (Kit Young) and Wylan Van Eck (Jack Wolfe), the Crows’ demolition man. In a change from the books that came as a shock to some, Jesper and Wylan are already…intimately acquainted in Shadow And Bone, which means they obviously don’t spend several episodes silently questioning whether the other is interested in them, and Jesper doesn’t ever deliver what is arguably his most iconic line, “Not just girls”, nor will there ever be a chance again. Instead, the conflict in their relationship comes from their inability to get on the same page about what they really want – they’re both looking for passion, but they have completely different definitions of the word. And this change actually worked for me, as did most of the changes to the Crows, because I can tell these changes were made by writers who really love the Crows and understand them, even if they don’t always have the time and means in what is still technically an adaptation of Shadow And Bone to prove it to cynical book purists.

The most controversial change, of course, is the decision to adapt large chunks of Crooked Kingdom – the second book in the Six Of Crows duology – prior to the events of Six Of Crows, and with Kaz’s arch-nemesis Pekka Rollins (Dean Lennox Kelly) taking the place of Jan Van Eck, a character we still haven’t seen in the show (which is fine by me, because that means it’s not too late to cast Richard E. Grant in that role). The raid on Van Eck’s lawyer’s office; the Crows dressing up as Komedie Brute characters to pull off one of their plans; the iconic scene in which Kaz usurps Per Haskell (Tim Plester) as head of the Dregs, and where he pretends to have buried Pekka’s son alive; Inej becoming a pirate…it’s all here. To do any of that again would be redundant. But Inej being kidnapped by Van Eck and fighting Dunyasha, Jesper’s father coming to Ketterdam, the smuggling of Grisha refugees onto the boats with help from Nikolai, the auction for Kuwei Yul-Bo and Kaz’s confrontation with the Council of Tides are all major sequences that have not yet been adapted, so it’s not like there’s nothing left. These scenes will just be very different when they happen onscreen.

I won’t say it’s not occasionally frustrating, because of course it is. I would have just as gladly accepted more original storylines for the Crows in place of a loose adaptation of Crooked Kingdom (and I enjoyed the one written to keep them occupied through the back-half of the season, during which they travel to Shu Han in search of a blade that can cut shadows to help Alina). But as a fan of the Crows, I look at what was done with their characters this season – and how they were set up for the future – and I can’t help but feel excited that the story could potentially veer off in so many different directions now. Because Pekka Rollins is already in Hellgate Prison by season’s end, he’s had the opportunity to befriend the sixth future member of the Crows, Matthias Helvar (Calahan Skogman), while the Fjerdan still hasn’t even had the chance to meet Kaz. Because Inej is off traveling the world with Mal now, she can join the Crows at a different point during the Ice-Court heist and Mal can fill the small but significant role that Nikolai plays in Crooked Kingdom. Because Wylan is already with Jesper, the truth about his identity, when it inevitably comes out, could drive a wedge between them. And of course, Alina still being involved in the story introduces even more variables.

Amita Suman as Inej Ghafa in Shadow And Bone, holding onto the rigging of a ship with one arm. Her hair is tied back in a ponytail, and she wears a blue-green vest and leather pants. — Inej Ghafa | looper.com

Of course, it all depends on whether Shadow And Bone gets renewed for a third season, and at Netflix that is never a guarantee (another reason I think the writers snuck in so many great scenes from later books this season, because they knew better than to assume that Netflix would let the show run long enough to get to those scenes organically). I remain cautiously optimistic that it will be picked up, or rather that the story will continue under the title Six Of Crows. Whether Bardugo book purists will give the writers another chance after so many controversial changes to the source material is a different matter. For the answer to that question, we shall have to wait and see.

