‘Shadowhunters’ 1×10 Review: ‘This World Inverted’
SHADOW HUNTERS - "This World Inverted" - Clary finds herself is a strange reality in “This World Inverted,” an all-new episode of “Shadowhunters,” airing TUESDAY, MARCH 15 (9:00 – 10:00 p.m., EST) on Freeform, the new name for ABC Family. (Freeform/John Medland)
KATHERINE MCNAMARA, ALBERTO ROSENDE
Shadowhunters went Through the Looking Glass in this week’s episode called “This World Inverted” and literally took Clary to an alternate universe while more trouble was ahead for Izzy as well as Alec and Jace.
Here’s the rundown (SPOILERS AHEAD)…
Welcome to an Alternate Universe
Last week’s episode ended with Meliorn telling Clary that he can help her find Valentine so in “This World Inverted”, Clary learns more about the Portal shard that was given to her. It turns out that it’s from another dimension that she must enter to find the Portal it belongs to to actually get to Valentine.
Meliorn owes Clary a life debt so he uses some Seelie magic to open the ‘door’ to this other universe. The catch? She has to go alone and she mustn’t let herself get consumed by the other Clary. Another thing that isn’t so great about the world Clary is about to enter: Shadowhunters no longer exist. Granted, demons are also gone and Downworlders have adapted, but once Clary steps through the magical door, she’ll be on an one woman mission without any angelic help.
Clary gives Jace the Mortal Cup tarot card and off she goes into another dimension. Suddenly she’s in the Morgenstern kitchen where Valentine, who looks like a regular dad without any megalomaniac tendencies, just wants to have a quiet breakfast with his two favourite ladies. Clary grabs a butter knife and yells “where’s my mother?” at him. Good old Val thinks she’s cosplaying and once Jocelyn aka Valentine’s ‘honey’ shows up, we witness a very interesting Morgenstern family breakfast. We find out that Val is throwing a Mad Hatter party and that he wants to meet Clary’s new boyfriend. This family idyll is interrupted by a ridiculously bad commercial that advertises Magnus Bane’s tarot card & psychic readings. Clary knows where she needs to go to get help finding that Portal.
On her way to Magnus’s place, Clary meets the rest of the gang who are very different: Simon’s a normal nerd with no desire for blood, Izzy is Simon’s girlfriend (YAY) and Star Wars fan. Alec looks like he is on the way to a golf course and he apparently planned the Valentine’s/Institute’s anniversary party which has an ‘AH-mazing’ theme and will happen tonight. Jace is also around and he’s been transformed into a barista who works at Java Jace. 😀 He’s actually Clary’s boyfriend so we do get some AU Clace kisses before she remembers that she’s on her way to Magnus.
Back in the real world, Meliorn and Jace are about to face a demon attack. The demons managed to get into the Seelie realm due to the open door to the other dimension. After an insulting quip, Jace prepares for a fight.
Clary has finally found Magnus, who has the fashion sense of a senior citizen, and she gets a tarot card reading that’s all about love. Clary is distracted once again, but this changes when Chairman Meow shows up. Real life Magnus Bane doesn’t have a cat so Clary remembers her mission and confesses why she’s come. At first Magnus doesn’t believe that he’s really talking to a Shadowhunter, but stubborn Clary quickly changes his mind. They wake up Magnus’s dormant warlock magic and work together to find the important Portal. Thanks to Magnus’s magic they realise that the Portal is in the Institute – hooray! This should be easy. Clary gets a 911 text from Izzy so she tell Magnus to meet her at the party at 7 p.m. before hurrying off.
Izzy’s emergency is a black eye that she got in her kickboxing class. She is freaking out because of the party that night, but Clary covers the bruises with make-up so all is well again. She also asks her friend to put Magnus on the guest list.
The party is finally happening and the gang is dressed up to the nines. Jocelyn and Valentine are completely lovey-dovey while dancing, Jace is nervous to meet Mr Morgenstern and our Clary is distracted because she’s waiting for Magnus’s arrival. Jace still manages to convince his love to dance with him.
Real world Jace has much bigger fish to fry since he’s fighting some demons and also has to deal with being tracked through the parabatai bond which is very painful. He gets knocked down and a demon manages to follow Clary into the alternate dimension – uh-oh.
