Things are a Bit Batty at Hotel Dumort (My review of Episode 3 of Shadowhunters: Dead Man’s Party)

I have to admit that there were some good scenes in this episode as well as steamy.  The fact that viewers get to see a bit more of the Downworlders in this episode was quite entertaining.  However, at the same time, most of us that have read the books know that the Shadowhunters got their weapons from a church, and yet in the TV series, they’re found in a graveyard, which I won’t complain about too much and also the manner in how Simon becomes a vampire later on was a bit…interesting since they are going a bit away from the book on how he gets caught and brought to Hotel DuMort as well as what he drank.  As I stated in my earlier post regarding the second episode as well as my prediction that Simon does get caught by the vampires, the way how he gets influenced by them was in a way…creepy.  One of the Seelies (faeries) that viewers get introduced to early on is Meliorn who serves the queen of their realm and yet Isabelle tries to get information out of him in her own way.  I will admit that the interaction between them was…pretty hot, but for fans of #Clace (Clary and Jace)…I am sure that many were a bit excited on the interactions between them as Jace tries to teach Clary how to use her abilities despite having very few runes and little to no combat experience as well as the scene where they’re riding a motorcyle run on by demonic energy.  I will admit that the latter I definitely knew was from the book but the former…probably not, though I would have to read through the book again to be certain.

Though I will admit that when I saw that weapons cache I was a bit impressed considering how cool they looked, but like I said in regards to the books and the movie, not in a graveyard.  As for Simon’s interaction with the leader of the New York vampires Camille, whom as fans of the book series know, she once had a thing with the warlock Magnus Bane and also the fact that fans including myself already know her fate, was a bit nerve wracking and at the same time as fans and myself realized, was a slight foreshadow of Simon’s future fate considering that he’s playing a dangerous flirty game thanks to the charms that Camille did on him.  I will admit that What does interest me though is the fact that the writers might possibly make some changes when the big fight between the Shadowhunters and the demons controlled by Valentine and Clary’s “real” brother, whom fans know isn’t Jace (slight spoiler alert for people that haven’t read it, sorry) does go down.  One of the little interactions between Jace and Clary that made me think of another book series that I felt was literally a waste of my time to read was when they were talking about the vampires and their abilities which was more in the classical sense of things and the fact that mundanes are into vampires (hence the reason why I found a particular book series a waste of my time that I know I won’t get back).

Regarding Isabelle’s little escapade with Meliorn, the one thing that was pretty clear and was also stated in the books was that faeries would bend the truth but they don’t lie, and yet I couldn’t help but get the feeling that viewers will be seeing him again soon.  During the scene in which Jace is trying to show Clary that besides being a Shadowhunter, she can also see into the Shadow World by visiting a biker bar which she thinks is being inhabited by actual bikers but upon closer examination they’re all actually vampires.  I really liked the brief confrontation Jace had with the vampire that was enchanting Clary by literally sucker punching him before taking the bike, though I had the feeling that he would show up again and as such when the gang was trying to get Simon out, he does but only briefly when he gets burned from sunlight thanks to Alec’s archery skills.  The scene in which Isabelle and her brother Alec draw the vampires attention was a bit entertaining, especially the part when Alec asks his sister the duration of how long they have to act as distractions.  Although as portrayed in both the book and the movie, the werewolves break in and attack the vampires so the fact that they changed that part up was a little disappointing.  The little exchange between Jace and Simon at the end was a little funny because Simon didn’t realize what really happens with vampires and sunlight.  I will admit that there was a lot of hot flirtatious scenes in this episode but the way how Camille Belcourt says certain things in a certain manner gave me a slight chill down my spine as well as a sense of foreboding although I will admit that the special effects as well as the makeup were really well done in this episode, so again I gotta give kudos to the makeup department for doing a really good job.  Surprisingly, some of my favorite lines in this episode were from Jace & Izzy as well as the new Downworlders shown in this episode.

Favorite quotes:

“Sometimes the plainest candy shell has the tastiest center” – Camille.

“Seelies can’t lie.”

“But they can evade” – Isabelle

“And distract” – Meliorn (Jade Hassoune)

“I smell angel blood”.

“It’s not something you understand in your mind.  It’s something you know”. – Jace

“The mundane world is all into vampires.  I don’t get it.  They see everyone else as an animated sack of meat.”

“Yeah, I certainly don’t see the romance”. – Clary

“That’s because now you know it’s all real.  Still you got to hand it to them though.  They know how to frame a narrative”. – Jace

“Whoever said the pen was mightier than the sword is an idiot”. – Isabelle

“When you’re right, you’re right”. – Alec

“How long do you think we have to distract them for?”

“Ten more minutes.”

“Ten minutes?  Are you kidding?  We’ll be liquid lunch in five”.

