In honor of the second season of Shadow and Bone comes out tomorrow at 3 am (as of writing this), I wanted to talk about season one as a page-to-screen adaptation. 

Season One and The Book

Any book lover will tell you that their dream page-to-screen adaptation is one that includes every minute detail of the book. And while I am with them on that, I am a realist and understand that it’s damn near impossible. The only adaptations that I have seen that are so close to the original source are the BBC miniseries of Pride and Prejudice (1995) and the Netflix adaptation of Heartstopper (2022), and even those had some deviations.

—

For me, I only want one that stays true to the book. Little details that I will understand as a reader are also fun, for sure, but as long as the basic plot and themes remain the same, I am generally satisfied.

Shadow and Bone as a series both succeeds and fails spectacularly at this. It is one of my favourite shows of all time, and I got to see characters that have brought me so much comfort and security over the years come to life, and that is an experience I loved. That doesn’t change the ways that it fails in some aspects as an adaptation.

Like I said, this is one of my all time favourite shows. It has beautiful cinematography, the special effects are incredible, and the casting, while too old for the book, is amazing. The story itself, especially one of the plots, stays accurate to the book. It included the little moments for book readers to understand. The characters are true to the book, for the most part. Overall, this overshadows what I am about to say, at least in respect to quality.

If I have ever talked to you about the ways that Ithink you need to read the books, you will know that I, like most everyone, feel that Six of Crows is much better than the original trilogy. It’s to the point that if you read Six of Crows first, Shadow and Bone is not fully worth reading, because it will be a let down. Because of this, most of her fanbase wanted a Six of Crows adaptation more than a Shadow and Bone adaptation, as the characters in the two shows barely interact, and they’re set two years apart, which might not seem a lot, but puts the cast of SoC anywhere from 13 to 16 years old when the events of SaB occurred.

This is why it was a shock that they decided to make a Shadow and Bone based show that also included the Crows. The storylines don’t really blend together easily, or have a substantial link to each other. Six of Crows does not serve as a continuation of Alina’s story in the original trilogy. So, the decision to include the characters from the more popular series was a decision made to attract viewers. While normally spinoff series normally do not succeed to the extent of their predecessors, Six of Crows was an exception to this rule. Failing to include the 6 characters would make people upset because that is the story they preferred. However, starting a show featuring only the Crows would alienate the core fanbase that will create rewatch value and join Netflix only to watch the show. Instead, they chose to try both, creating the original story with the preferred characters woven in. And while I do understand the choice, and appreciate the reasoning behind it, I think it shot itself in the foot.

While at the moment, the decision to include the Crows is more profitable, they have eliminated a chance to make more money down the line. By including the Crows as characters in the first series, they have made it impossible to make a true Six of Crows story like fans have wanted from the beginning. Aspects of the characters will have to completely change because of what happened in the show. The story itself would make no sense because it relies on the Crows being aged 16-18. A lot of the choices they make, and their inexperience, is what makes Six of Crows so successful. The choice to age them up, and to make them (mostly) more experienced will hurt a future heist focused storyline (basically: they do dumb shit and it sometimes works and no one knows why, which is why we love it). The atmosphere and story they have created does negate that. The crows themselves had to be changed as characters to fit into the storyline which is another huge reason people loved the crows.

While they realized that people loved the Crows more than the Grisha characters, they did not account for how much people love the Crows. All the people they thought would “only come for the Crows” would willingly sit through the entirety of Shadow and Bone for even a glimpse at an accurate depiction of the characters.