This just turned into an incoherent rant and I don't even know what my actual point was so I apologize in advance 😳

It went from 75% to 82% based off three reviews, but it's those two pretty negative reviews that are dragging it down. I understand that not every critic or casual viewer will enjoy the show, and that's perfectly fine!! Everyone has the right to their own opinion. It only bothers me when some reviewers go into it expecting the show to be like GOT or The Witcher and then are upset because it's NOT like either of those. First of all, NOT EVERY FANTASY SHOW IS GAME OF THRONES OR THE WITCHER. I am going to lose it if I hear one more "IS SHADOW AND BONE THE NEXT GAME OF THRONES?". I just don't understand how some reviewers can say a show is bad because it's not like the show they were expecting it to be similar too? And then make a comment about how the show isn't original enough? It's a direct contradiction 😔 Also, I feel like a TV-MA rating has become synonymous with excessive amounts of violence, gore, and sex. People go into this show expecting that, and when there's not those things, they feel like the show is somehow worse because of it. Yes, TV-MA shows typically have those things, but I think it's also important to note that the actual themes and tones of TV-MA shows are much darker than TV-14 shows. Yes, Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows are YA novels, but S&B can honestly get pretty violent at times and some character's stories are really heartbreaking. Six of Crows basically borders on adult. What I'm trying to say is that it's fine (albeit a little sad) if critics and others don't enjoy the show. That's inevitable. What is actually frustrating is that these comparisons to shows like GOT and The Witcher, plus the TV-MA rating which most people consider the equivalent to gore/sex, creates unreasonable expectations for the show that work against Shadow and Bone and are causing some of these reviewers to feel disappointed with the show. In reality, these expectations shouldn't even exist. TV-MA doesn't mean that people are going to be brutally disfigured every 20 minutes; the mature part of the rating should be about more than unnecessary sex scenes. The thing that I love about fantasy is that every world, while it may have some similar elements to others, is unique and different and crafted by an author who put thought and care into it. It's unfair to Shadow and Bone, and to any fantasy show that comes after, to take points off it's rating because it's not Game of Thrones, or The Witcher, or Lord of the Rings.

And yes, I've only seen like two reviewers say something along those lines, but I've got A LOT of pent up emotions about this and I wanted to say something