There, Magnus didn’t actually end up being on the guest list, but Alec notices him and takes care of it. He hits on Magnus, but is turned down because the warlock needs to help Clary who is still dancing with Jace.
Simon and Clary have a quick chat – he wants to ask Izzy to move in with him – before Magnus finds Clary. At first she doesn’t recognise him, but after he shows her his magic, she remembers and they wander off to get to the Portal. Too bad Jace sees and follows them. He isn’t happy that Clary is with another man so he breaks up with her! He storms off but the demon that followed Clary into this alternate dimension jumps out of nowhere. Before anything bad can happen, the demon is temporarily taken down by Clary. You go girl!
Back in the Seelie realm, Jace is awake again and follows Clary and the demon. He takes over AU Jace, who is very freaked out by the demon. Once Jace is really Jace, the demon is getting his/her butt kicked by the Shadowhunters, but still manages to stab Jace with a venom-filled tentacle. This is really bad because there’s no stele around to heal Jace. He insists on finding the Portal to get to Valentine. Magnus finds the Portal and after using Clary’s Portal shard as the key, opens it to send Clary and Jace away.
They finally end up in Valentine’s lab in Chernobyl and although Jace activates his healing rune it’s not working 100%. He soldiers on and they explore the lair. Jace realises that Valentine is making an army. That’s not the biggest shock, though, because the pair hears a noise coming from a locker and when Jace opens it, he finds a man locked up inside. Jace is completely shocked and almost tears up because the man turns out to be … his father!
At the Institute
At the Institute things are tense between Isabelle and Alec. Izzy is clearly on Team Clary & Jace whereas Alec is on Team Lydia & the Clave. Lydia is interrogating one of the Shadowhunters who promptly tells her that the person who attacked him in last week’s episode must have been a Shadowhunter. Lydia looks at Izzy and Alec and we know that this won’t bode well.
She apologises to Alec and then arrests Isabelle for high treason. Yep, you read that right. The next bombshell that is dropped: if Izzy is found guilty, she will be stripped off her runes and be forced to live as a mundane.
Later, ‘Love birds’ Alec and Lydia talk about Izzy’s arrest. Alec confesses that Clary, Jace, Izzy and some Downworlders were all involved in setting Meliorn free and while he gets that they are guilty, he still wants to save his sister. He reveals that he does have the Mortal Cup which he wants to trade for Izzy’s freedom. Yeah, too bad Jace stole the cup in last week’s episode. Alec quickly realises this and he’s pissed.
He confronts Isabelle with what he has learnt and he needs Jace and the Cup to return immediately to save his sister. Jace is still in the Seelie realm, though, so he can’t be tracked. The only way to find him is through the parabatai bond which could have serious consequences. Worst case scenario: the parabatai bond between Alec and Jace gets destroyed. Alec no longer cares because his friends has already broken his trust so he is willing to risk everything. Izzy is shocked and so are Lydia and Hodge. The latter is stunned when Alec says “Jace is dead to me”, but he nevertheless helps by drawing a rune over Alec’s parabatai rune to find Jace. The tracking works, but weakens the bond immensely.
Alec and Lydia find the Seelie glade, but Jace is of course already gone so it’s back to the Institute. There he talks to Izzy again who is definitely going to trial now since the Cup is gone. She tries to comfort her big brother who apologises to her.
Luke and Simon
Our new favourite vampire has been promoted to vampire ambassador and visits his buddy Luke at the Jade Wolf. The werewolves aren’t very happy about having Simon in their midst, but alpha Luke tells them to calm down so they do. Simon is having trouble adjusting to his vampire unlife, like not being able to control his fangs, and asks Luke for help.
Strolling outside the Jade Wolf, Luke plays Obi-Wan to Simon’s Luke while they talk about Clary and the animosity between vampires and werewolves. Suddenly the officer from Internal Affairs shows up, wanting to arrest Luke for the demonic murders. Simon, who hasn’t gotten the hang of his vampire impulses yet, attacks Fiske and knocks him unconscious.
Once Fiske is conscious again, he comes face to face with the demonic killer aka Simon who wants to drain Fiske of his blood. Heroic Luke shows up, though, and ‘kills’ Simon by shooting him six times. He then turns around to Fiske and says, “I told you it wasn’t me.” Of course Simon is still very much ‘alive’ and he has saved the day/Luke’s job!
