Shadow and Bone (2021-2023)

Israeli-American author Leigh Bardugo created the young adult series Shadow and Bone to give fantasy fans a series unlike anything they'd seen before when she birthed the series in 2012. Netflix brought Shadow and Bone to our television screens in the spring of 2021 under the watchful eye of Arrival (2016) screenwriter Eric Heisserer. Set in the fantastical world of Ravka—based on Russia—the series followed Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li) a teenage orphan who possesses a special power that no one else in her world has ever demonstrated. Hoping to help the burgeoning resistance of freedom fighters known as the Grishka, Alina trains to become the savior of whom the prophecy foretold and so forth and so on. You get the point. The twist here is that the villainous Shadow Fold is a literal manifestation of darkness, the kind that can envelop you and, in a very Borg or zombie-esque way, assimilate victims into the fold to become warriors for them instead. Of course, as she gets further into her training, Alina realizes that harnessing the power she has only ever used in fits and starts—and never to their full potential—is going to be a lot harder than she initially thought! Speaking of harder, you're guaranteed to start firming up your interest in this series in the opening of the third episode when series star Jessie Mei Li is ushered into a fancy bathroom and stripped for a bath, her bare buns visible through the sheer curtain! Not sure about Shadow, but Jessie is definitely giving this show the Bone its title promised!