As someone who plans to go into publishing for young adult literature, I spend a lot of time reading it.I think one of my favorites is “The Mortal Instruments,” a series by Cassandra Clare. The characters have depth, the dialogue is well written and the plot is exciting to imagine as it unfolds. Clare’s tale is of a young woman named Clary discovering that she’s a Shadowhunter, a half-human and half-angel demon hunter. Clary’s thrown into the world of demons, werewolves, vampires and other mythical creatures, as well as thrust into a group of witty and awesome Shadowhunters, on her 18th birthday when her mother is kidnapped. Among the Shadowhunters is Jace, and Clary and Jace fall in love. The story is as much about adventure and killing demons as self-discovery and inner demons. All the action, the lines and the very essence of the books, however, fall flat on the screen.
I approached this television show, "Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments," like many other fans. I was thrilled and had a great amount of hope. Following the subpar movie adaption of "The City of Bones," I was convinced that a show would fit the series so much better. In many hour-long episodes, it could explore the world of the Shadowhunters and give the writing the attention that it deserved. It would be a similar experience to reading the books again. Plus, the creator, Ed Decter, had claimed that the TV series would stay truer to the books than the movie did. The cast seemed like great choices, and I tried to watch both the premiere and the second episode with an open mind.
Normally, the pilot episode of a show isn’t the greatest way to evaluate quality. Pilots can be quite experimental, jumpy and awkward. So I tried not to be too dismayed at the disappointing first episode that the series had to offer. But watching the second episode, I’ve started to get a feeling that this is how the show will be: bad. There are few other words for it.
The dialogue that was sharp-tongued and purposeful on the pages of the books has here morphed into lines that are shallow and cliché, full of bad dad jokes and utterly flat. The actors seem to grapple with this, often looking confused or constipated when delivering dialogue, and the feeling behind the words seems fake and forced. It’s painfully awkward to watch, especially from central characters like Clary, Jace and Simon.
The cast seems unable to bring any depth to the characters, and they stick to expressing only the most superficial version of each character. It’s as if these characters were constructed following someone’s half-hearted skimming of the books. They are almost all introduced in record time, as well, as if there was some rule about cramming every character possible into the first episode that I didn’t know about.
The plot is extremely predictable and also not a whole lot like the book series so far. The general idea is there, but we have characters that look like the ones from the books but don’t sound or behave like them. We have relationships that are completely changed. Clary’s neighbor, Madame Dorothea, is now a younger girl named Dot, who seems to be her good friend before turning into a demon. In the books, Dorothea was an older woman who never seemed to want much to do with the Frays in the first place. She was defensive and kept to herself. Clary’s mother, Jocelyn, tries to tell Clary directly about her Shadowhunter identity, even giving her a Shadowhunter weapon for her birthday present, when in the books she was reluctant to tell her daughter anything, and then was kidnapped before she even had a chance. Some important and well-written scenes would look great in this medium, such as the first time Clary and Jace meet. Jace and other Shadowhunters murder a demon in a nightclub, and the event is invisible to all others in the club but her. But the TV version is anticlimactic and void of much feeling or implication of romance at all. He awkwardly bumps into her while walking past her and is mildly surprised she can see him, and that’s about it. Overall, we have dynamics that have been torn apart and regrouped until they are unrecognizable.
All these changes to the plot, the characters and the scenes would have been acceptable had they been good enough by themselves. I realize that comparing visual media with books, the visual will almost always fall short. But even watching it without thinking of Clare’s writing and choices in the books, I could not find much interest in the show. The execution of the plot events was not exciting, almost dull, and it seemed as though the characters were just along for the ride instead of emotionally invested in what was happening. The viewer experience was similar to the experience of staring at a wall. Not to mention the sexist choices made with Clary in particular, reducing her to a blindly stubborn, clueless and defenseless airhead. In scenes where she is supposed to do her own fighting and save herself, as she does in the books, Jace swoops in and does it for her. What kind of strong, female protagonist is that version of Clary? She isn’t one at all. Even if I watched this show without knowledge of the books, I’m fairly confident I wouldn’t come back for more.
In general, it reminded me of sitting through the Twilight movies as a young teen all over again. Both had a similar problem with acting and plot that left a lot to be desired. They both felt like something vital was missing and fell far short of any potential they may have had. The only difference is that “The Mortal Instruments” books were at least well written, rich in plot and dynamic characters. "Shadowhunters"had a solid foundation, but on top of that foundation they built a crappy house. In many ways, it’s even worse than the movie. While I still have faint hope for improvement, I’m certainly not counting on it. I’ll stick to rereading the books.
