The evil is almost defeated. The evil being Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments TV series on Freeform & Netflix. Now that the series is in its endgame with its final two episodes on the horizon, I am here to make a plea to anyone and everyone who will listen: Leave The Mortal Instruments series alone.
I started reading the The Mortal Instruments series a little before the premiere of the film adaptation of City of Bones in 2013. I had just finished City of Ashes before I went to go see the film. Less than 100 pages in to the first book and I was already wholeheartedly invested. I was so excited to see the film adaptation of City of Bones, mainly because of the cast. I adore Lily Collins, Robert Sheehan has been a favourite of mine since his Misfits days, Jonathan Rhys Meyers could defs pull off playing a brooding baddie like Valentine and so on and so on.
I went to see the film opening weekend with a friend who was also a huge fan of the books. Long story short, we left the theatre feeling underwhelmed.
At the time, the changes they made to City of Bones in the film adaptation felt huge to me. Looking back, I needed to chill out a bit. Some plot points that irked me included how in the book, Simon doesn’t become a vampire until City of Ashes, but in the film, after Simon is captured by vampires he already shows signs of becoming a vampire. There are many other plot points I could talk about, but in short, they mostly involve events that don’t take place until the second book, City of Ashes.
In terms of the casting of the film, I think it’s clear that I am a bit bias. I liked Lily Collins as Clary. Jamie Campbell Bower was a decent Jace and Robert Sheehan was a great Simon. I wasn’t particularly fond of Jemima West as Isabelle and Kevin Zegers as Alec Lightwood. Their performances were very much “meh” for me. In terms of Godfrey Gao as Magnus Bane, Aidan Turner as Luke Garroway, Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Valentine Morgenstern and Lena Headey as Jocelyn Fray, I was fond of their portrayals.
All in all, though the film left things out from the book and jumped ahead with certain story lines/plot points, I didn’t hate it. No, it wasn’t perfect, but to me, it kept the integrity of the story and didn’t change what I believe are the most simple and important aspects of the story.
Sadly, the film adaptation didn’t do well and the adaptations of the other books were never made.
Fast forward to 2016 and the premiere of Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments TV series on Freeform & Netflix.
Let me begin this portion of the post by expressing just how excited and hopeful I was for this show. With all the backlash and complaints from The Mortal Instruments fandom about the film adaptation of City of Bones, I thought that this show would take these concerns, learn from them and be a quality adaptation. I was wrong. Very wrong.
I think it’s easier for me to write my issues with the show in bullet point form because there is so much they got wrong in my eyes:
- Luke is a cop???
- Hodge is like 20-something when he should be an old-ish man
- Why are there 4957303234597876210 people at The Institute? This isn’t the CIA. Only the Lightwoods, Jace and Hodge should be there. Can the rest of y’all leave???
- Less than 10 episodes in and Simon is already a vampire…ok…
- Why are the Seelies such a huge part of the story line this early on?
- Alt. Universe episode. Cute, but not needed.
- THE LYDIA/ALEC STORY LINE. WHY?! STOP. ENOUGH.
- @ Maia, Jonathan and Jem – you don’t even go here yet. Wait your turn.
- So you are really just going to kill off Jocelyn and force a romantic story line between Luke and Maryse on us? No thanks.
- Izzy is addicted to vampire venom. WTF?
- Max lives. Not everything in life is sunshine and rainbows ya know…
THIS IS JUST THE FIRST 2 AND A BIT SEASONS AND NOT EVEN IN DETAIL.
The acting on this show is sometimes cringe worthy at best. Overall, I just feel like Freeform & Netflix have sanitised and changed the source material for this show in order to appeal to a younger/teen audience solely for ratings. And for some reason, it has worked? #ShadowhuntersChat trends worldwide every week when a new episode airs, and Tumblr is flooded with Shadowhunters stans. I don’t know if these fans have read the books or are just choosing to completely ignore them, but I can’t just put the books to the wayside and watch this botched adaptation with any sort of admiration.
Though there are not many positive aspects of this show for me, the things that I cling to that actually make me want to tune in are the portrayals of Malec and Simon.
Because we never got to see the growth of Alec and Magnus’ relationship beyond the City of Bones film adaptation, Shadowhunters gives us the Malec development we know and love from the books.
If Shadowhunters hadn’t had done such a great job with the portrayal of Malec, I would have given up this show a long time a go. At this point, I shamelessly tune in every week to see Malec and nothing else. I barely pay attention to any of the other story lines within an episode any more. Shout out to Matthew Daddario and Harry Shum Jr. for putting this show on their backs. Without them, I don’t think it would have survived beyond season 1.
Along with Malec, Alberto Rosende’s portrayal of Simon is everything. (If you haven’t already guessed, my favourite character from the books is Simon.) He brings something to the character that Robert Sheehan didn’t in the movie adaptation (no shade @ Robert. I love him, but this is just how I feel.)
The rest of the cast of Shadowhunters? Meh. Unlike the film adaptation, I am not crazy about the majority of the cast.
So, as the Shadowhunters series comes to a close this is my plea to the world: Stop adapting these beloved books. With two less than stellar adaptations done, enough is enough. It should be clear now that these books should be left as is.
The Couch Burrito 