Rants and Raves
Raves
- Polar Opposites: The alternate universe was fun since some of the characters stayed the same, like Clary and Simon, and others were completely different. Izzy was adorable and I would have loved to have seen Simon’s ‘Let’s move in together’ proposal. Alec looked like he was going to the Hamptons, but he was ‘out and proud’ which I liked. Nice throwback to Magnus’s ‘I love a challenge’ comment in the real world. Jace was completely different, but it was nice to see a Jace that didn’t feel that confident and cocky. His reaction to the demon was pretty funny.
Jocelyn and Valentine were cute together and it made me a little wistful of what could have been. I certainly got some ‘Clary in Edom’ vibes. Also thumbs up for Magnus calling Clary ‘biscuit’. - Real dimension vs alternate dimension: I liked the effects in this episode, how it was shown when Clary was being consumed by the other dimension’s Clary. The blurring effect between what was real and what wasn’t was a nice touch. I also liked the lighting in this episode and I wish there’d be more episodes where there was natural light. Everything seems more real this way.
- Clary and Jace fight the demon: The fighting scene was pretty great! Kat and Dom trained hard and in my opinion it totally shows. I hope we’ll get to see more of that in season 2.
- Simon and Jace: I’m so glad Simon is making my raves list week after week. Alberto is just so good as Simon and #DarkSimon was fun. It was of course obvious what he was really doing, but his innocent grin paired with the lighting was still creepy.
My MVP of this episode was Jace, though, because I loved how Dominic portrayed him! Insecure and scared Jace was great, but Jace who had just seen his back-from-the-dead-father was wow! Jace looked so shattered that I wanted to hug him and tell him that everything would be okay! - Church and Chairman Meow: We finally saw our favourite felines on the TV show and they looked a lot like I had always imagined them. Good casting choices 🙂
Rants
- Alec’s Behavior: “Jace is dead to me.” No, just no. You say one more word and you are dead to ME, Alexander Gideon Lightwood! Just what the heck? This is wrong on so many levels and I am mad. Did *I* end up in an alternate dimension where Alec and Jace don’t love each other as fiercely as brothers?
- Parabatai Tracking can break the Parabatai Bond: I’m sorry, what? I get that the writers are taking liberties with Cassie’s books and that not everything that’s in the books can be translated to the small screen, but this really irritated me. The parabatai bond is so important in the Shadowhunter Chronicles universe and it can only be broken by death, exile or when one Shadowhunter turns into a Downworlder. The suggestion that the bond can be broken by parabatai tracking is diminishing the whole concept of parabatai.
- Always Lydia: Just like Alyssa I cannot stand Lydia. She is causing so much unnecessary drama between the Lightwoods and also Alec and Jace. She’s like the Clave’s lapdog and I completely agree with what Izzy told her.
- Church and Chairman Meow: Yes, the cat duo made it into the TV show, but they were only shown in the alternate universe. I get that working with animals is tough, but it would have been nice to see Church and/or the Chairman in the real Shadowhunters universe. I would have been happy with Church curled up on Izzy’s bed or giving Jace the stink eye and Chairman Meow running through Magnus’s apartment chasing something. Maybe this can be changed in season 2, we’ll see.
- Michael Wayland is Alive: What? I am still stunned by this, but I do know that I don’t like it.
Shadowhunters airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on Freeform.
What are your thoughts on “This World Inverted?”
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TMI Source 
Michael Wayland could be Valentine. Lydia posed as Valentine when she first came to the Institute. Valentine could be disguising himself as Michael as a way to get into the Institute or get close to Clary.
I agree. The portal was suppose to bring them to Valentine, so it makes sense that Valentine would be using that Shape-shifting rune to disguise himself (and did the same when Jace was younger). That way the brother sister story line can stay in tact (it would just be presented differently). This way, if Jace ever saw a picture of Michael, he could be like “oh yeah, that’s the guy who raised me.” It also allows for him to know what Valentine looks like, and not cause any plot holes.
It causes a huge plot hole. If Valentine could masquerade as Michael Wayland so convincingly he could fool his own son, why did he ever bother to go into hiding? What would be the need or the point? In the books, Shadowhunters have hardly any photographs of the Circle because they were destroyed, which explains why Jace didn’t ever see one — not exactly a plot hole that needed filling.
I’m sure it is Valentine, which is predictable and dumb.
