Shadowhunters TV Show Review + Thoughts

I'm a huge fan of books. Always have been, ever since I was little and my parents read me Dr. Seuss and Robert Munsch every night before bed. As I got older, my reading taste changed, and now YA is my genre of choice, although I still get excited when I see a new Robert Munsch book on the shelf at Walmart. I don't remember what my first YA book or book series was, and I wish I did, because now that's all I read. I read The Mortal Instruments one day at the recommendation of a couple of my friends and the Internet, and I loved them a lot. Needless to say, they are one of those staple YA series that you have to read if you're just getting into the YA scene, or have already read and loved if you've been around for a while. Cassandra Clare is also one of the staple authors, she's like a goddess. She's been around forever and everyone who reads has read her books and loves her books, and so there are a lot of people that care very deeply about said books. Enter the tide of the YA book to movie adaptations. City of Bones is one of the first to get picked up, because someone in Hollywood noticed that The Hunger Games was doing exceptionally well and thought that the trend might continue through to other books. So, they made the movie, and it was not great. It was one of those ones that was just.. not great. They never ended up making another one, and that was devastating to many people, although I think many were also relieved that they weren't going to ruin anymore of their favourite books, myself included.

Then the news came that it was being picked up by a TV network - ABC Family, Freeform, whatever it's called - and people got excited again. Maybe this one would be good. The casting came out, and the physical appearance of the actors and actresses - on point, at least in my opinion. I think everyone looks decently like their character, enough that I can look at them and tell who they are without knowing who they play. So that, I approve of. I must say before I continue though, that this book series is close to my heart, but in no means is it something that I would kill someone over if they ruined it. I also recognize the importance of changing things and leaving things out because that makes the plot flow better on screen with budgeting and such. I had high hopes but low expectations, like everyone else, that this show was going to be good. I was pleasantly surprised, as it was better than I thought it was going to be, and I think that it has real potential to be a good show. 

However, I also think that we might need some new script writers, because although they used book lines, which is the biggest deal, like, ever, they also wrote some lines that made me think "Really. Really? That just came out of their mouth?", lines like the one that Isabelle says when Clary wakes up. She says, and I quote, "I've never seen Jace so curious about a mundane, or distracted, like you saw earlier distractions are dangerous in our line of work". What. The sentence fluency is just terrible and it doesn't actually make any sense. Everything that Isabelle is saying in that sentence is fine, it's just that the way she said it does not flow nicely at all and sounds a little bit ridiculous. I don't know if they wrote the line like that for her or if she said it like that based on what they did write, but they should not have used that take since it does not make any sense. If she had said something like "I've never seen Jace so curious or distracted by a mundane, and like you saw earlier, distractions are dangerous in our line of work.". See? Just change around and add a few words and everything makes sense again. I feel like it makes the actors look like they aren't as good as they actually are or could be because they have to say these cheesy lines that aren't that great. Specifically, I feel like Dom and Kat, who play Jace and Clary, respectively, get a lot of these lines, and I know that they're both wonderful actors who can play wonderful characters, but when you give them shit lines, well, that leaves a lot to be desired. This is quite unfortunate, considering Clary is the main character and Jace is her love interest, making him also something of a main character. I also don't really know how I feel about their chemistry yet, but I feel like there's something there. Granted, they only had one actual conversation that lasted two minutes, so I can't say much about it yet.

I also really don't like how the Institute has a lot of people in it and how high-tech they made it look and seem. The tech kind of makes sense considering the day and age that we live in, I just wish it wasn't so prominent and that there were more dusty old tomes of knowledge lying around. I also wish that there wasn't a boxing ring in the middle of the room. I understand that they have to save money and create as few sets as possible, so cramming it all in one giant room makes the most sense, but I wish that they had taken the time to at least make it look like they were a couple separate rooms instead of one giant room full of stuff. 

I do, however, think that everyone's acting is really good for a first episode, especially based on how the lines are. One thing that will make me laugh forever is the slowness at which Dom delivers his lines. There's that one part where Jace bumps into Clary and she turns to him and says "Hey, watch where you're going" and he turns around, walks back to her, stares at her for a few seconds before he responds with "You can see me?" and she says "Yeah, that's kinda the point, but clearly you didn't see me" and he says in the most aggressive way ever, "You have the Sight?" to which she is obviously endlessly confused because she has no idea what that means. That's the thing - I get that the point is to be confusing to intrigue everyone as to what the hell he's actually talking about and want to stay to find out more, but there is literally no context to that statement whatsoever. By that point, people will have figured out "Hey, they're mysterious and there's something weird about them" but the Sight is such a specific term that no one would really know what it means.

My favourite relationship by far is Isabelle and Alec's sibling relationship. That one part where she said she loved him and he returned the sentiment was the cutest thing I've ever seen, seriously. I think all the relationships are actually pretty amazing and make me freak out, like, a lot because they make me so happy. Like I said before, Jace and Clary could definitely use some work, but there hasn't really been much time for them to have chemistry and stuff like that. On the other hand, there's this one three second clip out there of Alec and Magnus meeting for the first time, and seriously, the stupid smile Alec gets on his face when he sees Magnus for the first time makes me jump up and down and squeal in excitement every single time, and the stupid thing is only three seconds. So when I see that scene for real, I'm going to flip out so bad. That episode entitled "Malec" better just star the two of them being their cute selves together for the entire thing or I am going to be very upset.

A short summary of the other things I like: Simon, and the way Alberto plays him, that one shot of Magnus and his crew at Pandemonium, the style of art that Clary draws on Simon and Maureen's van, and the mechanics of the seraph blades - the way they look, the way they sound and the golden sparks that shoot out when they kill demons, because I think those look really cute. And, yes, it does bother me that Maureen is not the crazy psycho vampire chick she's supposed to be, but maybe someone will change her and she'll lose all her inhibitions towards Simon? Anything can happen, people.

I'm way too excited for next week to see where the show leads, and I hope that everything turns out well and it's a good show. Fingers crossed.