Series Rating: 8/10

December 30, 2022

“The Witcher: Blood Origin” – Netflix’s Messy Fantasy Epic Is Getting Bashed For All The Wrong Reasons

**SPOILERS FOR THE WITCHER: BLOOD ORIGIN AHEAD!**

No point in delaying the inevitable, so here’s the harsh truth: I did not particularly care for The Witcher: Blood Origin. The live-action limited-series, set a thousand years before the events of The Witcher in a world populated by Elves, was originally intended to have a full six episodes, each an hour long, in which to tell the story of how Elves, humans, and fearsome monsters from Slavic folklore first collided during the Conjunction of the Spheres and were stranded on The Continent – a tale that could easily have been as epic and stirring as the first trailer promised. Alas! We shall never know if, in its original form, Blood Origin earned those descriptors, because at some point late in production two entire episodes were scrapped at Netflix’s bequest and their contents were hastily scattered across the remaining four. The spilled blood and guts of this once grand series are on full display in the unappealing final product, which has been served up as an appetizer to The Witcher season three.

Sophia Brown as Eile in The Witcher: Blood Origin, riding a white horse — Éile | gamesradar.com

I have to imagine that Blood Origin‘s world, story, and characters were all fully fleshed-out in the episodes we lost forever, and that its commentary on “progressive reformers” who play at being revolutionaries while merely redecorating the inherently oppressive systems in which they remain caged was probably once effective, even timely. Perhaps the few, faint glimmers of originality still just barely visible in these four hectic episodes shone a little brighter before they were buried under layers of muck. Whatever the case, I can regretfully only pass judgement on what I actually watched: four hours of dull exposition, shallow political intrigue (my favorite fantasy trope, which I usually eat up), confessions of love and betrayals both rendered meaningless by the lack of any semblance of build-up, and a grand total of two or three minutes dedicated to the actual Conjunction of the Spheres, shoved in almost as an afterthought. Blood Origin is bad, but what’s worse, it’s incredibly boring.

And absolutely none of that is due to Henry Cavill suddenly leaving The Witcher, yet his name keeps popping up in eye-catching headlines for reviews of Blood Origin, and in a recent flurry of hyperbolic think-pieces predicting the quick death of the franchise. Without Cavill, critics write, The Witcher has nothing going for it. But what of the best-selling novels and critically-acclaimed video games, you ask? Tragically, they’re all meaningless now, without Cavill. And Blood Origin, a self-contained prequel which never starred Cavill in the first place but inconveniently comes hot on the heels of his departure, while his fans are still in mourning? Well, obviously it just shouldn’t exist. After all, what’s the point of anything Witcher-related if it doesn’t feature the second or third-best actor in the main series?

The visceral negative reaction from critics to the very concept of a Cavill-less Witcher prequel is…interesting, given that similar critiques were not leveled against Nightmare Of The Wolf, an animated Witcher prequel released last year that ended up with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes while Blood Origin was stamped with a humiliating 33% rating. I’m not denying that there’s a difference in quality between the two, but the fact that Nightmare Of The Wolf was led by a white man while Blood Origin has a diverse ensemble cast spearheaded by a Black woman cannot be entirely discounted. Professional critics know exactly what they’re doing by attributing Blood Origin‘s faults to the absence of a white male lead; they’re trying to get clicks from the recently riled-up group of embittered book and game purists who believe, without any proof for their claims, that Henry Cavill walked away from The Witcher in protest of changes to the lore – including increased representation.

And sure, Cavill’s name is easy clickbait, but it’s not like Blood Origin doesn’t have a stacked cast of its own. Academy-Award nominee Minnie Driver provides her enchanting voice to the role of The Narrator, a nameless yet powerful Elven sorceress who even appears briefly in both the first and last episodes alongside Joey Batey, returning as the immensely popular bard Jaskier in a small but crucial role that allows him to once again belt out a catchy, profanity-laced song over the closing credits. And among Blood Origin‘s main cast stands the legendary Michelle Yeoh, TIME Magazine‘s 2022 Icon of the Year who stands perfectly positioned to become a first-time Academy Award nominee and winner in the new year for her starring role in the wildly successful sci-fi dramedy Everything Everywhere All At Once.