Okay, Harry Shum Jr. is allergic to cats though. I mean I get that it would be awesome to see them regularly, but I’m just amazed the guy was okay with working with them for one scene.
Harry Shum Jr said that he’s allergic to cats. like very bad. and that they could only do that scene because he had taken a lot of medication. i wouldn’t want to put one of my favourite actor’s playing one of my favourite characters in a situation like this all the time. i get that it’s part of Magnus, but that’s the books. this is the show.
And with Alec, while book!Alec wouldn’t probably say this, tv!Alec has gone through a lot of stuff that would make him say that.
The most important thing to remember that we can’t expect this show to be like the books, and i’m honestly so happy about how it’s going, especially since episode 8. i know that people who adore the show say that it’s better than the books or prefer this (and there’s people who have it the other way round), but for me, i love both a lot so much and i’m so fine now with the changes that i will gladly say it is now a fun show to be into it.
it’s your opinion and it’s your feelings, i understand, but the show and the books are completely different.
Why exactly can’t we expect the show to be like the books, when other adaptations of books to television are, in fact, like the books? Game of Thrones and Outlander come to mind as extremely faithful. I’m not saying exactly like the books, I’m saying even a tiny bit reminiscent of the books would be nice.
Also, it would be nice if the show made any internal logical sense. Nor would having Church in the show affect Harry particularly — Church is the Institute’s cat, not Magnus’. It’s just tiring after a while watching people make the endless excuse for the show that “it isn’t going to be like the books” when the actual problems people are pointing out are things like the show doesn’t make sense (Valentine paid gems for all that human blood why? Luke was ever a police officer why? Meliorn can make portals why? When you come back from an alternate universe, you don’t take your body but you do take your blood, seriously?) , the dialogue is badly written (I cringed at “Nerdferatu”), and the characters are inconsistent. Nothing has actually happened in TV show Alec’s life to make him say that Jace is dead to him, other than Alec being a poorly written asshole. Literally the only thing Jace has done is try to prevent Alec from destroying his own life and being a torturing murderer.
I ask myself the same thing every time a favourite book becomes a movie, or when Shadowhunters got picked up by ABC Family. i wanted the series to go to a channel where they would make it into one of those critically acclaimed shows with a really good look and keep the essence of the books, and everything’s perfectly balanced because i thought that the story was so perfect, how could it not be adapted perfectly like all those other shows. and up until episode 8, i haven’t said anything anywhere (mainly cos i’ve gotten off social media) because i’ve felt like most things are too cheesy or maybe don’t make sense or everything is a bit off (which usually happens with the beginning of shows), but that i still wanted to watch it cos it’s my favourite series. it’s what happened with those major shows like Supernatural and Buffy. but as the show has gone on, it’s actually gotten better, or at least easier to watch, so better that i wouldn’t be at all embarrassed if someone asked me if i like it. it’s found its place and it’s also kind of working. and after checking out some tumblr blogs, the reaction has been extremely positive in terms of where it is going or what they can do from now.
they would need to change certain things to fit into a tv show, but most importantly, to show the vast characters the Shadowhunter Chronicles has. For example, Luke is a police officer so they could have someone on the inside draw attention away from any odd murders (like these demonic murders), which means he’s someone we can always look to if they want to show more Downworlders. And a thing that is actually so great is how much focus is on the Lightwoods, especially Alec who isn’t defined by his sexuality (these are people on tumblr who are saying this btw, some of the toughest people who can smell bull**** a mile away and will come down hard on injustices). they could’ve turned something like “follow your heart” to mean “lead an openly gay life” but instead, it meant for alec to push himself to protect his family, especially his sister (as the last episode spent time on).
Dialogue, acting, ie anything to do with the show as a show is normal to critique, but in the “Rants” section, there were things that the author said that they hated because they “aren’t like the book”, and that’s what i’m talking about here. TV!Alec has been through events that weren’t in the book, or at least didn’t have an entire Institute of shadowhunters and his parents around to see it and come down hard on him about it. Izzy could lose her marks (remember how painful and fatal that can be) and be exiled, so if Alec is pissed that Jace has stolen his only hope to save her, yeah; he’s gonna be angry and hurt as f**k. Alec isn’t thinking as clearly, but that’s what fans of the show (regardless if they are fans of the books as well) love about characters in a drama. Each character – even Lydia – is doing what they think is right (no one’s doing anything actually wrong) and it’s causing trouble for the others and that’s exactly what’s meant to happen in a drama.
