More exhausting than thrilling, Netflix’s latest period fantasy adventure, “Shadow and Bone,” will have a tough time breaking out of the fan base already built by the books on which it is based, written by Leigh Bardugo. It’s a show that never quite figures out its tone or audience, taking itself way too damn seriously to produce thrills while also being shockingly light on actual action. Worst of all, it often falls into a sort of tonal valley between more traditional YA storytelling beats and something aimed at adults like “Game of Thrones.” Clearly, Netflix hopes to tap the fan base for the latter, one that’s looking for a multi-character piece about good and evil across competing plotlines scattered through a magical land and is willing to deal with random powers, deadly creatures, and talk of foretold destinies. There are no dragons in this one, even if it could have used a few.
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The very talented Eric Heisserer (screenwriter of “Arrival”) developed this adaptation of the books from the “Grisha” trilogy titled “Shadow and Bone” and “Six of Crows,” and Lee Toland Krieger directs the premiere (“The Age of Adaline”) These fantasy novels work from the classic structure of a chosen one, a magical boy or girl who can stop an evil force that has divided a world filled with dark forces. As is often the case, the Christ figure here is of low social status, an orphan girl named Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li), who has become a young soldier in a fantasy world torn apart by a magical rift known as The Fold. It’s literally a place of darkness and death that is the domain of deadly creatures. The very existence of it has led to chaos as factions form over how to deal with it, dominated by an elite force known as the Grisha, magical soldiers with unique powers. For example, one can cosmetically change a person’s appearance. Another has persuasive power, not unlike The Force. One guess which orphan girl has the one power to rule them all.
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In a powerful sequence on a ship that’s trying to cross the Fold in the premiere, Alina learns the hard way that she’s the mythical Sun Summoner, a being that has an internal light that can destroy the monsters and save her people. Of course, this makes Alina a hot commodity, someone that the Grisha want to train and use, especially General Kirigan (Ben Barnes) and a crew of dangerous criminals known as the Dregs, led by the always-scowling Kaz Brekker (Freddy Carter). His team, including the charismatic Inej (Amita Suman) and playful Jesper (Kit Young), should be the comic relief of “Shadow and Bone,” while Alina’s old friend from the orphanage named Mal (Archie Renaux) is her strongest love interest, the loyal reminder of who she used to be and someone who stood by her before she was the savior of the world.
After a reasonably strong start, “Shadow and Bone” gets weighed down by so many Netflix Original fantasy show clichés that it sinks into the Fold itself. Lines like “Getting lost can happen even when you know where you are” might fit well into a strictly Young Adult series. Still, the MA rating means this is clearly aimed more at adults, and they’re likely to roll their eyes at the dialogue enough to see what else is streaming on Netflix. And it doesn’t help that the characters and their predicaments become increasingly hard to care about as 3-4 episodes of plot are stretched over 8 hours once again, a recurring problem in the Netflix Original production pipeline. In episode six, when the Dregs are still arguing over what to do with Alina, it’s almost impossible to care.
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The emotional investment isn’t much easier, but it should be noted that Li does do some very heavy lifting to make Alina likable through the clichéd dialogue and plotting. She makes the entire production far more bearable, even if she can’t quite hold it all together. She’s got the kind of easy screen presence that one hopes is put to use in better material. And, to be fair, Barnes clearly knows a thing or two about impassioned fantasy material from his days in the “Chronicles of Narnia” films and on “Westworld.” He’s often the only supporting player, outside of a few beats with Kit Young, who understands that this is the kind of show that should be fun. The most damaging legacy of “Game of Thrones” may be how many imitators choose to mimic its serious tone and forget to provide a good time for their viewers in the process.
The joylessness of “Shadow and Bone” extends to its craft too. Everything is underlit, and the few action scenes are poorly choreographed. Even the special effects look like an afterthought far too often. There’s just a passion that’s missing in this production, a creative answer to why the people involved decided to make it that can be felt in every episode. It too often feels like an obligation, a product of the pipeline that kicks into gear every time a book series reaches a certain sales threshold.
The fleeting moments of entertainment come courtesy of the cast. Li, who apparently burst onto the scene in a London production of “All About Eve” in 2019 and will appear in Edgar Wright’s highly anticipated “Last Night in Soho,” is an obvious future star, carrying her scenes with a blend of charisma and vulnerability that works. Alina becomes the center of the world when her power is revealed, simultaneously wanted, feared, and idolized, and Li deftly conveys that heady mix of adrenalin that comes from knowing one’s life has drastically changed forever with the associated fear that comes with that knowledge.
In the end, “Shadow and Bone” feels like it’s made almost exclusively for fans of the source material. They can probably fill in the gaps of character motives that aren’t well-rendered here and will just enjoy seeing characters they’ve loved across multiple books brought to life. Everyone else will probably find another fantasy world to visit. [C-]