Michelle Yeoh as Scian in The Witcher: Blood Origin. She is standing in a desolate rocky landscape, wearing a gray-green coat over a gray tunic and holding a sword with both hands, smiling down at it. — Scian | sea.ign.com

Yeoh’s character in the Witcher universe, a darkly humorous Elven warrior named Scían, may not earn her any Emmy Awards buzz (you want to receive recognition as an actor and be in a big-budget escapist fantasy, your best bet is still Westeros), yet nor is she reduced to her skill with a sword. Make no mistake, her fast-paced action scenes are a highlight of each episode, but something that I think casting directors often fail to take into consideration is that Yeoh can be a true team-player until you throw her into a fight opposite a relatively inexperienced combatant: and this is something that comes across clearly in the brief glimpses we catch of Scían off the battlefield, at peace, bickering with her traveling companions or joining in their merrymaking. Heck, I’d even argue that Yeoh ought to be invited to jump onboard the main series (one of the perks of playing an immortal Elf is that you can just do that), if she’d be open to it after the poor reception to Blood Origin.

The rest of the cast is also quite good, but with over a dozen major characters squeezed uncomfortably into these four episodes it’s impossible for them all to make an equally strong impression. Sophia Brown does so, proving particularly convincing as a good-natured bard named Éile whose songs inspire uprisings wherever she goes (shoutout to lyricist and composer Bear McCreary, whose score for the series is beautiful, with heavy Celtic influences), and Mirren Mack brings a unique ethereal swagger to the role of Empress Merwyn, though to be fair she receives considerable support from her breathtaking wardrobe of haute couture gowns (including several pieces designed by Iris van Herpen) and quirky hairstyles, which change from scene to scene. But the breakout star is Francesca Mills as Meldof, a foul-mouthed queer Dwarf whose memorable introductory scene convinced me to binge-watch episodes two through four despite all my reservations about the series.

Unfortunately, you will have to sit and suffer through the entire first episode if you want to meet Meldof, and that is a labor-intensive task I can’t in good conscience recommend to anyone just looking for a fun escapist fantasy to throw on, unless you know going in that you’ll be bombarded with solid blocks of expository dialogue in practically every scene and shouldn’t expect to catch anyone’s names amidst all the very serious discussion of peace treaties and food shortages until somewhere around the forty-minute mark (and that is being extremely optimistic). Look, I’ve enjoyed badly-written fantasy stories in the past. I have even put some out into the world. And that’s why I sat through Blood Origin‘s first episode praying that something so riotously bad would happen that I could at least have fun with the series. I didn’t expect it to be a tough ask of a franchise notable for putting an amusingly gory twist on classic fairytales.

Even in terms of production design and creature design, two areas in which The Witcher has always stood out from the competition, Blood Origin plays it safe, opting for dull familiarity over bold swings of its own (say what you will about The Rings Of Power, it was unmistakably different from Peter Jackson’s The Lord Of The Rings in every possible way, and I appreciate that even more now). The Continent pre-Conjunction of the Spheres, though quite literally shiny and new on the surface, is actually depressingly similar to the Continent of Geralt’s time, as we soon discover. Elves are just humans with pointier ears: they even violently oppress all the same marginalized groups that will still be oppressed a thousand years later, including women, queer people, Dwarves, and just about anyone in a lower social class than their aggressively elitist aristocrats and monarchs, who are also imperialists to boot. Every unique aspect of Elven culture and cosmology that seems worth exploring is brushed aside. Elven magic is loosely-defined and, whenever wielded onscreen, shockingly generic; lightning, fireballs, and the like. Balor’s Beast, the first monster on the Continent, evaporates its victims bloodlessly as part of a general effort to tone down the series’ violence that only reduces the stakes lower than they already were.

