![]() Alina doesn't learn about his age until after he's seduced her, which is, you know, gross. In the first novel, the Darkling appears to be Alina's age but is actually significantly older. Shadow and Bone's script works hard to give Kirigan the benefit of being a bad guy who's actually kind of right sometimes, which keys flawlessly into Barnes' performance as an expert manipulator who uses all of his gifts to achieve his ends.Ĭasting Barnes, who is visibly older than most of the other cast members and especially Jessie Mei Li as Alina, is another clever adaptational shift that makes his role in the story clearer than it was in Bardugo's book. Barnes is known for cornering the market on complex villains who are so unbelievably good looking their faces are essentially superpowers (see: Dorian Grey and The Punisher), and Kirigan is the apex of the archetype. The one exception in the cast of unknowns is Ben Barnes, whose casting as General Kirigan (aka the Darkling) is a long-held Tumblr dream come true. DAVID APPLEBY/NETFLIX © 2021 Credit: DAVID APPLEBY / NETFLIX SHADOW AND BONE (L to R) KIT YOUNG as JESPER FAHEY, AMITA SUMAN as INEJ GHAFA and FREDDY CARTER as KAZ BREKKER of SHADOW AND BONE Cr. ![]() Freddy Carter (who plays Kaz Brekker), Amita Suman (Inej Ghafa), and Archie Renaux (Mal Oretsev) are similarly less than household names, but this casting department's eye for spotting diamonds in the rough should catapult all of them to stardom. Kit Young is another standout as gangster Jesper Fahey, whose skills in sharpshooting and yanking everyone else's chains are equally prodigious. Jessie Mei Li stars as Alina Starkov and plays Alina's journey from a humble soldier to a self-possessed savior with pitch-perfect YA heroine sensibilities. One of this show's best and clearly deliberate choices is to pack the cast almost entirely with new faces. With the exception of a few exposition dumps, the script shines too, and its attention to delineating the cultures that form the geopolitical heart of the Grishaverse makes the show more immersive than those that handwave the hows and whys of their worlds to get to the plot faster. The production design is flawless, and between the costumes, hairstyling, sets, and CGI there's never a moment where the Grishaverse doesn't feel real and lived-in. ![]() Shadow and Bone succeeds as a fantasy show by rooting its story in an amazingly well-realized world that looks incredible and expensive as hell. Also, some cool kids are doing a heist and a couple of hot people are on a boat. When a young woman named Alina Starkov discovers she not only is a Grisha, but one with a mythical power that could theoretically destroy the Fold, she is ripped from her friends and thrown into the dangerously political and brutally magical world of the Grisha. The Fold was created long ago by a Grisha - a magic user in their world - but in the hundreds of years since it appeared, the Grisha have become a respected part of Ravka's military. In Shadow and Bone, the country of Ravka is cut in half by a monster-infested region of pure darkness called the Fold. Shadow and Bone is the latest in Netflix's fantasy adaptations game, and it's a fascinating example of how to update a 9-year-old book in necessary ways to create a TV show that feels like it was written yesterday. For book readers, there's interest in how the show will make the characters and locations from the original text come to life those who haven't read the book are interested in finding out what all the fuss is about. : When I got older, I learned that darkness is a place, and it's full of monsters.Fantasy adaptations are alluring for those who've read the books and those who haven't for different reasons.When I got older, I learned that darkness is a place, and it's full of monsters. When I was young, I was afraid of the dark. That there are no others like us and that there never will be. She'll realize that she has only one equal. And one day, maybe a year from now, maybe fifty. Meanwhile, you will grow old, your hair will gray, and she will remain ageless, like me. Alina may well take years to forgive me, but I can wait. Take away my shadows, and I still have something that you don't. The Darkling: You are a child, and she is Grisha. Mal: Oh, you have no chance, shadow man, because I'm the one she chose. All these years, you never truly appreciated who she is.
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