In the new edition of the column “Next Episode”: With “Shadow and Bone” Netflix plunges into the war of succession for the TV series throne.
Let’s be honest: the hype surrounding the US series “Game of Thrones” took on absurd traits towards the end. Public viewing in a jam-packed bar. Eyes and mouths wide open, focused on the screen behind the counter. The fourth from last episode is running. Silence.
What happens then feels as if the crowd was watching the final of the soccer World Cup and at the last minute the ball sailed past the goalkeeper towards Glück after a desperate blow, only to the inside post, but then rolled across the goal line across the other post and from the inside still over the line.
Tension, surprise, hope, horror, catharsis. The bar roars, screeches, pulls its hands up to the ceiling, lies in its arms. Videos on Youtube show all of this.
But at that time, at the end of April 2019, there was no soccer World Cup and consequently there was no winning goal, but the meanest villain of “Game of Thrones” was just defeated. Even if the end of the series was screwed up afterwards, that moment of ecstasy was a special television moment in bars and on sofas worldwide. A gift at a time when everyone is actually looking at this or that, and certainly not at the same time.
Since then, the desperate search for the new holy TV grail has been going on. After the one series, to paraphrase Tolkien, to enslave them, to find them all, to drift into darkness and to bind them forever – or at least for a few dozen episodes.
Pretty much every fantasy book series is presumably being checked for chances of success by streaming services and production companies – or has already been.
Netflix is now plunging into the war of succession for the TV throne with the fantasy adaptation “Shadow and Bone”. The first season with its eight episodes has just been released in Germany. It is based on the book series by the US writer Leigh Bardugo, which has been published since 2012. But is she really a promising series successor to the throne?
Again an unimaginably huge wall piles up, dividing a widely ramified fantasy world. This time the wall is even more ominous than in “Game of Thrones” because it consists of almost impenetrable shadows and is haunted by bloodthirsty flying monsters.
A tsar rules around it. His country, which is divided into east and west, is called Ravka and is based on early modern Russia. The empire becomes a magical world through the Grisha, women and men who can manipulate elements.
The costume game with colorful uniforms, embroidered robes and wide ball gowns sometimes seems as if you had slipped away from the Netflix menu and started “Three Hazelnuts for Cinderella”.
Of course there is also a nasty villain called the Dark One (Ben Barnes) who comes ridden like a mixture of the adored “Game of Thrones” characters Jaime Lannister, Jon Snow and Daario Naharis and not only with the protagonist Alina Starkov ( Jessie Mei Li) should trigger flushing emotions.
It is Alina Starkov, in turn, who finally throws the already unstable empire, which has been shaken by battles and skirmishes, into chaos. And that although the young, shy outsider – in line with the genre – initially turns out to be the chosen one and beaming hope. Until all the characters, factions and skills have been explained half-baked, five episodes pass and your head smokes. In the end, “Shadow and Bone” has three more episodes left for a finale with a little twist and the obligatory cliffhanger.
Nevertheless, the start was promising – as far as the response is concerned. Even if Netflix is known to publish hardly any figures, “Shadow and Bone” was at the top of the currently most popular titles for days. But whether this success leads to the TV throne and can boost the recently stagnating Netflix subscriptions remains to be doubted – not to mention ecstatic bar visits. The search continues
„Shadow and Bone“,
a season on Netflix.
The “Next Episode” column focuses on streaming and TV series. More at fr.de/naechste-sequence