“Nothing has actually happened in TV show Alec’s life to make him say that Jace is dead to him, other than Alec being a poorly written asshole. Literally the only thing Jace has done is try to prevent Alec from destroying his own life and being a torturing murderer.” This is wrong. Every time Jace and the team went out to do something (every plot of every episode so far), it caused Maryse and Robert to blame Alec for allowing it happen, and Alec is standing by and letting himself take the heat. It’s having the Clave send Lydia to keep an eye on them and Alec AGAIN taking the blame for Clary not being there or for his parents not being good enough. They may not be so aware of what they’re doing but it’s having an effect. He’s tried to talk to Jace – and Jace tried to speak to him in 1×09 – but nothing is getting through cos he’s following Clary and the Downworlder business. The same is with Izzy in that she does whatever she wants and Alec takes the blame. He’s trying to get her out of the trial but obviously that hasn’t worked. Also, Alec having to marry but wanting to do it on his own terms is interesting to see, especially cos of his conversation with his father in 1×09 about having to fix everything his parents wrecked. And something that we all want: Malec. He’s had to sacrifice a chance with Magnus because he knows how much trouble his family is in. Alec loves his family more than anything, but he also has to follow the Law completely, which can be very conflicting and really interesting to see so i wouldn’t call it badly written. It’s building and building for him that he’s gonna definitely break soon, and if you’ve noticed, he’s always at a punching bag, even when he was hurt a lot from the forsaken attack. Btw, this doesn’t mean i don’t love or care about Jace or Izzy or Clary or any others. I love every single character because they are all fighting for what’s important to them and what’s right, but it’s just how drama works.
All these other issues you’re asking about Meliorn or Valentine: i don’t have answers for, so all i can say is that it might mean something in the show later on or maybe it’s this one-off thing that’s happened. either way, every show has things they don’t explain.
And Chairman Meow is Magnus’s cat, so yes he would be affected by one cat at least on set. And Harry is so great as Magnus, and has brought more layers to him so yeah. I can handle not having the Chairman around, especially since this isn’t the books. And it’s been pretty obvious from the first couple of episodes that they aren’t following them not even by which storyline belongs to which book and because of that, we can’t continually just go back to the books for every time something happens that we don’t like or understand.
It’s becoming a more decent show to watch and enjoy and love. As time goes on, it will continue to be better. Personally, as long as you keep the essence and have the characters’ personalities down decently and keep the big main things, changes are fine. And this cast and crew are so incredibly dedicated to it in every way possible and we are so lucky to have them.
Well, I’m glad we agree that we hoped it would go to another network that would do a better job. Pity it didn’t.
“Every time Jace and the team went out to do something (every plot of every episode so far), it caused Maryse and Robert to blame Alec for allowing it happen, and Alec is standing by and letting himself take the heat.” “And a thing that is actually so great is how much focus is on the Lightwoods, especially Alec who isn’t defined by his sexuality (these are people on tumblr who are saying this btw, some of the toughest people who can smell bull**** a mile away and will come down hard on injustices). they could’ve turned something like “follow your heart” to mean “lead an openly gay life” but instead, it meant for alec to push himself to protect his family, especially his sister (as the last episode spent time on).”
This is kind of a boring discussion to me, because I recognize that there are people on tumblr who don’t care if Alec blows up a village full of schoolchildren, it will always not be his fault, because he is cute and white and looks sad. But this is a ridiculous argument, because every time Jace and the team went out to do something, they were going to do things like: save Simon’s life. Save Clary’s life. Etc. They were going to do morally correct things, and it is very, very hard to imagine why I am supposed to give a shit that this is going to get Alec in trouble with the horrible and corrupt government he shouldn’t be cooperating with anyway.
Book!Alec (and yes, I am going to bring up the books, because the people who defend this show constantly use book quotes to defend the characters) would be sickened by TV!Alec. Book Alec rescued Jace from the Malachi Configuration expressly against the Inquisitor’s orders because it was the right thing to do. In the books, there is a strong theme of doing the right thing against orders. Here, Alec just follows orders even when it means he’s going to torture a Downworlder. He literally is taking Meliorn to be tortured and probably killed when he is prevented by Izzy and Jace.
“The same is with Izzy in that she does whatever she wants and Alec takes the blame.”