Mirren Mack as Empress Merwyn in The Witcher: Blood Origin. She wears a white gown made of butterfly wings. Her face is painted white, and the area around her left eye is painted magenta. She has gold leaves in her hair, which is tied up. — Empress Merwyn | netflixlife.com

I have few kind words left for the series myself, though as always, nothing but support and positivity for those who genuinely adored it – especially those who simply enjoyed the representation, including one of the franchise’s first significant deaf characters and its first queer couple. The online discourse around Blood Origin has left me in this weird place where I feel strangely inspired to defend the series despite everything about it that I did not like, and I suspect it’s because so many purists, Henry Cavill fans, and straight-up bigots have been seizing upon this opportunity to try and bring the whole franchise down. I for one do not want that to happen. I enjoy the main series immensely, and I’m sure I would have enjoyed Blood Origin too, if Netflix hadn’t intervened to ensure that there was nothing left for anyone to enjoy. Hopefully, there is a future for some of these characters in The Witcher moving forward (well, we already know of one or two who will return, but I’m really only referring to Scían, Éile, and Meldof), so we can leave this disappointing chapter in the past while preserving the few parts of it that actually worked.

Series Rating: 4/10

January 13, 2022

“Shadow And Bone” Reveals Four New Cast Members Joining Season Two

**MINOR SPOILERS FOR SHADOW AND BONE SEASON ONE AND SIX OF CROWS AHEAD!**

The crown jewel in Netflix’s hoard of fantasy franchises is The Witcher, the only original series on the streaming platform growing and expanding at such an exponential rate that it is no longer categorized under the fantasy genre, but indeed in its own separate category (albeit still largely padded out by short behind-the-scenes features). But if any other fantasy series has the wealth of never-before-adapted source material and the increasing number of enthusiastic fans necessary to support a franchise, it has to be Shadow And Bone.

Not for the first time, the name “Wylan” made it to the top five trends on Twitter today as Shadow And Bone‘s official social media outlets broke the long-awaited news that Wylan Van Eck, a beloved character in Leigh Bardugo’s Six Of Crows novels, has finally been cast and will appear in Shadow And Bone‘s second season, currently filming in Hungary. That’s pretty extraordinary. What’s even more extraordinary is that a Six Of Crows spin-off series has not yet been officially announced, although rumors have begun to circulate in recent months that one is being developed.

Until that day comes, the Six Of Crows duology and Grisha trilogy, both authored by Leigh Bardugo and set in her fictional Grishaverse, yet vastly disparate in tone and style, will continue to be compressed into one sprawling Netflix series, which borrows the title Shadow And Bone from the first book in her Grisha trilogy. Season one adapted Shadow And Bone in its entirety, intertwined with original storylines for the Six Of Crows characters Kaz Brekker, Inej Ghafa, and Jesper Fahey.

Season two is expected to take the same approach to the second book in the Grisha trilogy, Siege And Storm, with the Crows’ storylines gradually inching closer to the events of their own duology. And thus, it should come as no surprise to fans of the trilogy that the characters of Nikolai Lantsov, Tolya Yul-Bataar, and Tamar Kir-Bataar have also been cast. These three characters are integral to Siege And Storm and to furthering the story of Alina Starkov’s war with the Darkling. It’s hard to imagine that Wylan will have anything to do with Alina, but his initiation into the Crows gang is the catalyst for the daring heist central to Six Of Crows.

So now that you know the basics, let’s break down these characters and casting announcements, shall we? First and foremost, because he’s the one who trended highest and whose casting seems to have universally satisfied most fans, we have Wylan Van Eck – or should I say, Wylan Hendriks. Just as season one ineffectively attempted to conceal the Darkling’s true identity behind the code-name of “General Kirigan”, season two appears to be hiding the truth about Wylan Van Eck’s illustrious parentage; a secret that comes out fairly early in Six Of Crows.

