Ever since
Game Of Thrones set the high-water mark for televisual fantasy, the search for the successor to its Iron Throne has been on.
Shadow And Bone, based on Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse novels, isn’t as bold or shocking as George R.R. Martin’s uncompromising epic, but the impact of Westeros is keenly felt all over Netflix’s lavish series. For one, it dispenses fantasy jargon without deigning to explain what any of it means, and its sprawling, complex world feels similarly lived-in and well-formed. And though it doesn’t have a Stark, it
does have a Starkov — our hero Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li), providing a welcome narrative through-line against a wider backdrop of politicking and power-plays.