Mal Oretsev Archives - Page 3 Of 4 - The Wide Screen

April 26, 2021April 29, 2021

“Shadow And Bone” Episode 4 Review!

**SPOILERS FOR SHADOW AND BONE AHEAD!**

Although Shadow And Bone never pauses to translate the intimidating subtitle of its fourth episode, Otkazat’sya isn’t merely a full mouthful of syllables – it’s also the Ravkan term for any human not gifted with the Grisha ability to manipulate matter. And thus, it’s only fair that this episode shines the spotlight on the best and worst of regular human behavior: our endurance, our ingenuity, our capacity for heroic deeds and unforgivable cruelty (ahem, Matthias). Even though Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li) is still the main character, her arc in this episode is masterfully counterbalanced by that of her best friend, Mal Oretsev (Archie Renaux), himself an otkazat’sya.

Yes, this is the episode where the earnestness and humility of Renaux’s performance, combined with some excellent screenwriting, actually forced me to like Mal…the same character I swore up and down I’d hate simply because of how awful he was in the books.

It’s not even that Mal shares equal screentime with Alina, because he doesn’t – but as The Darkling (Ben Barnes) bends his will and effort toward seducing Alina and wrapping her ever more tightly around his finger, who Mal is and what he represents takes clearer shape in both her mind and ours’. The episode does a good job of leading Alina to the reasonable conclusion that Mal has abandoned her, without losing her any audience sympathy in the process even though we can see for ourselves that Mal has been fighting to get back to her in any way he can, and that he would never have intended to hold back her power because he never feared her strength – an impactful deviation from the books.

Mal, in fact, spends the entire episode tracking down the legendary beast known as Morozova’s Stag – a living Amplifier, which can dramatically enhance and focus the power of any Grisha who kills it and possesses its impressive rack of antlers. Shadow And Bone could perhaps have done a better job of portraying Alina’s lifelong spiritual connection to the Stag (it pops up in her dreams and childhood drawings a few times), not to mention Mal’s awareness of that fact, but he only ends up on the Stag’s trail after The Darkling issues an order to find the creature and bring it to the Little Palace – where Alina needs all the help she can get to tap into her Sun-Summoner abilities.

The episode works genuinely hard to show the difficulty of Alina’s training – and, importantly, the ease with which she embraces her power any time she’s near The Darkling, himself a living Amplifier (a fact that was revealed to Alina on the previous episode, only increasing her confusion over what’s a result of her emerging feelings for The Darkling, and what’s entirely his doing). Her entire training with Baghra (Zoë Wanamaker) could easily have been summed up into a single montage, but is wisely spread out over the course of the episode, allowing it to play a more integral part in Alina’s character development as Baghra coaxes her power out of her wholly removed from the influence of either The Darkling or Mal, strengthening her confidence.

But as Baghra’s training intensifies, so too does the irresistible force of The Darkling – who strategically opens up to Alina about his own (mostly falsified) lived experience of oppression; even revealing his true name, Aleksander. The “Darklina” scenes in this episode are brilliantly written, though they wouldn’t work half as well as they do if it weren’t for Mei Li and Barnes’ chemistry, and the undercurrent of romantic – and to an even larger degree, purely sexual – tension that ripples beneath the surface of all their interactions.

By the end of the episode, when Alina sneaks from her room to speak with Aleksander in the map room, and the two come dangerously close to sharing a first passionate kiss, you’ll find yourself rooting for Alina to make her move even as you simultaneously acknowledge that Mal is probably a better option in the long run (something I’d never say of book Mal, who is every bit as possessive and emotionally manipulative as The Darkling). Ben Barnes had fascinating things to say about how much of The Darkling’s attraction to Alina was real, but handling the subject in future seasons of Shadow And Bone is sure to be a tricky tightrope act.