No. Izzy is making the moral choice to save lives. Alec is making the choice not to bother. He deserves the blame. I expect the show will never engage with the horror of what Alec has done, because it doesn’t seem smart enough to really understand the consequences or meaning of anyone’s choices. Alec is suffering the fallout of his own poor decisions and moral blindness, largely because he’s a very poorly written character. No person on the planet would stay engaged to the woman putting their sister on trial to, as you point out, brutally have her Marks stripped off. So why is Alec? Because the plot requires it.
We live in a world where torturing detainees of war without due process is a real thing, and that is what Alec is really doing. It is unforgivable, and no family circumstances or emotions he has will ever make it okay.
“Luke is a police officer so they could have someone on the inside draw attention away from any odd murders (like these demonic murders), which means he’s someone we can always look to if they want to show more Downworlders. ”
Except Luke never actually did that. The police “plot” was a waste of time, the only murder he investigated was one he committed himself, and now they’ve trashed it and he is basically no longer a policeman anyway. I guess they realized it didn’t work, but boy was it embarrassing that they didn’t realize WHY it wouldn’t work.
“All these other issues you’re asking about Meliorn or Valentine: i don’t have answers for, so all i can say is that it might mean something in the show later on or maybe it’s this one-off thing that’s happened. either way, every show has things they don’t explain.”
How could you have answers? The show has no answers. Bad shows, yes, bring up things that are not explained. Good ones don’t.
“after checking out some tumblr blogs, the reaction has been extremely positive in terms of where it is going or what they can do from now.”
I have seen good and bad responses on tumblr, which is predisposed to give this show a pass. But I was talking about the responses of actual critics. Rotten Tomatoes has it as a 46% rotten — meaning mostly bad reviews http://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/shadowhunters/s01/
Critical consensus: “Critics Consensus: Shadowhunters boasts visual thrills and a potential-rich premise, but they’re not enough to overcome the show’s self-serious silliness and dull, convoluted plots.”
The Top Critics (meaning professionals, attached to newspapers and media outlets) is even worse: 20% which is dismally bad.
The Av Club: “Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments has the rare honor of being wildly complex and still wildly bland.”
The Wrap: “But, lordy, is it silly – and worse, it lacks the wit or sharp self-awareness to own up to its campiness or help make its melodramatic elements more palatable.”
The New York Times: “It’s too moody and self-serious for a pulpy action show in which monsters dissolve into hot sparks when stabbed. Part of the problem is the script, and part is performance.”
More reviews:
“I just wasn’t feeling this painfully generic adaptation of The Mortal Instruments book series” “Self-serious and deadly dull, Shadowhunters inexplicably misses its mark in just about every way.” “Decter appears far more interested in Revelations than revelation, and in his rush to get to the “good stuff” he has forgotten that this kind of stuff is good only when it takes a while to get there.” “1 word for this show. BAD Bad actors, bad script. They can’t even act. Completely waste of time” “The pilot is so bloated, attempting as it does to relay all the rules of its fictional universe through nauseatingly clunky dialogue and disorienting time- and location-jumps (including some to freaking Chernobyl, where the series’ big bad has randomly chosen to camp out), that it’s difficult to make sense of anything going on, but here are the basics.” “What remains is origin-story drudgery (much talk of lost magical objects and Clary’s “destiny”) that’s occasionally leavened by bursts of unintentional humor.”
Etc and so on. Metacritic has it as a D+ for the season. If you are happy watching it, great. Bad TV has its place in many lives. I watch it myself, mostly out of curiosity as to what they’ll screw up next.
However, what I mostly came to say is that it is completely fair for the reviewer to complain when parts of the world building of the books are smashed and broken to no purpose. Dot was a pointless, awful character, who left us with a hundred questions like: how come Clary never noticed her good friend Dot didn’t age? It was an example of breaking the world building of the books in a manner that makes things make less sense and be more confusing, and that is legitimate and fair to point out. Most shows don’t have a roadmap to how to make things work — this one does, and as they ignore it out of apparent contempt for the material and the audience, it is completely and totally fair to engage with that.
“Personally, as long as you keep the essence and have the characters’ personalities down decently and keep the big main things, changes are fine.”
