Rolling Stone Menu ‘Shadow and Bone’: Fantasy Tropes Done Right Netflix’s series based on the popular YA novels blends elaborate world-building, sweeping romances, mysterious magic, and more for a hearty dose of escapist television By NETFLIX If there’s one lesson Netflix learned from its runaway 2020 hit The Witcher, it’s this: In these troubled times, the viewing public is voracious for escapist fantasy television. And not just any form of the genre — the kind with big-budget effects, deep world-building, tangled romances, and labyrinthine, intertwining plots you can get blissfully lost in. Last month, Shadow and Bone leapt into that void with arms wide open. Eric Heisserer’s series was the second most-watched show in the U.S. the weekend it debuted (behind only Disney+’s