And speaking of tightropes (I promise this will make sense)…let’s turn our attention over to the Crows, who represent what I described earlier in this post as the best of human ingenuity. Without Nina Zenik (Danielle Galligan) around to help them infiltrate the Little Palace, Kaz Brekker (Freddy Carter) is forced to quickly devise a backup plan that involves breaking into the Ravkan Archives: a little warmup for the team’s future heists, the biggest and most daring of which are being reserved for later seasons. Kaz’s teammates Jesper Fahey (Kit Young) and Inej Ghafa (Amita Suman) both get to play a critical role in the heist, particularly Inej – who displays the quiet tenacity and flexibility (both literally and figuratively) that makes her so valuable to the team.

Fans of Six Of Crows know that the popular fan-pairing known as “Kanej” is destined for future seasons of Shadow And Bone, but there are unmistakable hints of the bond between Kaz and Inej in the way they share a deep understanding of the other’s exact movements and motions, acquired from a long partnership on the streets of Ketterdam. In Shadow And Bone, much is made out of their differences – particularly Inej’s reliance on her religious faith to help her cope with trauma and Kaz’s lack of faith because of his trauma – but that only helps to make their shared experiences a more powerful link between the two.

Inej isn’t defined by her pain, however, which is very important: and we see more aspects of her character emerge in this episode. When Kaz decides to infiltrate a traveling circus troupe to get into the Little Palace, Inej is called upon to play the part of a high-flying acrobatic dancer – a clever callback, which casual viewers might miss, to her backstory as a tightrope-walker (told you that reference would make sense) in the books. Jesper adds his sharpshooting precision to the mix, and two of the Crows have themselves an act worthy of Ravka’s upcoming winter fête. Kaz, the drama queen that he is, decides to make his own way to the Palace – brilliantly establishing his distaste for any theatrics but his own.

Beginning to edge towards the outskirts of the story and the limits of my interest, Nina Zenik reappears – only briefly, in the grand scheme of things, but the sequence in which she confronts her captor Matthias Helvar (Calahan Skogman) seems excruciatingly long. The worst of human behavior is on display here, as Matthias trots out the vicious (and these days, all too familiar) rhetoric of a bigoted ideology that’s been brainwashed into him. Shadow And Bone seems like it wants to depict Matthias as conflicted and sympathetic, but his and Nina’s subplot never has enough screentime to achieve that.

But if Shadow And Bone pulled off the impossible and made me like Mal Oretsev, I want to give the showrunners (and Skogman too, though I still don’t think his acting is on the same level as many of his costars) the chance to do the same with Matthias Helvar, as difficult as it may be. All the more reason to officially greenlight season two right about now, Netflix…

Episode Rating: 9/10

April 25, 2021

“Shadow And Bone” Episode 3 Review!

**SPOILERS FOR SHADOW AND BONE AHEAD!**

Despite leaving Ketterdam and the home-turf of our Crows behind, Shadow And Bone‘s third episode is the first to feel like it splits focus almost evenly between the series’ two main storylines, and even slightly favors the Crows: whom we catch up with in West Ravka as they race to kidnap Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li) before someone else does and reaps the benefit – while Alina herself basically just wanders around the Little Palace, getting acquainted with various Grisha and having other characters exposit information to her that will be important later in the season.

Alina’s sequences are also nearly identical to the corresponding chunk of Shadow And Bone, the book on which the series is based – which should give you some idea of why that particular book is my least-favorite of Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse novels. They’re far more entertaining in the series thanks to Mei Li’s performance and the lavish production design on display in the Little Palace, but still could have benefited from a little trimming here and there.

Immediately, we start out with Alina narrating a letter to her best friend Mal Oretsev (Archie Renaux), whom she hasn’t had a chance to properly talk to since before entering the Shadow-Fold in episode one. Thankfully, the narration doesn’t completely halt the action in its tracks, but instead bleeds over a montage of Alina being prepared for her audience with the royal family of Ravka by the queen’s small army of servants – helmed by the fan-favorite Tailor, Genya Safin (Daisy Head). Shadow And Bone made the right choice by not explaining every Grisha’s powers upfront – allowing each one to make a big impression when they finally arrive, as Genya so undeniably does with her unique skillset.

