A new series has begun on Netflix - Shadow and Bone. It is based on a set of novels by Leigh Bardugo concerning a kind of alternate 1920s Russian Empire that is beset by enemies on all sides, is battling a breakaway republic, and, oh yeah, has a giant, magical black cloud filled with deadly monsters in the middle of its territory!
I have only watched a few episodes, so I literally can not spoilerize you. So please feel free to read on without worrying I will ruin it for you!
According to a friend who read the books, (a) this is awesome news that there is a series because it is super interesting, (b) they did extensive work with the author on blending two books with different timelines into one narrative so that we don't start Season 2 with a whole new set of characters to meet for example, and (c) some of the actors are not hot enough for the characters they play. I can't vouch for this last critique but apparently in the book several characters are described as "the most beautiful ever" or "so beautiful the Queen gets jealous" or "much hot" - I don't know. They are plenty cute for me (do I have low standards or something here? haha).
The tale concerns our heroine, Alina Starkov, who was raised in an orphanage in a rural area of this parallel version of Imperial Russia. She grew up with her BFF Malyen (Mal) Oretsev, who likes to punch people. There are many, many scenes of them hanging out in a field together almost holding hands, holding hands, almost holding hands, stopping holding hands etc. so you know there is some unrequited love of considerable depth there. Alina is part "Shu" which is a term that seems to refer to the parallel version of China. There is pretty rampant racism against the Shu and Alina receives poor treatment for her ethnic heritage. Mal has been her lifelong friend, and their bond may have been strengthened by the mistreatment they both received.
[That doesn't look good...]
By the way, did I mention that Alina also is the most powerful legendary sorceress ever and the entire Empire depends on her to destroy the Fold (that monster-filled black cloud) and save the Empire? Yeah! She is a Grisha (their name for wizard/sorceress). As someone who was literally abandoned by her family and society, she is not exactly in the right spot emotionally to deal with this news, but she is fierce and determined, and accepts her role and its difficult training pretty well.
Alina and Mal encounter some consequential characters, such as the Black General - also a wizard, the most powerful in the Empire, and Zoya who looks set to be the main rival for Alina (and is definitely pretty but is the main person who my friend says is not as hot as the book promised...bitter much? haha). Their narrative arc seems to the main plot of one of the books.
There is a second group of characters, known as The Crows, who have a narrative arc that seems taken from a totally different book that happened at a different time than Alina's initial story. The screenplay does a nice job of setting them on converging paths, though, and if my friend didn't keep yelling about how not hot enough the actors are or how "that hasn't happened yet" I wouldn't have a clue.
[Get your umbrella!]
The variations of magic, the inventive titles for things (other than The Fold, which makes no sense), the cool steampunk visuals, the inventive idea of setting something in a parallel Russian Empire rather than the same old Ye Olde England of Magicke all add up for plenty of entertainment.
However, this series does follow the super weird "everyone vaguely European automatically has an English accent" conceit of so many fantasy and historical fiction shows. Why would the parallel Russians sound English, as well as the parallel Germans, but then the parallel Vikings sound German? I guess everyone who is not American just sounds English. Who knew?
The other criticism I will make of this series is that there are many, many, many, many, many, many, many flashbacks to childhood life in the orphanage. Many! Many, many! It is distracting. Do we really need to see a scene of the child version of Alina looking at a book to believe Alina when she says "I like books" or something like that?
Aside from that, I am excited for this series! It has a diverse, talented cast, cool special effects, generally good acting, cool costumes, and even some nifty acrobatics.
Check it out! Unless you have an allergy to pointlessly making everyone talk with an English accent or have incredibly high standards for how hot people have to be, I think you will really enjoy this series! Like me! (and even my friend!)
[Hot enough? Only YOU can decide! Tell my friend if she's wrong or right! :)]