It was pretty good. The climax in ep 8 could use some work but I wouldn't call it bad either.
With the exception of a couple moments in ep 8 I felt like they did a good job showing us the Grisha magic, how it fits in the world, and the limits it can reach. It's powerful, but technology has drastically reduced it's effectiveness and there are ways to physically prevent magic use. Really well done in that regard.
There is a "persecuted mages" portion to this, which I find rarely stands up to scrutiny, but the show handles it well. The Grisha are persecuted but more from outsiders than their own country. They also seem to live better than the average person by the look of their clothes, the decadence of the Little Palace, and the way they carry themselves.
The casting was pretty good. I found most everyone believable in their roles. I was worried it might be a bit CW-esque with so many young looking folks in lead roles but unlike the CW no one is pretending they're in high school either.
My nitpicks:
- Nina and Matthias' storyline is so tangential to everything else that it was hard to care. You can see where they are going with it but you could remove them from this season and only have one minor plot point to rewrite.
- They needed to do a better job of showing how the geography of the world impacted character motivations. I know they show it at least once but I needed to look up the map online to get a better idea of the political motivations and ramifications of the Fold.
- Seems like those bullet proof outfits would be useful on people other than the Grisha.
- Seems like those Grisha would benefit from carrying a gun or three with them.
- I might need to read the books to understand the Stag better. It felt so... odd. I get why it's important to the story but in world building terms it's so out of left field for me.