In the books, Wylan adopts the surname “Hendriks” – his mother’s maiden-name – while living on the streets of Ketterdam, after leaving home at a young age and discovering much to his surprise that his birth-name is no longer safe to use. Stalked relentlessly by people who want to kill him, Wylan puts his knowledge of chemistry to good use and becomes a demolitions expert, supplying explosives to Ketterdam’s criminals. Kaz Brekker, seeing through his little charade immediately, enlists him on the Ice Court heist as a bargaining-chip in negotiations with Wylan’s father, the businessman Jan Van Eck.

Jack Wolfe, best known for small roles in The Witcher and Father Brown, will portray Wylan Hendriks – and at once, his wide eyes and prim features make him a perfect match for the character, whom the other Crows underestimate at first due to his seemingly fragile physical build, privileged upbringing, and classical education. By an interesting twist of fate, Wolfe is also set to star in a musical adaptation of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, which aligns with Wylan’s own interest in music, the flute in particular.

Patrick Gibson will take on the challenging but charismatic role of Nikolai Lantsov, the youngest prince in Ravka’s ruling family who aligns himself with Alina Starkov and becomes her love-interest, as well as a chief enemy of the Darkling and of his own despicable parents. Some fans don’t believe that Gibson looks like Nikolai, by which they must mean that he doesn’t physically resemble a seven-letter word printed on a page, because otherwise he fits the descriptors neatly and brings a certain ethereal quality to the character that is very suitable.

More than that, he has plenty of experience. Gibson starred in Netflix’s ambitious sci-fi epic The OA, and has appeared in numerous key roles across films and television, including The White Princess, The Spanish Princess, Before We Die, The Darkest Minds, and Tolkien, the 2019 biopic of the great fantasy author.

After Ben Barnes, however, arguably the biggest name-talent to join Shadow And Bone is Lewis Tan, who will appear in season two as Tolya Yul-Bataar, a Shu Heartrender loyal to Nikolai who becomes one of Alina’s bodyguards and closest companions. Tan has appeared in Iron Fist, Deadpool 2, and Wu Assassins, and last year led the ensemble cast of the Mortal Kombat adaptation that raked in roughly $83 million worldwide and became a massive hit on HBO Max. He’s not an extremely versatile actor, but he’s already got Tolya’s fight-training, good looks, and the crucial smolder.

Between Tolya and his twin sister Tamar Kir-Bataar, I suspect Tamar will do most of the heavy lifting in dramatic scenes. Her character, another Heartrender, is Alina’s close confidante throughout Siege And Storm, and in Shadow And Bone their connection may be even deeper because Alina is explicitly Shu in the adaptation, like the twins. It’s implied in the books that the nation of Shu Han is vaguely inspired by late 19th Century China or Mongolia, and Jessie Mei Li (who plays Alina), Lewis Tan, and Tamar’s actress, podcaster Anna Leong Brophy, are all of Chinese descent.

Incidentally, Tamar and Wylan are both canonically queer characters in the books (and there’s some evidence to suggest that Tolya is aromantic and/or asexual). Seeing as Jesper has already been shown flirting with and seducing men in season one, I have faith that Shadow And Bone won’t leave any of their scenes on the cutting-room floor, as unfortunately happened to several queer characters in The Witcher. Taking Fedyor, Ivan, and Nina Zenik (who is canonically bisexual in the books) into account, Shadow And Bone might just challenge The Wheel Of Time for the honor of TV’s gayest fantasy series.

Speaking of Nina Zenik, both Danielle Galligan and Calahan Skogman (Nina and Matthias, respectively) have been upgraded to series regulars heading into season two. Daisy Head, who plays the conflicted Tailor Genya Safin, has enjoyed the same promotion. Behind the scenes, Shadow And Bone‘s showrunner Eric Heisserer will now be joined by Daegan Fryklind, who was a writer on season one.

With Shadow And Bone season two supposedly aiming for a release date later this year, hopefully it won’t be long before we see Wylan, Nikolai, Tolya and Tamar in action. In the meantime, feel free to share your own thoughts, theories, and opinions, in the comments below!