Tailors have the ability to subtly alter or “modify” the human body, and Shadow And Bone‘s writing team seem well-aware of how easily that ability could cross over into the realm of problematic beauty standards and social commentary, based on how sparingly and precisely Genya’s powers are actually used – at first only to clean up Alina’s scars and bruises. Her physical appearance is never changed, an arrangement Alina insists upon after one of Genya’s maids makes a racist comment about Alina’s eyes that I feel would be irresponsible of me not to mention, given that some viewers of Asian descent have legitimate problems with this line and other instances of racism against Alina in the series.

As previously noted, the production design is absolutely stunning in all of the Little Palace sequences – many of which were filmed in real-life palaces and museums scattered around Budapest. The distinctive “Tzarpunk” flavor of Bardugo’s novels is on full display during the audience with Ravka’s royal family, whom Alina and The Darkling (Ben Barnes) are called upon to bedazzle with a light-show that’s ultimately more of the pompous pageantry they’re forced to partake in at the king’s behest.

I can’t not mention the fact that, during this sequence, in which Alina is finally welcomed into the ranks of the Grisha and instructed to make herself at home, the camera lingers on her embrace with an unnamed Grisha who is none other than Shadow And Bone‘s author Leigh Bardugo, fittingly appearing in the bright purple kefta of a Grisha Fabrikator – a creator and inventor. As a writer myself, I know it’s every author’s dream to someday experience even a fraction of the joy and wonderment Bardugo must have been feeling in that moment, witnessing her stories and characters come to life so vividly.

Alina’s story then starts to meander a bit. We’re whisked away to Grisha training, which is actually the one thing I’d have liked to see more of – but an embarrassingly quick fight sequence between Alina and Zoya Nazyalensky (Sujaya Dasgupta), her rival for The Darkling’s affection, ends with everyone realizing it would make more sense for Alina to practice using her powers rather than her fists. So she’s transported to another part of the palace grounds, to go meet a mysterious old woman named Baghra (Zoë Wanamaker), who almost immediately dismisses her with a warning to work past her self-doubt and insecurities. Then she goes to dinner, and the Grisha lecture her about not training enough.

Apart from just not being all that interesting, Alina’s story in this episode also interrupts the far more compelling Six Of Crows subplot at extremely awkward moments – leading to some dizzying tonal shifts as we jump from epic Volcra battles in the Shadow-Fold to more slow, uncomfortable, palatial plotting. Landing in West Ravka on the wrong side of the Fold and following the guidance of the suspicious Conductor (Howard Charles), Kaz Brekker (Freddy Carter) and his gang nearly come face-to-face with a character whom they’ll only finally meet in the finale, and who – if the books are to be trusted – will play a major part in all their future storylines: the Irish-accented Grisha Heartrender Nina Zenik (Danielle Galligan), who is supposed to meet them at the edge of the Fold and help them infiltrate the Little Palace.

But although fate intervenes to send Kaz and Nina’s storylines spiraling in opposite directions before they get a chance to meet, we as the audience get to follow both of them simultaneously – as Nina meets and forms a connection with her captor, Fjerdan Matthias Helvar (Calahan Skogman), who will one day become the sixth member of the Crows. Nina’s subplot, unfortunately, is never really given the time and attention it needs to feel essential rather than distracting (and, no offense to Skogman, but I’ve never liked Matthias and Skogman’s performance does nothing to change that) but it’s Nina’s introductory scene – in which she uses her Heartrender abilities to persuade her landlord to let her evade rent for what is clearly not the first time – that gives me hope her role in season two will reflect more of her charismatic personality from the books.

