Shadowhunters

Hello Everyone, 

The first season of Shadowhunter had just finished, and as is based on a book, I´ve thought I could do a review. I´ve been watching the show since January and as a lover of the book series and an honest person I have to say that this is for sure the worst TV show I´ve ever seen. The acting is so poor with few exceptions such as Matthew Daddario, who plays Alec and actually, had been a huge and great surprise. But I will talk about the performances in further detail later on.

First let me talk about the fact that there are so many things that are not in line with the books. I get it is a TV show and probably producers want to do something that will surprise book fans in order them to like the show, but that´s not what happened! I was so pissed about all the changes and mixing stuff from different books. Be careful if you haven´t read The Mortal Instruments book 2 and 3 and if you haven´t watch the show yet. Simon does not turn into a vampire until book 2 and Jocelyn did not wake up until the end of book 3. Is it so hard to respect some main fact to the storyline?

Going with the cinematography of the show I have to say a few things. Demons just vanished after just one stab. If you have read the book you would know that this never happens unless the demon is some kind of minor demon and not even then. And when Shadowhunter kills a vampire the vampire just get on fire and disappear. And don´t even get me started on the super speed on slow motion…

As for the cast I was happy as I was seeing who was being casted and I thought that they look the part. Maybe Katherine McNamara is not as much as Clary as Lily Collins was, but I still like her. Mostly all actor look their parts and even when they don´t bother to put eye contacts on Magnus. Cat eyes are Magnus warlock´s mark and they forgetting about it annoy me so much. And talking about Warlock´s marks, Ragnor is green!

Jace is one of the most important characters and even when I know that Dominic Sherwood can act as Jace thanks Christian Ozera´s Vampire Academy, he did not. It feels like he forgets that an intonation is needed to deliver the lines. For the first half of the season all he did was saying: ˋˋYou are a Shadowhunter Clary´´ and look as he is constipated. To be honest my favorite episode is the 5th one, Moo Shu To Go, and in this episode Jace barely appears. He had no chemistry at all with Katherine McNamara. For me it feels more like a brother-sister relationship, rather than a romantic one. This may be because as Dominic had say in some interviews as he read the first book, he knows where they were heading and that didn´t not help his performance.

Clary in this version is so annoying until the already mention episode 5. Then she is less annoying but sometimes I feel like punching her was the best option, just to shut her up. Kat McNamara performance was fine, however. She deliver her lines correctly is just a problem of the script. I recall Clary to be strong and not that selfish, of course I read the book several years ago, so when I re-read it, I will tell you for sure, but I am positive that even when she want to awake her mum she still care for what others want. And they completely forget about Clary´s ability with the runes and just gave her the power of taking things out of the drawings.

The highlight of Clary has nothing to do with her inner shadowhunter but how her relationship with Simon is portrayed. Alberto Rosende delivers his lines in the funniest possible way and he and Katherine Mcnamara feel like real BFF, which is so nice. However I stop liking Simon as soon as he is turned into a vampire; is just like he became a new Raphael first the hair, then the clothes…

Izzy actress is ok too, I really like Emeraude Toubia, she really look the part. She is just as I imagine Izzy will be. However I do not like some of the lines that they were given to her, and how she is less badass that what she used to be on the books. However I feel like she is one of the few characters that have some kind of similarity with the one in the books.

The character that I like the most is, as I said before, who is portrayed by Mathew Daddario. He is able to portray Alec so faithfully to the books. And he is such a great actor, I remember his performance in Naomi and Eli´s No Kiss List in which he portraits a total different character. Gabriel is a very happy and funny guy and Alec is just the opposite, and he is perfectly able to portrait both of those characters and makes them believable. Besides he is dealing with so much and I think that Alec is the character that grows more through the course of the season.

Regarding to the adults I cannot say that much, except for the fact that I really like Luke. His role in the show is so much different than his role in the books but I really like this change and I really like Isaiah Mustafa as Luke; definitely this change is one of the few that is for the best. And about Hodge I have to confess that I really like this one better than the movie one and that even Jon Cor doesn’t look as I picture I´ve really enjoy his presence on the show. About Jocelyn and the Lightwoods I do not have an opinion cause we have seen so little about them, so I won´t be speaking of them.

And as far as concerns to the new characters I like both Lydia Branwell and Maureen.

For the story line I have to say that I enjoyed somehow, but it was not like when I was reading the books. I remember being so stress and crying and laughing; to sum up I have so many feelings, and usually all at once. While watching the show I was mostly indifferent, not caring about what was going to happen.

The journey through the season is just absurd. The first episode was fine, but the second. On the third episode I am not even bothering on making a comment. The forth was kind of right. And then the fifth was great, I mean, I even thought that after all it wasn´t going to be that bat, but from that point the episodes just went down and down. And then in the last episode were some kind of better with an amazing fight scene.

I am so disappointed, and I was shocked to hear that Freeform picked up a second season. I don´t know if I will watch it maybe the first episode so I can see if they improve, but most likely I won´t spend another minute whatching Shadowhunters, I rather read about them.

What are your thoughts? Leave a coment down below. And don´t forget to suscrive to stay tunned to new post.

See you all soon.