If there's one major complaint about Shadow and Bone, it's that it tries to do a bit too much. There are too many characters for the series' limited runtime to fully include everyone. It's actually more accurate to say that there are too many good characters, but the point stands. The midpoint of season two really starts to feel the weight of its roster, but it's still having fun.
Episodes three and four come to the screen courtesy of director Laura Belsey, who is previously well-known for her work on shows like The Walking Dead. She also has her name on seven episodes of The CW's Arrow.
After the last episode's extremely unorthodox proposal, Alina is now engaged to be wed. The strategic arrangement introduces a new level of angst to her relationship with Mal. Her new fiancé Prince Nikolai Lantsov announces their arrangement to the world, complete with a planned party. Alina is of two minds about the whole thing. She's clearly still devoted to Mal, but she needs the strategic benefits of the Prince. She's also still dealing with her supposed connection to the Darkling she left behind. While she prepares for a ceremony and adjusts to her new role in the military, a refugee from General Kirigan's Grisha army comes to warn her of the impending danger. Alina's time is now divided between relationship angst, military strategy, and magic training. Her A-Plot has become a bit overstuffed, but it all still works. Depending, of course, on one's fondness for the typical YA romantic structure.
Meanwhile, Kaz Brekker and the Crows reach the culmination of their clever plot. After Nina reconnected with her beloved Matthias in the previous episode, her loyalty becomes questionable. As Inej and Jesper prepare to launch a brilliant act of corporate subterfuge, Kaz finds himself delivered to his mortal enemy. Pekka Rollins has remained a deeply distasteful villain, but as Kaz's scheme comes to fruition, even he commands a bit of sympathy. It's a brutal affair that demonstrates the strengths of every member of the team and of this aspect of the story. It's a truly clever climax that comes at the midpoint of the season, leaving the Crows in a very interesting new position with a few new relationships developing in between. Luckily, the series is happy to tease their next direction before handing them the keys to Ketterdam.
Kirigan makes his attack on the A-Plot in this episode, leaving the C-Plot interestingly bereft of its main figure. Instead, The Darkling's mother and mentor Baghra and the imprisoned tailor Genya struggle for freedom while Kirigan is away. While the first season hid the main antagonist and kept all of his underlings in false double roles, this season plays with both sides as dysfunctional organizations kept together by barely shared goals. Genya's love interest Kostyk has made his way to Alina to offer a warning, but things back at the Darkling's base are less efficient. With even Kirigan's own mother turning away from him, the stage seems set for an epic battle between an empowered villain and everyone else. With an important death near the end of the episode, the stakes have never been higher.
Shadow and Bone has a lot of characters. It has to do a lot of table-setting up front to give the audience a baseline understanding of the world and its rules, but it's also constantly establishing new faces with new goals. While there are no particularly bad characters so far, there are a few one-note or boring figures. Some of them get by on charisma, but others feel like they're adding items to an already-packed schedule. Alina's hero crew has been joined by a pair of Shu twins, one of whom has exactly two character traits, making him a bit dull. Some major characters feel a bit left in the dark. Matthias's struggle in prison is so unrelated to the rest of the events that he's frequently ignored for entire episodes, unfortunately relegating him fully to being Nina's motivation. The show does the best it can and every major player remains an absolute winner, but it's tough to let anything breathe when there's so much going on.
"Every Monstrous Thing" is a great episode of TV, and it demonstrates the many strengths of Shadow and Bone's unique storytelling model. For the most part, there's very little filler, it's just that the show has so much it wants to establish that it sometimes overplays its hand. The series has a ton of things to love, the worst thing about it is its need to keep packing in more. Shadow and Bone has reached several exciting climaxes, meaning that the following four episodes have some rebuilding to do. Either way, the series has been a joy for fans and newcomers alike so far.