“Shouldn’t we get the hell out of here?” – Simon

“Let them come after us.  They’ll just turn into a bunch of fried eggs out here.  I thought you said that you watch movies”. – Jace

As for the next episode, since Magnus is involved in taking Clary’s memories, the manner in how they meet compared to how it is in the books is a tad bit different and we also see the aftereffects of Simon drinking that bloody mary since Jace explained how getting turned into a vampire works to Clary as well as a slight glimpse of how a certain type of demon would look like.  Overall, I will admit that I really liked this episode since we got to see a couple of Downworlders despite the action sequences being a tad bit brief.

Rating: 9/10

Welcome to the Shadow World (A Review on Mortal Instruments: Shadowhunters TV Show Episodes 1 & 2)

Welcome to the Shadow World (Review of Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments Episodes The Mortal Cup & The Descent into Hell Is Easy):

Warning: Spoilers for those that haven’t read the books or are just starting to.  Apologies in advance fellow mundanes (humans).

                I will admit the first time that I heard about an adaptation of the popular book series I was a bit skeptical since the movie adaptation didn’t do so well and it tried way too hard to follow the book but the first time I watched it, there was so many things that went wrong with it.  However, the portrayal of the “Pandemonium” sequence in  the movie adaptation in which Clary sees Jace kill a Downworlder and screams which gets Simons attention and Jace realizing that she can see them, at least to me and I’m sure a few die-hard fans, was more accurate book wise compared to how it was done in the premiere episode, but then again…the movie veers off in the wrong direction right after that sequence alone. One other little tidbit that I spotted immediately but found to be a nice little twist was that the Pandemonium club wasn’t owned by Magnus Bane, the famous warlock of New York in the books, but in the TV series, the writers decided to let him “have it”.

For those of you not familiar with the book series, to give a brief rundown of what it’s about is that it’s a coming-of-age story in which the main heroine Clary Fray has been leading a fairly normal life until her world is turned upside-down with her mother Jocelyn gone missing.  She learns from an encounter with a Shadowhunter  named Jace that she is also one after having learned that she has something known as “The Sight” which enables someone to see both Shadowhunters and Downworlders (warlocks, vampires, werewolves, faeries, demons).  Along with her best friend Simon, they try to stop a rogue Shadowhunter named Valentine from getting an artifact known as the Mortal Cup which is used to create a Shadowhunter.  Each group of Shadowhunters have a hidden haven that serves as a base of operations known as an Institute and it’s invisible to normal humans.  Throughout their trials and tribulations, Simon undergoes a change which will affect him for quite a while until after a battle in the Shadowhunter city of Alicante where he is given a special rune.  Clary gets a shocking revelation about her family history and Alec gets close to a certain famous warlock.  That is just a small fraction of the first half of the book series which is a total of 6 books, as well as 3 prequels (The Infernal Devices) and the start of a new sequel (The Dark Artifices).

                I like most likely many other fans tried to prepare by reading the books again.  In my case, I started with the very first book.  The reason why I think myself and many other fans agree that a TV series format suits The Mortal Instruments as a whole is that like the book series being a self-discovery type of journey for the main heroine Clary Fray and each book literally being in stages, as well as the chapters being sub-stages…the viewer gets to see how the events she finds herself thrust in affects not only her but those around her, which mainly consists of Luke Garroway, a close friend of Jocelyn (her mother) and as many fans know, a former Shadowhunter turned Downworlder, and her close friend Simon who serves as the eyes and ears for the mundanes (regular human beings) of the Shadowhunters and their world.  I watched the behind the scenes video on how the show was being made prior to re-reading the first book again and I will admit I was amazed at how the crew did an amazing job when designing the sets for the series.

                To give a quick definition of a Shadowhunter is that they are part-angel, part-human hybrids that are tasked to defend the mundane (human) world from the demon world in which both Downworlders and demons inhabit, but are also invisible to mundanes.  The premiere episode of Shadowhunters tries to give a simple rundown of who the main characters are and what the setting is for those that have never read the books.  Mortal Instruments fans however are trying to take in every detail as the episode was going. The opening sequence in which a song called “Monsters” by Ruelle starts the episode off as Shadowhunters Jace and the Lightwood siblings Isabelle and Alec are trailing a shapeshifting demon as it was heading into the Pandemonium club, despite being short I actually found to be a good starter just literally to whet the “appetite” when Clary sees and bumps into Jace as he tries to catch up to the Lightwood siblings and finds out that she can see him whereas her mundane friends cannot.  I thought that Katherine McNamara portrayed Clary Fray really well and oddly enough the sequence in which she enters the Brooklyn Art Institute to submit her work for evaluation and her little sketch idea with the mysterious marking and various demon drawings and skulls, as I recall as well as the fans, was in one of the chapters of the first book of the series, the City of Bones; also the drawings also made me want to unleash my inner artist in me as well. Emeraude Toubia as Isabelle Lightwood…I think I wasn’t the only one of the guys that thought she looked amazing as the character but I had to admit the wardrobe team did an amazing job as well as the creature concept team for the various depictions of the demons, and I have the feeling that we’ll be seeing a bit more eventually.