Shadow And Bone, luckily, has fan-favorites to go around: and this is the episode where I think we all fell even deeper in love with Jesper Fahey (Kit Young) – for me, this is the episode where I discovered what I was missing all those times I felt annoyed or even bored by some of his chapters in the Six Of Crows duology. But did Six Of Crows ever feature Jesper effortlessly slaughtering an entire pack of Volcra in the Shadow-Fold while clinging for dear life to an emotional support goat named Milo (unnamed goat)? No, I didn’t think so.

Out of all the fan-favorites introduced or prominently featured in this episode, from Genya to Jesper to Leigh Bardugo herself, it’s Milo who gets the last bleat, because the fandom has already embraced him as an honorary seventh member of the Crows – and honestly, given what we see of our actual sixth member in this episode, I’d be willing to leave open a slot for Milo on the team.

Episode Rating: 8/10

April 24, 2021April 29, 2021

“Shadow And Bone” Episode 2 Review!

**SPOILERS FOR SHADOW AND BONE AHEAD!**

The main selling point of Shadow And Bone for many viewers, Ben Barnes’ portrayal of The Darkling was a casting “secret” so thinly veiled – and so quickly uncovered – that it never should have been a secret in the first place. And not only because it was so obvious to book readers that even casual fans were soon made aware of The Darkling and his villainy, but because, even if I had never read Shadow And Bone nor ever heard the name, I’d still be ten times more likely to check out a new fantasy series starring Ben Barnes as a charismatic villain called The Darkling than a pretend good guy with the ridiculously bland code-name of “General Kirigan”.

The former exudes…confidence, mystery, more than a hint of sexuality. The latter just sounds flat and dull, and undersells Ben Barnes’ ability to make a character named The Darkling appear genuinely morally conflicted – which he does, brilliantly, over the course of Shadow And Bone‘s first season.

All of which is to say, nothing can convince me that the pros of preserving the once-and-done surprise of his villain turn outweigh the cons of losing the chance to extensively market Ben Barnes as a villain. But you’ll have to wait until episode two of Shadow And Bone to properly meet Barnes’ hotly-anticipated (and just plain hot) version of the controversial character, who is something of a lightning rod in the Grishaverse fandom, attracting legions of adoring fans and ardent haters who fight over him on Twitter constantly.

In just this one episode, the popular fan-ship between The Darkling and Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li), dubbed “Darklina” by fans, springboards effortlessly from page to screen thanks to Barnes and Mei Li’s instant chemistry – though the episode is bookended by scenes reminding us of the even stronger bond between Alina and her best friend, Mal Oretsev (Archie Renaux). Part of why Darklina is so popular still in the Grishaverse fandom is because “Malina” was so widely hated, but with Mal actually being an interesting and likable character in the Netflix adaptation, I suspect we’ll start to see an unexpected shift in ship loyalties (even though Malina work better as platonic soulmates than as lovers).

But the Darklina scenes still carry weight – particularly a sequence lifted almost word-for-word from the pages of Shadow And Bone, in which the Grisha are ambushed by Fjerdan witch-hunters from the north while racing back to the Little Palace with Alina, and The Darkling saves Alina’s life in the nick of time by using his most unique and terrifying weapon, The Cut. Best described as a bladed boomerang made of pure shadow, The Cut is capable of slicing people and objects in half; and is only used by The Darkling as a last resort when he’s been backed into a corner (something to keep in mind when he uses it later in the season).

The Cut is very clearly the most powerful weapon in the Grisha’s Second Army (besides Alina herself), but this episode also gives us a good look at the abilities of Grisha Heartrenders, one of whom we saw in the first episode using her power to gently coax information out of an uncooperative prisoner by slowing his heart-rate and loosening his inhibitions. But that was in Ketterdam, and that was a very different circumstance. Here in Ravka, the militarized Heartrenders are used more often to gruesomely stop an opponent’s heart or manipulate their bodies, always accompanied by a sickening sound of bones bending and cracking.

