My experiences with Netflix's fantasy output has been mixed, for every "The Witcher" there's a couple of "Cursed" or "The Irregulars". "Shadow and Bone" I rather enjoyed. I knew nothing at all going in, having never read the books but after a bit of confusion with the first couple of episodes, particularly geography wise, it settled down into a story that I was invested in, with characters I enjoyed.
The country of Ravka is split in two by "The fold" an area of dark magic and literally darkness, that contains creatures called Volcra. Though commonly mistrusted, and in history hunted, the world contains humans with magical elemental powers called the Grisha. One such Grisha is Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li) who has grown up unaware of her gift as she avoided early detection. Whilst crossing the fold, it becomes apparent that her power is the most unique of all, she is a Sun summoner and if properly harnessed, her power can bring down the fold for ever.
The Alina storyline is actually only one of three that run through this series, two of which interact at regular points. Another see Kaz Brekker, an entrepreneur, set his team on trying to kidnap the Sun Summoner and a third sees Nina, a Grisha taken as a slave by Matthias and his crew, before eventually winning him over and the pair becoming lovers.
It's admittedly all a bit "YA" for someone of my age. The relationships are chaste affairs, with longing looks, there's not much swearing or explicit violence, though the body count does start to mount up. I did like pretty much all the characters though, with Ben Barnes probably being the pick - literally the handsome devil. And that admiration of the characters is what got me through the series, even when the first couple of episodes were baffling dense with introduction of characters, locations and ideas.
It's not going to join any lists of the best shows I've ever seen, but I've seen a lot worse and will be back for the second season.
The country of Ravka is split in two by "The fold" an area of dark magic and literally darkness, that contains creatures called Volcra. Though commonly mistrusted, and in history hunted, the world contains humans with magical elemental powers called the Grisha. One such Grisha is Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li) who has grown up unaware of her gift as she avoided early detection. Whilst crossing the fold, it becomes apparent that her power is the most unique of all, she is a Sun summoner and if properly harnessed, her power can bring down the fold for ever.
The Alina storyline is actually only one of three that run through this series, two of which interact at regular points. Another see Kaz Brekker, an entrepreneur, set his team on trying to kidnap the Sun Summoner and a third sees Nina, a Grisha taken as a slave by Matthias and his crew, before eventually winning him over and the pair becoming lovers.
It's admittedly all a bit "YA" for someone of my age. The relationships are chaste affairs, with longing looks, there's not much swearing or explicit violence, though the body count does start to mount up. I did like pretty much all the characters though, with Ben Barnes probably being the pick - literally the handsome devil. And that admiration of the characters is what got me through the series, even when the first couple of episodes were baffling dense with introduction of characters, locations and ideas.
It's not going to join any lists of the best shows I've ever seen, but I've seen a lot worse and will be back for the second season.