I felt like they kind of wimped out as far as the damage to Genya's face. Hell, I have more scars on my face than they gave her. Kind of like how they didn't have the Darkling take out Baghra's eyes. It's like they wanted to make sure everyone still looks pretty.

I was so annoyed by the way they handled the six of crows dynamic!

Thank you for sharing your thoughts, I really enjoying hearing your insights. There haven't been a lot of reactions to this yet on KZfaq, and I've been dying to discuss the changes. I'm not a book purist, and I absolutely loved the changes and additions in season 1. But I just don't think good decisions were made in many cases in season 2. I'm trying really, really hard to separate the books from the show, but it's so hard.

Season 1 felt big to me. At times I felt the difference in how they displayed the crows vs everyone else was a tad jarring, but at least consistent (and fitting), but that is the only main odd part for me about season 1 (perhaps aside from them not really showing how much time had passed when Alina was in the little palace, as she could have been there just a few weeks for all I know...). The second season felt a lot smaller, and oddly mushed together. There's so much about the second season I liked, and wanted to *really* like, but instead I was just disappointed, and the ending felt like a school-film budget, where all the non-relevant characters were conveniently dead and not around, then suddenly there again as soon as the enemy was defeated...? And don't ger me started on the missed opportunity of Kaz-Inej, or how shoe-horned-in Wylan & Jesper's relationship feels (despite how good the actors are, and how much I want to love them together...)

I also wondered if David is really still alive (kidnapped or something?) since there was no body. If not, then the Genya/David storyline really did get robbed, which is a travesty. And if he is alive, then they're going to have Genya grieving him twice, which, in my opinion, lessens the impact of her pain later. So kind of a lose/lose.

OMG, when they had Mal become Sturmhond, I also immediately thought of the Dread Pirate Roberts (The Princess Bride is my favorite movie). Such a weird decision.

I can’t tell you how disappointing this season was! Season 1 was amazing! As a person who read the books they missed out so many good plot points, such a wasted opportunity. I’m so mad 😂

The change in the relationship between Wylan and Jesper was the thing that bothered me the most. Between Wylan & Jesper, Alina & Mal, and Kaz & Inej, it's like the showrunners don't understand or appreciate the power of a good slow burn. As you said, it may be because they wanted to get some of these things in just in case they didn't get more seasons, but by doing so, they ruined them for the future. They took the beautiful, sweet, organically-developing relationship for Wylan & Jesper and turned it into, "Oh yeah, that's right, we had sex. And I totally didn't even remember you. Oh well, might as well go ahead and keep having more sex right away, then." I was so disappointed. With Mal & Alina, it was so strange, because the writers seemed so intent on pushing the idea of the two of them as an official couple, and not acknowledging Alina's struggle with being drawn to the Darkling, only to turn around at the end and have Mal & Alina NOT together. So weird. And while they didn't go quite as far with Kaz & Inej, they still included the bathroom scene with the bandages, and had Kaz admit some feelings, instead of letting it be drawn out. And again, all that, but then flipping at the end and having Tolya give that look on the ship like he wants Inej. What the heck was that? Please tell me they're not going to do some stupid love triangle thing. Okay, end of rant.

I didn't notice any sound issues, but I always watch everything with subtitles on, so I can't really tell if I would have had issues making out the dialogue or not.

27:35 The amplifier would not show around Alina's neck, because in the show version last season, after the stag appeared to her on the ship, her body absorbed the antlers and they disappeared.

This review was really interesting, I like that you went into so much depth. As for my impressions about the series: Season 1 intrigued me into reading the trilogy and I ended up reading the SoC and KoS duology as well ( I also loved the Zoya & Nikolai's story and individual arcs the most). Having watched Season 2 the intrigue completely evaporated and I will probably re-read the books to soothe my frustration😂. The way they butchered these stories made them bland and unappealing. Kaz & Inej are the only interesting characters in the adaptation and even their arcs are underdeveloped and lack context. I doubt that there will be another season given the quality of this one. I noticed that it made many book fans angry and it was confusing for non readers. Honestly, I don't want season 3 to avoid seeing what they could chop up RoW into as this is my favourite book, lol. If it does get renewed I hope the writers realise that sometimes less is more and good characters need context.

I think by keeping all these characters around, and setting things up to have all of the stories happening at once in possible future seasons, it's going to feel kind of chaotic, just as it did toward the end of this season.

The day they announced the casting for Wylan, Nikolai, Tamar and Tolya, the one I wasn't sure about was Patrick as Nikolai, but I was willing to keep an open mind and give him a chance. After watching this season, I think he wasn't quite right for the role. He was just okay. He doesn't have the gravitas, the swagger that Nikolai has. In contrast, I think Jack Wolfe was the absolute perfect Wylan.

Yeah, season 2 feels … overstuffed and kind of muddled. Funny that you say the first 4 episodes felt slow, because I think this feeling of slow pacing is paradoxically a function of trying to do too much and burning through too much story too quickly. They introduce so many new characters, places, and lore at once that they are forced to constantly deliver exposition so that audience comprehension can keep up. The exposition doesn’t allow room for the actors to fully explore the characters’ emotions and motives. And the constant intercutting between different locations and characters doesn’t help either. Just as the audience begins to settle into a scene, we cut to something else that is often tonally very different. The effect is jarring. And because the viewer is being shifted from one exposition scene to another exposition scene without sufficient emotional investment in any particular one, the overall impression is one of sluggishness? Idk, I just wanted them to slow down, so that the characters could properly land all the beats of their emotional arcs. A lot of the emotional climaxes and big scenes in books didn’t really land for me in the show, because the setup was done too hastily imo. It feels shallow. I also feel like the seams of their limited budget are starting to show. They’ve expanded the world dramatically, but it doesn’t feel like they have the budget to back up this expansion. While watching, I kept thinking, “Oh, this scene played out the way it did (slightly lackluster), either because a. the writers are looking for a shortcut to get them through more plot faster or b. the writers are trying to save money for production.”