But Shadow And Bone also makes it clear that Grisha aren’t invincible, and that they are in fact quickly becoming obsolete in the face of new technology and weaponry being employed on the front lines by both of Ravka’s hostile neighbors, Fjerda and Shu Han. Even their bulletproof kefta can’t entirely slow down a barrage of machine-gun bullets, and the walls of their Little Palace won’t protect them forever. And that in turn lends The Darkling’s mission to protect the Grisha more urgency, as we see how any fallout from their mistakes leads to Grisha being persecuted and slaughtered worldwide. If they lose their natural advantage over human weapons, they will lose everything they’ve gained in several centuries, all their accumulated privilege and power.

Meanwhile in Ketterdam, it’s nothing quite so noble that motivates Kaz Brekker (Freddy Carter, whose eyebrow game is on point this episode) to begin assembling a team to cross the Shadow-Fold and kidnap Alina himself. He doesn’t care about the Grisha, or the Ravkan political situation – he’s in it for the prize of one-million kruge that awaits anyone who returns to Ketterdam with the Sun-Summoner. But this episode does layer in a personal level to Kaz’s mission, as he’s forced to outwit and outmaneuver his own nemesis, rival gang leader Pekka Rollins (Dean Lennox Kelly). The series never dives into the backstory between Brekker and Rollins, leaving that wealth of material for the second season to explore, but book readers will pick up on a number of hints.

The sequences in Ketterdam are already complex enough, however, with the addition of a subplot for Inej Ghafa (Amita Suman), who has to pay off an existing debt to brothel-owner Tante Heleen (Deirdre Mullins) before she can leave town, by assassinating a smuggler. A bit of double-crossing ensues, we meet a truly wonderful side-character named Poppy (Micah Holmes), who gets far too little screen-time; and Kaz is forced to intervene just before Inej can strike down her target, who turns out to be the one man who could get them through the Fold – the mysterious Conductor, Arken (Howard Charles), an original character created for the series. Charles doesn’t ever make much of an impression in the role, but the character becomes quite significant later in Shadow And Bone as his own ulterior motives are uncovered.

My biggest complaint with this episode, which is the last one in which we spend much time in Ketterdam, is that the canal city doesn’t feel as large or sprawling as it does in the books – most of the action here takes place in a variety of small, smoke-filled rooms and parlors; the city streets are very clearly a single refurbished soundstage; and there’s just one establishing shot of the entire location, at night. But this is still only an introduction to the Six Of Crows story, and I hope (and strongly believe) the whole city and its diverse cast of characters will get more screen-time in season two.

Episode Rating: 8.5/10

April 23, 2021

“Shadow And Bone” Episode 1 Review!

**SPOILERS FOR SHADOW AND BONE AHEAD!**

At long last, the entire first season of Netflix’s Shadow And Bone has landed on the streaming service – but while it would be customary for me to binge-watch the whole season and review it in a single post, I’m trying something a little different in this specific instance. Shadow And Bone is so personal to me that I feel I have to give the adaptation the respect it deserves by reviewing each episode individually, as I would a weekly release.

Don’t be mistaken, however…I have in fact already finished the first season. So these individual episode reviews will take that into account, and as such will include spoilers for the entire series.

If you’ve been reading through my coverage of Netflix’s Shadow And Bone, you’ve probably gathered that, while I’m a huge fan of the Grishaverse – the sprawling fantasy world in which Leigh Bardugo’s original series of novels are set – I’m not quite as devoted to Shadow And Bone itself, Bardugo’s debut novel and the first installment in the three-part saga of Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li), an orphaned girl who discovers she can conjure and control sunlight, giving her the unique ability to save her home-country of Ravka from a wall of liquid, semi-sentient, monster-infested darkness called the Shadow-Fold that divides the nation in two.

In the books, Alina is…well, not all that interesting as a protagonist. She lacks some of the moral complexity and charisma that make Bardugo’s later heroes (several of whom also appear in Netflix’s Shadow And Bone, courtesy of fantasy timeline compression) so instantaneously fun and lovable by comparison. But when the series opens, the first significant change to the story is one made with Alina’s characterization in mind – and it benefits her arc in every way imaginable. In the Netflix adaptation, Jessie Mei Li is playing Alina as a biracial woman, and drawing from her own lived experiences in so doing.