December 19, 2021

“The Witcher” Returns Stronger Than Ever After Two Years

MINOR SPOILERS FOR THE WITCHER SEASON 2 AHEAD!

With the universe of The Witcher expanding at the rate that is, and Netflix investing in live-action prequels, anime spinoffs, and even a kid’s show (I have…so many questions about how that’s gonna work), there was a lot of pressure on The Witcher‘s second season to validate that level of support from the streaming service. The first season was good, don’t get me wrong, but it takes more than “good” for Netflix to bank so heavily on any of their original franchises – especially one with a large budget and a star whose salary doubled between seasons.

So it’s fortunate indeed that The Witcher season two gleefully one-ups its debut season at every opportunity and on every level. Showrunner Lauren Hissrich has consistently proven in her social media interactions with fans that she’s always willing to listen and engage with valid critiques of her work on season one, and in season two it appears that she and her team have taken great care to evolve in response to those critiques while staying true to her over-arching vision for the series. The process of achieving that delicate balance begins in the writers room.

That’s where it must have been decided to stick to just one timeline from now on, after audiences responded poorly to the gradual reveal in season one that the show had been jumping between three timelines without warning. To be fair, that reveal works better on a rewatch, when you can pick up all the clues that the writers cleverly planted in early episodes, and I hope season two will be equally as rewarding on successive rewatches; because on a first viewing, to someone who hasn’t read the books or played the games, I think it’s the politics that are going to be most challenging to follow in season two.

I encourage anyone new to The Witcher to find themselves a detailed map of The Continent online before settling in to watch season two, because whether you can keep up with which kingdoms are fighting over what, much less play along with all the political intrigue on your own, will largely depend on how fast you can figure out where the kingdom of Redania is in relation to Cintra and where everything is in relation to Nilfgaard. Most fantasy stories on this scale will have some character in-universe unfurl a map to help out the audience – The Witcher is not most fantasy stories, so you’re gonna have to bring your own.

If you can get past that hurdle, the political intrigue of The Witcher is well-executed, satisfyingly complex…and integral to this season and the forward direction of the series. If Yennefer (Anya Chalotra) was your favorite character in season one because you loved exploring the world of the Mages with their secretive individual agendas and allegiances, you’ll find much to enjoy in season two as the Mages clash with new characters like Dijkstra (Graham McTavish), a man with an almost Machiavellian cunning, and old characters with new goals, like the ostracized Nilfgaardian Mage Fringilla Vigo (Mimî M. Khayisa).

In other words, this season of The Witcher was tailor-made for me. Political intrigue is one of my favorite tropes in fantasy, and as much as I love seeing Geralt (Henry Cavill) hunt monsters, especially now that Ciri (Freya Allan) is in on the action with a sword of her own and some very cool magic abilities, I’m always gonna gravitate more towards the cloak-and-dagger stuff, the conspiracies behind closed doors, the plots and the political maneuvering enriched by the addition of a magical element in this case. But rest assured, monster lovers, The Witcher hasn’t forgotten you.

Following complaints that season one was suspiciously light on monsters for a show about a monster-hunter, season two brings a number of new beasts off the pages of Andrzej Sapkowski’s books and into live-action. By the end of the season, The Witcher is just about testing the limits of its expanded budget (without getting into spoilers, there are several basilisks in the finale, each a little less convincing than the last), but you can tell that the show has more money and resources to allocate towards CGI, because the fight-scenes are longer and better-lit, showing off the cool monster designs rather than hiding them in shadows.

There are monsters where there don’t even need to be monsters in season two, which is an improvement over almost no monsters at all. The Bruxa (a bloodsucking shapeshifter) and the Leshy (a malevolent tree) are by far my favorites; both enigmatic, both hauntingly beautiful, and both absolutely terrifying. If there’s a tiebreaker between the two, it’s the Leshy’s relative lack of screentime and personality that pushes the Bruxa into the lead. I’d say it’s impressive that the Leshy made any impact on me at all in just forty-five seconds, but that’s actually very telling of how much I love evil trees.

