Let’s Play Good Cop, Bad Cop with the New ‘Shadowhunters’ Script Leaks

The Shadowhunters fandom is in a really good place right now. Just last week we learned that Dominic Sherwood will be playing Jace in Shadowhunters, and it sounds like we’ll be getting our Clary this coming week, perhaps even as soon as Monday.

But if you’ve checked out our Twitter profile recently, you’ve noticed we shared a link from our friends at Idris BR (go read their thoughts) discussing their thoughts on the new script that they got a hold of. We’ve read the same script leaks and have some similar not-so-pleasant thoughts and a couple pleasant thoughts (because we’re trying to be optimistic here) about what direction they might be taking this show and how they could adapt it for the better.

The Good: Isabelle and Alec share a nice moment

With that said, there’s a really nice moment between Izzy and Alec where they sort of indirectly discuss his feelings about his sexuality. It’s a nice sibling moment that we hope is the first of many to come for these two as Alec and Isabelle’s relationship is crucial in this series. I cannot urge those in charge to embrace it and not erase it.

That’s one of the great things about television is that there’s ample time to explore more relationships and characters in a 13-hour to 22-hour season in relation to a 2-hour movie. There’s a lot context and a lot of exploration.

The Bad: Isabelle is not a sex toy who doesn’t care about her duty

While we can certainly appreciate how beautiful Isabelle Lightwood is, one of the things that really irked me about her characterization in this script is that all she seems to care about is sleeping around. Yes, Isabelle is sexy — and she knows she’s sexy — but she uses that as a weapon in itself. She’s not someone who is distracted by her relationships with Downworlders and seems to only care about that.

The script also makes mention that Isabelle doesn’t care so much about her Shadowhunter duties. When on patrol, it seems as if Isabelle is disappearing with any Downworlder she can find, and she doesn’t care. This scene was a poor depiction of the strong Isabelle character we’ve grown to love in this series. She’s over sexualized in a way that just screams to me: We need a sexy girl to walk around in this show like that’s her only purpose. It’s not. And I don’t want Isabelle’s characterization sacrificed because they want to sex-up the show.

The Good: Luke and Jocelyn’s relationship is mentioned

One of the things that was severely lacking in the movie was the relationship between Luke and Jocelyn. Basically, there wasn’t nearly enough. That’s why when I heard that they were going to be making Shadowhunters, I got so excited that we’d get ample time to explore this important adult relationship that appeared to get lost in the shuffle during the film. Luke’s police captain encourages Luke to go for it with Jocelyn, basically hinting that they’re already practically married as it is. Please, don’t let this storyline get lost in the shuffle.

The Bad: Luke is a detective

I’m sorry, but how is that going to work? Luke is a werewolf. Does he somehow manage to pull the daytime shift whenever there’s a full moon? This whole thing seems problematic. In the scene, Luke and his captain are looking into another “demonic killing” that’s been sweeping the city, which clearly seems to be related to vampires. Like, I sort of get where they’re trying to go with this — the whole, keep a central character involved via involvement in the police force (it’s prevalent in a ton of shows) — but with Luke’s condition it just doesn’t make sense.

The Bad: Valentine doing his demon bidding in Chernobyl 

In what appears to be the first appearance of Valentine, we find him in Chernobyl doing some experimentations with demons and human blood. There’s mention of a Ravener demon, which we’re all familiar with. But it’s just that Valentine hiding in Chernobyl to do his demon experimentations makes no sense. That’s the first place people would look for suspicious and dangerous activity. At least try to go somewhere less noticeable. It’s small, I know, but it made our “bad” list.

We don’t want to mess with the great energy of the fandom right now, but we want to keep you informed on everything happening with this show. As fellow fans, we want the best adaptation possible with this television show. We want to ensure that the characters we love are respected in their portrayals on paper and that the essence of the story remains intact.

But the good news is that in Hollywood scripts are always changing. There’s always things that are going to be changed up to the last second. And production on Shadowhunters isn’t set to begin until June, so we’d say there’s still plenty of time to voice our opinion and hope that the folks at ABC Family and Ed Decter are listening. I know they want to put out the best product possible and please the fans. So I hope that, if they’re reading this, that they’ll listen to our opinions on how to keep the show as faithful as it possibly can be with a television adaptation.

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