It's too many main character they don't focus on darkling story enough

*spoiler comment* Although I did enjoy the series overall as a sort of fan fare summary...I deeply feel they brutally mishandled every romance, and there was alot of them. The mal and alina romance, ok they went a different route so i dont know where to begin with this. the ending payoff between Kaz and inej was completely butchered and we didn't feel how difficult it was for inej to be close to someone as well. They made it seem like Kaz was just this wounded cold lamb and inej was pining for him to be more and then was just over it because he didn't step up. Also season one they said inej doesn't kill and then the next second she kills someone so I had a hard time with that build up in the show. Like ok she kills now. I hated the Nina and Matthias' story. It was either too slow for the episode it was in or went too fast and felt thrown in. Plus it didn't resolve unlike all the others so it seemed like a weak subplot to go for season 3. It wasnt all bad, I still got hit in the feels for David's passing and the finding of the ring drawing in his coat pocket. It seemed believable and handled well for a side characters romance. Zoyas character is so different I have no idea how they are going to move forward here. Alina still has her powers and is queen so again we have left the book narrative and season 3 with be uncharted territory.

I agree with a lot of your points as a book reader I am really sad with how they handed the material. Some of the scenes came across as lackluster and cheesy. I am most disappointed with the way they handled the six of crows story it felt like it dragged on unnecessarily. For example leaving Matthias in prison for all eight episodes, and how they kind of downplayed the emotional torment of hellgate. Plus why is Pekka suddenly king of the place (makes no sense since most of the prisoners disliked him) The whole crooked kingdom storyline being shoved in and solved so quickly. Inejs lack of backstory and the replacement of the denyuasha, which had such significance to her character! Plus the whole love triangle thing they are trying to create to Toyla. So out of character! I really don’t think we need a SOC spin-off I know they could have included the ice court heist somehow into this season instead of whatever they tried to do with the whole sword arc. I know some people argue that adaptations are supposed to be different from the books, but I feel like the book fans are originally what made the show popular in the first place and want to see the characters done right. I had no problem with the first season and didn’t mind the changes cause they made sense and fixed up the plotting better than the books. This season however, was really disappointing for me at least. Sorry about the rant! Also 100 percent agree with your opinions on the video.

I was really excited about season 2 after watching and being introduced to the Grishaverse in season 1. Season 2 disappointed me in the fact that i felt there where too many main character s and not enough time for each story line. This season also felt strangely rushed and slow at the same time. I have never read the books so I don't' know if this was the pacing vibe from the original story. Also as a Darklina shipper, I wished they did more with that. While they did have some great scenes they I felt there really like different version of the same scene if that makes any sense. Also the ending scene with them felt very rush and made Alina seem very cold blooded. Once again I've never read the books so I don't know if those are direct scenes from the books. Also I agree with the whole sound being weird. In my opinion it felt like it was sort of "background" noise like. where I can hear it but I can't at the same time.

I had no trouble with the sound. That said, I did have problems with the season, even though I did overall, liked it.

The sound was all over the place this season. Can't hear the dialogue and then an explosion hits and the walls are shaking. It's a problem with a lot of modern shows and I've watched some good videos that explain exactly why the sound is mixed this way. Really frustrating though.

The sound issue wasn't just you. My partner and I also felt the balancing was way off between the music and the dialogue.

Season 2 was definitely disappointing. I hope Season 3 happens and they start adapting so many missed scenes from Book 2&3. Darkling's scenes with Alina were disappointing, Wesper happening so fast was disappointing, Kaz & Inej's relationship was nowhere near as intricate as in the books. Tolya and that girl with the bangs was given unnecessary screentime when they could've used that time in order to create more development for Darkling & Alina's arcs. Darkling was basically a coughing puppy moaning for Alina who at the end basically became everything the Darkling was (while she said I will never follow your path). Unnecessary plots mashed up. KoS and RoW should've never been given any plots. Absolutely not. Last episode changed my entire perspective on the show. I still liked it throughout and then boom. Alina instead of losing her powers not only seek dark magic but uses Merzost on Mal (making her the same as Darkling when he used it on Luda and his villain arc started). Holy shit. They really need to create two series now. (they have ruined the crows with Kaz defeating Pekka so early and Inej on Mal's ship instead of her own; Wesper storyline which could've been explored within two seperate seasons to be done completely in 3-4 episodes without any bantering and slow burn romance so whats the point of SoC spinoff if them not breaking up which was never done in the books?) Ugh its frustrating. They should've explored more Book 2&3 with Darkling and Alina as Villain and Hero rather than making this show entirely about the crows and the sequences they gave to the S&B characters were completely altered.

This season was even worse than the Wheel of Time. I am sorry to sound this but I think the show rushing everything like there was no idea how the Crows brought the Neshanyer into Ravka and then beyond the Fold within a day, they just happen to be there suddenly. And yeah every character has to get a lover in the end? And I will hate this show even more now that Kirigan was rushed and killed. He was the only character that seemed right others are meh except Kaz and Pekka Rollins. Tbh the vendetta between Kaz and Pekka is more interesting than Alina and Kirigans. It could have been better. Also the final battle at the castle gate was so so stupid and illogical. Why would grisha not use Fire anyway lol until the Crows show up but that can be ignored. That's my opinion for Season 2. I will give it 6/10 because of Season 1 and the books ofc.

This season was so boring more the same of season 1 even season 1 was better