The Witcher and its monsters are deeply rooted in Slavic (specifically Polish) folklore, and even monsters original to the Netflix series are designed with the same cultural influences in mind. Season two introduces a haggard demoness named Voleth Meir (Ania Marson, a Polish screen legend), nowhere to be found in Sapkowski’s books but immediately familiar to fans of Baba Yaga (me, again). At first she’s just a creepy witch living in a hut in the woods, but then the hut lifts itself up and…well, if you know the Baba Yaga myth, you know what’s underneath.

Voleth Meir is one of several characters in season two linked to events that took place long before The Witcher, which will presumably be explored further in the live-action prequel series, Blood Origin. A sneak-peek at Blood Origin is attached to The Witcher‘s season finale as a mid-credits scene, and with how much worldbuilding there is in regard to Elven bloodlines, the mysterious black monoliths scattered across the Continent, and the fabled Conjunction of the Spheres, I imagine that a lot of fans will want to check that out to see how closely the two series’ are intertwined (also because it stars Michelle Yeoh).

In much the same way that a map is important to understanding the political intrigue elements of The Witcher, I feel that Blood Origin may be essential viewing to figure out what actually happened in this season at all – and there’s a big difference between expecting viewers to look at a map and asking that they watch two series’ (one of which isn’t out yet) just to understand the one they actually came for in the first place. By contrast, Nightmare Of The Wolf is complimentary to The Witcher and fills in some gaps regarding our knowledge of Vesemir (Kim Bodnia), but you needn’t have watched it to understand his character’s actions.

Thankfully, even as its plot occasionally strays towards the past, The Witcher is anchored in the here-and-now by a trinity of exceptional performances from Cavill, Chalotra, and Allan. Throughout season one, Chalotra did most of the dramatic heavy lifting for the trio, it has to be said. And I will argue that even in season two, she’s still given the most compelling material to work with, but the burden of “carrying the show” is more evenly divided between the three when the season opens, Cavill’s Geralt and Allan’s Ciri having already met at the very end of season one.

It’s the first time in her flight across the Continent that Ciri has paused long enough to have a proper conversation with anybody, but Allan is able to quickly and deftly mold a three-dimensional heroine out of her character, who was little more than a plot-device in season one. As she gives voice to her trauma and inner tumult, we explore more facets of her personality beyond the poise and shy politeness hammered into her by her grandmother – including a ceaseless hatred for her family’s enemies that burns within her body, manifesting itself in violence that both terrifies and mesmerizes Ciri.

Disappointingly, the one element of Ciri’s character that didn’t quite make it to the screen in this season is her bisexuality. Several deleted scenes apparently exist of her crushing on the Mage Triss Merigold (Anna Shaffer), along with one that would have confirmed the Witcher Lambert (Paul Bullion) as a bisexual character. That these scenes were removed so methodically is obviously frustrating. As for the bard Jaskier (Joey Batey), his character is more overtly queer-coded than ever, but the only evidence that he harbors any unrequited romantic feelings for Geralt is one confusingly emotional break-up song about the Witcher.

Deprived of his muse, however, it appears that the bard has lost his touch for clever, catchy songwriting. The break-up song, titled “Burn”, disappoints immensely and is even ridiculed in-universe by some of Jaskier’s audience. It’s certainly not a worthy successor to “Toss A Coin To Your Witcher”, Jaskier’s stirring hymn to Geralt that became a smash hit in real-life and on the Continent, where a star-struck fan even boldly approaches Jaskier with his extremely meta criticisms of the bard’s other work, including one song with too many “different timelines”.

It would certainly have been ironic if The Witcher‘s second season had continued the analogy by falling as flat as Jaskier’s new songs. But happily, this is one series that just keeps getting better across the board, and I’m very excited to see whether season three can raise the bar still further.

Series Rating: 8.5/10