‘Shadowhunters’ doesn’t follow the book
The new television series “Shadowhunters” premiered Tuesday the 12th at 9 p.m. For those of us who read the book, we found out the show wouldn’t be 100 percent right. However, for those people who hate books and see no reason to read one if you can learn the story by watching a movie or TV series, the show was awesome.
Shadowhunters is based off the book(s) “Mortal Instruments” by Cassandra Claire. The story follows the life of a girl named Clary Fray (played by Katherine McNamara), who finds out she’s not “mundane.” In the story, Clary loses her mother to a misguided group called “The Circle,” who work for a man named Valentine. After losing her mother, Clary meets a group of young Shadowhunters and finds out that she, and the Circle, are also Shadowhunters.
Important characters in the story besides Clary are her best friend, Simon Lewis, played by Alberto Rosende; her mother, Jocelyn Fray, casted as Maxim Roy; Lucian Graymark, Jocelyn’s very close friend, casted as Isaiah Mustaf (the Old Spice guy); Jace Wayland, one of the young Shadowhunters who helps Clary, played by Dominic Sherwood (who is also in Taylor Swift’s music video for “Blank Space”); Alec and Isabelle Lightwood, two other young Shadowhunters, casted as Mathew Daddario and Emeraude Toubia; and Magnus Bane, a warlock played by Harry Shum Jr.
As a fan of the books, it was very easy for me to pick apart the new series. Within the hour of the premiere episode I had found 13 things that just didn’t quite fit the original story. In my mind, I thought the writing let it down and talking to my friends during the commercials would be okay – my friends thought otherwise. Halfway through the first episode my uber-nerd-bookworm of a friend almost killed me out of annoyance. The end result of my questions, and comments, along with my friend’s annoyance, were these words of wisdom: “If they make a book into a TV series, they don’t want to make it exactly the same. The producers want to keep you on your toes, and if it was exactly the same you would lose interest due to the fact that you already know the story. Their changes are what makes this more interesting.”
The second round of advice was, “Ivy, shut up, or our friendship will be over and you will never be invited to my house for this again.”
The second episode to the series came out this last Tuesday. In this episode I was less angsty, and therefore commented less on the changes the producers made. In Episode 2, Clary, Simon, Jace, Alec, and Isabelle work on trying to find a warlock in order to unlock Clary’s memories. The group does achieve some memory recovery, but in the end they are set back.
All in all, I appreciate that the television series copied the beginning of the book better than the movie did. However, I cannot say I am happy with the show’s choice of a bald Valentine – it’s just simply wrong to cast every other character perfectly, and mess up on him.
I do highly recommend this new TV series, which streams Tuesday nights at 9 o’clock on the FREEFRM network (formerly ABC Family network).
I personally think Jace with longer hair worked better, like in the movie. Not that the movie’s better than the series. Also, they took out the blonde line. That’s the best part!!
I personally think Jace with longer hair worked better, like in the movie. Not that the movie’s better than the series. Also, they took out the blonde line. That’s the best part!
“Cast every character perfectly” ALMOST AGREED except Hot Hodge is a travesty
1) it’s Matthew with 2 T’s got to get the name right and 2) Dominic Sherwood was in Taylor Swifts Video for Style not for Blank Space.
They casted Alan for Valentine not for his looks but for his talent. He is doing a wonderful job capturing his characters. And, if they picked him over other, maybe not-bald actors, he was probably the best fit of thise who auditioned. And if he is goid at portraying the character, what does it matter if he is bald or not? How is him being bald messing anything up?
“however, I cannot say I am happy with the show’s choice of a bald Valentine – it’s just simply wrong to cast every other character perfectly, and mess up on him.”
I much rather have a bald Valentine then a biker valentine (movie). Infact Alans Valentine is amazing and scary as Valentine should be. John (movie) was not.