How did Shadow and Bone season 2 mess up its ships so badly?
Shadow and Bone season 2 starts with a bang — or to be more accurate, with a kiss. Mal and Alina finally lock lips, paying off the sexual tension the show built toward after a season of Mal tracking and simping for his best friend. Though it took a corny pickup line to get the two together, I still rewound and watched the moment again. Finally the two figured it out.
I had been waiting for this moment: Season 1 established Mal and Alina’s deep friendship and loyalty to one another. And their romance, in season 2, acts as a grounding and familiar force contrasted against the magical — and often violent — storytelling that dominates the TV adaptation of the Grishaverse. I’m also just a sap for young adult and new adult romances, where emotions are heightened and characters are learning about themselves through the process of falling for someone else. Set these romances against the backdrop of intense action — young people who are fighting for their lives and their countries — and it’s a pressure cooker for entertaining drama.
But Shadow and Bone season 2 promptly loses the thread in its portrayals of romance, by juggling so many romantic arcs that none of them really get to shine, let alone truly burn. This is largely because it is adapting so many source texts — Siege and Storm, Ruin and Rising, plus some novella content for the Six of Crows crew. Packed in there are so many couples: Jesper and Wylan, Nina and Matthias, Genya and David, of course Mal and Alina (and perhaps briefly Alina and Nikolai), and Kaz and Inej, though their relationship is less straightforward than the others. The adaptation makes some baffling choices around the way it compresses its romantic plots to fit into one season of television.
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