If they had done either of those things, I would agree with you. But they didn’t. The essence of the world is gone, swallowed up in ridiculous tech gadgets, Chernobyl garbage, meaningless plots about blood-draining that cheat us out of later, important book plots (since they’ve already done the blood-draining plot, but with no reason and no answers, they can now never do the blood-draining plot from City of Ashes, so a huge chunk of story was destroyed for no reason) painful exposition and idiot-speak “All you stunning people must be magicians! Wow!”, and the characters couldn’t be less like themselves. Clary isn’t brave, Jace isn’t funny, Izzy’s whole motivation for everything she does is gone, Alec is selfish and awful, and Magnus is a parody of himself. They may not have murdered the characters of the books in the plot, but they have murdered them in spirit. And the critical and fan response reflects that.
I would just like to point out that those reviews were done after only the first episode (Which I think we can all agree was pretty bad). But the show has improved a lot since then. It’s grown into itself, and it’s explained things pretty well. Most people who haven’t read the books have been able to follow along well (from twitter, Facebook, tumblr). It takes it’s time to explain things, so if you didn’t stick around, then of course it wouldn’t make sense (Valentine is mixing blood to strengthen his forsaken or whatever). I don’t understand how people can say it hasn’t explained itself well, unless they just haven’t been watching closely. Honestly the big criticism this show receives is that it is different from the books, but the reason people get so upset about that is because they told us from the beginning it would be different. They said they were sticking to the major plot, but there would be changes in how they got there. Plus they have kept the characters true to their book counterparts. As said above, they go through different experiences, which causes them to feel different things, but just because it wasn’t mentioned in the books, doesn’t mean they can’t feel that way. We didn’t see Alec, Izzy, or Magnus enough in the first two books to get a handle on how they would react in all different types of situations. I see Alec as trying to protect his family no matter the cost (like he would have done in the books). Sure he goes about it the wrong way, but that just adds imperfections to his character and make him more human. Not all changes are bad, and they shouldn’t be treated that way. I get people are upset it isn’t 100% like the books, but that’s what an adaption is. Plus, a lot of people on Facebook, twitter, etc seem to be realizing that while it still differs from the books, it has become a good show on it’s own. So it deserves to be thought of independently if you can’t get over the changes. Who knows, you may enjoy it.
Tumblr should never be used as primary source of how popular and welcome a TV show is. Its overproved to be wrong. Also, shadowhunters on tumblr is all about Alec, is not like the people there care at all about the show itself, the plotline or even Magnus. Malec is all about Alec and his boy toy.
You should look for other sources and really find out how people are feeling about the show, because have tumblr as decisive source of tv show popularity is a mistake, you may end up thinking you´re watching the most progress TV show and its far from that.
See TW, according to Tumblr Sterek was THE COUPLE on tw and they never exist on the show. Or the show popularity was measure by that.
The reality is that Shadowhunters still has the majority of the fans from the books fandom and thoses fans are split. So its up to SH team be humble and see what went wrong and how to make a season two good for hardcore book fans (who they vow to please) as well as the people who are okay with the changes.
I am a huge shadowhunter fan…I really want to love the show but I barely like it. I am trying hard not to let my love of the book characters to interfere with the show…but I’m spending a lot my time saying WTH?! Anyone else?
Almost everyone hates it. It got renewed, but barely, the ratings keep declining, and it’s critically panned. It’s not just you.
The show writting continues to be awful, while the acting is going strong. How come 3 ep till season finale they bring this filler on.
Alec continues to be a ridiculous blaming everyone for the things he did authorized. Blaming jace for Izzy when Izzy was the one who was urging to help Merlion. The whole political plotline is a non-existence, it was hitted on once or twice and we should take as something deep and logical; So far what this marriage is suppose to bring?
He already Lydia lap-dog, so im sure he wont have any power or ascend to it with her. Or save Lightwood family name.
Lydia “bring the Idris” (Ed decter reason to create her) as an excuse for having her is bull, any character could have brought Izzy´s trial. No need for an OC for 6 eps with no substence, only be there so the gay character can have lots of straight time, even if it is non-romantic one. (they could had used the money they spent on the actress to better CGI. Just saying)
I do hope, she is a valentine minion because otherwise her character was a waste in a show full of waste time, like simon 5 eps (i think) till turn into a vampire and now nothing major came along, only if “happy time” with Luke is logical for someone who lost his humanity.