Alina is half-Ravkan, and half-Shu Han, both fictional countries but with the former being very clearly inspired by late 19th-Century Russia, and the latter by East Asia. And with Ravka and Shu Han currently waging a war for control over the trade routes that bypass the southern edge of the Shadow-Fold, Alina’s heritage makes her a target for racism and xenophobia everywhere she goes, long after she is revealed to be the legendary Sun-Summoner and her country’s government starts to take an interest in her – if anything, the pressure on her to firmly “choose” a cultural and racial identity only increases at that point, with some hoping to exploit her Shu Han background as propaganda, and others wanting to erase it entirely.

Although Shadow And Bone‘s method of depicting Alina’s childhood through increasingly sporadic and fragmented flashback sequences does become grating after a while, those golden-tinted scenes are necessary to fully understanding the lifelong bond between Alina and her best friend Mal Oretsev (Archie Renaux), probably one of the most universally hated characters in YA literature. The changes to Mal are very subtle at first, only gradually adding up to create a vastly different version of the character – one who seems genuinely kind and endearing, cute rather than clingy, precious rather than possessive.

Alina and Mal both serve in Ravka’s First Army, which co-exists alongside a Second Army comprised entirely of Grisha – who are best described as advanced alchemists, their powers deriving from the precise manipulation of matter. The first episode doesn’t dive too deeply into the distinctions between the factions of the Grisha, but the heavy focus on Squallers (Grisha who control wind and air-currents) and Inferni (Grisha who control fire) allows for plenty of CGI spectacle, as members of both groups are critical on the perilous journey across the Shadow-Fold. The Squallers, in particular, are well represented by Zoya Nazyalensky (Sujaya Dasgupta), the first Grisha we meet up close in the show.

Almost everything about the passage through the Shadow-Fold is handled brilliantly. While Alina’s motivation for actually being there is a bit unnecessarily complex (she destroys the only maps of West Ravka in the army-camp so that she, as a cartographer, will be dispatched on the journey across the Fold to create a new one), the blend of suspense and horror when she actually gets on the sand-skiff makes for a thrilling sequence – but I think the oppressive darkness could perhaps have been even darker, giving the occasional bursts of Inferni flame and Alina’s sudden explosion of sunlight a more visually striking appearance.

Shadow And Bone has to do double the worldbuilding because it’s also adapting very specific plot-points from another of Leigh Bardugo’s novels, Six Of Crows, each of which have been reconfigured to fit into the new series…though unfortunately, we don’t get to spend as much time among the winding streets and waterways of Ketterdam as I would have liked, only getting a taste of the lush Baroque setting before we’re whisked away to Ravka. That being said, the three main characters from Six Of Crows who have been integrated into the Netflix series are each handled beautifully.

Freddy Carter’s interpretation of the beloved gang-leader and criminal mastermind Kaz Brekker is probably the best live-action adaptation of a character I’ve seen in a long time. I was scared Brekker’s layers upon layers of devious wit wouldn’t translate well to the live-action medium, which is usually all about simplification, but much to my relief that is not the case. And Brekker’s teammates, Inej Ghafa (Amita Suman) and Jesper Fahey (Kit Young), while not extensively used in this episode, still make strong impressions with clever individual storylines. I’m going to be brutally honest here – I was never really into Jesper’s character in the books, so discovering that I actually adored his live-action counterpart was a genuine surprise for me.

Alina’s storyline only properly intersects with that of the Crows at the end of the episode, and from afar (and at the expense of Ravkan cartographer Alexei, who survives past his original death date in the books just to get shot in the head), but the development still seemed to come shockingly early in the season – and it immediately frees up the Crows to do more scheming, less stalling.

The scheme in question: to locate and kidnap the Sun-Summoner herself, Alina Starkov.

Episode Rating: 8/10