Michael is a poor plotwist because there no way that Jace wont be a herondele, so michael will probably confess to Jace that Valentine is his father and *boom* city of bones plot twist. Dont see the need of him at all. Also, he probably valentine is disguise so nothing impress about that.
The alt!universe was cool.
Also, 2 ep till Malec and we are suppose to believe alec and magnus has a very strong bond to a ep with their name on??
“Also, 2 ep till Malec and we are suppose to believe alec and magnus has a very strong bond to a ep with their name on??”
Right? Why am I supposed to care about an episode called Malec when Magnus and Alec haven’t spent any time together, have never talked about anything important, have no apparent connection, don’t even seem to like each other and definitely don’t know each other? Romance is one of the things this show does worst, but it’s heartbreaking to watch them destroy Malec even more than watching them destroy Clace. There is so little representation of gay couples on television, and this could have been great . . . I was at one of Cassandra Clare’s signing events last week and not only did the whole audience boo and hiss when the show was mentioned, but I was behind some gay teens in line who were actually crying because of what the show had done to Malec. I’m old enough to take it, but when I think about more vulnerable fans it hurts.
“Romance is one of the things this show does worst”
Truth. Its happens because they want to shock the public. Ist all they care about.
Since ep 1 all Clace frames were made to see them as a couple, there was no friction, no will they be together? Since they first look i knew they would be a couple right away. Its all made so when the plot twist came people will feel disgustful to what they were doing.
Some thing about Alec, they frame Alec and Lydia as this power couple (even their twitter put lydia name on this question of who should alec be with?) in all their scenes. Alec always touching Lydia or bending over Lydia when talking to he. the whole scene after Izzy arrest with her upseting about Alec may canceling the weeding and how he like: “no of course we gonna marry”. Also, lets remember that he went ON HIS KNEES to ask her to marry him. Hell they talked more than Alec did with Magnus.
Magnus. Alec hardly look twice at him. He didnt even look hurt when he talked about the weeding. Or when he dismiss Magnus after he help in the institute. He doesnt care about Magnus, so why should we care if he will marry or not to some random girl in a ep called Malec. Or .. let me see.. they will share a kiss and that is suppose to cementy their burning feeling that it was harly showcase in one scene.
“but I was behind some gay teens in line who were actually crying because of what the show had done to Malec. I’m old enough to take it, but when I think about more vulnerable fans it hurts.”
I dont even know what to say. 😦 This is so sad. 😦 I hope that people who goes to this wondercon push the hard questions because they advertising so much about Malec this, Malec that and its being a very poor arc.
I’m done. ..I looked past the age change, I looked past stupid Maureen and Dot and Camille. I looked past Luke the cop. Along with there being no chemistry between the actors onscreen, this episode 10 killed it for me. ..I can’t do it anymore. ..
This was the best ep so far. The first where the plot has absolutely nothing to do with the books. Thank God finally! Maybe the show has now the opportunity to become something more. We must not compare too much with the books. The show can never be as good as Cassie’s books. That is just not possible!
I liked the idea of the alternate universe. First time I saw Kat really acting, having fun with Magnus. I really liked this scene. Also nice idea to bring in the cats 🙂 More humor would do this show good.
It was amazing to see Emeraude’s acting as alternate Izzy. Wow, this is proof, they can do good, if they get a chance from the script. And the reverse dialogue of Magnus and Alec, nice tidbit.
Alec is very disturbing, but we have to wait to see what comes from all this. He is a fiercly loyal character and has to grow into his capabilities. I don’t want to judge too early about his actions, although his pronouncement “Jace is dead to me” was indeed shocking.
Lydia is also disturbing. I am beginning to ask me what her real purpose is. Is she really so coldblooded, dumb, or ignorant? Or is she just malevolant? It seems to me that she poisons Alec’s thinking through all this the-law-is-hart-but-it-is-the-law-bull***t. I hope she has some importance in the future one way or another, so that the introduction of her character is no waste of time.
I do not know what to do with the end. WTF Jace’s father? Valentine in disguise or indeed Michael Wayland? Or maybe he is Stephen Herondale? I would not put this past the writers. I am almost anxious to see where they are going with this.
All in all, a nice ep. Hopefully they stay away from the books, so we are able to enjoy the differences instead of suffering them. And hopefully we get to see more good acting, better writing and please more humor. Cassie’s books are full of humor and comedy of the situation, of references to other fandoms and the modern world, which makes the story much more “real”.