                However, I will bring up the fact that when it comes to werewolves and how they’re depicted in TV and film, there’s only so many times that it can be twisted every which way in terms of appearance, and by that I mean either bipedal with or without the wolf-like facial features or a quadrupedal canine.  Maxim Roy who portrays Clary’s mother Jocelyn, did an excellent job and I loved the short fight sequence with Jocelyn confronting the Circle members in the loft, really well choreographed.  Another fight sequence had to have been during when Clary was following Jace and the others as they confront the shape-shifting demon they were tailing earlier on and a fight breaks out between the Lightwood siblings, Jace, and Clary against the demons within the club much to her (Clary’s) surprise and horror.  The way how Jace and Alec fought as Parabatai (Shadowhunters with a deep bond) was another short little fight sequence that I found really well done.  Alan van Sprang who I remember seeing in the film Immortals portrayed a really convincing and slightly creepy Valentine, the head of the Circle rogue Shadowhunter group.

                Now in terms of the actual sets for the show, I think it’s safe for me to say that many fans including myself were really surprised and impressed at the same time at the way the Institute looked like.  Despite the book trying it’s best to be descriptive of how the place looks like, I think the crew for the TV show did an amazing job.  As for who is my favorite character…it is so hard to decide because I can relate to Simon a lot as well as many fans because he is…in a way, just like us and sometimes has to deal with strange occurrences in a certain manner, Clary because she’s headstrong, determined, and also has an artistic side.  Now I know that there will be many #Clace (Clary/Jace) fans but I apologize for stating that I happen to be a #Sizzy (Simon/Isabelle) fan mainly because I really enjoyed the way the two interact in the books, so I am looking forward to how it’s done in the TV show.

                As for some of the parts of the episode that felt a tiny bit off and I am sure that fans have also spotted this and probably don’t want to think back to the movie version but since I have a tendency to analyze quite a bit and compare, I decided to put in a little list in each review as to what was different between the movie and the TV series as well as putting a few references with regards to the books so that for those that haven’t read the book series and is just starting to or will start soon will get where it was from.

                Some of the special effects were good visually but the only part that seemed a bit flashy in my opinion was when they show the Portal opening and during the fight scene in the club, when the demons die and suddenly turn all burnt ash-like, the only quick connection I could find in terms of comparable reference was from the horror/action/adventure trilogy based off of a Marvel anti-hero Blade, a human vampire hybrid that hunts vampires and it is usually when he kills the vampires that I noticed the way the vampires disintegrate.

Favorite quotes:

“Hashtag Stalker Mom” – Clary Fray (Katherine McNamara)

“How can I not know who you are?” – Jace Wayland (Dominic Sherwood)

“Has that line seriously ever worked for you? Even once?” – Clary Fray

Overall, I have to admit that for a premiere episode that is based on a popular YA novel series, the cast and crew did a really amazing job and in my honest opinion left quite an impression on me and the many fans of The Mortal Instruments.

Rating: 9/10

                The start of episode 2 pretty much picks up where the premiere episode left off with Simon & Jace both trying to get Clary’s attention and as I mentioned in the review on the premiere episode, Simon acts as the mundane that serves as the eyes and ears of the Shadowhunter world.  At first glance, when Simon sees the interior, I can understand his reaction until Jace uses a rune (the markings for Shadowhunters which has a lot of power) that allows Simon to really see their world.  There were quite a bit of lines that I happen to like from this episode, even if they were a bit witty at best.  When I came across Hodge and the fact that they used a young actor to portray him instead of how he was portrayed in the movie version as well as the books, a slightly old Shadowhunter, & former Circle member…I wasn’t surprised but I had the feeling of a tiny hint of disappointment but since time and budget are a factor as well as a fact of throwing in some twists for the TV show, I was willing to brush it aside.  I will put some of the other comparisons below a little later.

                While this episode does help pick up the pace a little bit, I had to admit that the sequence of the Silent Brothers using the Mortal Sword to try and unlock Clary’s memories was pretty good, I think that the writers jumped way ahead of the book when Clary finds out about Valentine because it’s the last chapter of City of Bones that Valentine brings up that fact.  The little scuffle that Luke had with one of Valentine’s followers/loyalists in the parking lot before going “wolf” on her was a bit of a dead giveaway for those of us that have read the book and if the sound effects didn’t give viewers a clue, the images of the aftermath definitely should when Luke’s partner in the police station brings up the incident.  The interaction between Simon and Isabelle was pretty amusing and I liked the parts when Jace was literally joking with Simon about some things about the runes and then he brings up the fact that Isabelle is a horrible cook which doesn’t go unnoticed by her.  The design of the Silent Brothers were both simple and a bit creepy at the same time and yet I like them already.  The only thing that I was able to piece together was that they had to have used some method to do the voice-over for the Silent Brothers since they talk literally “telepathically” in a sense.

                 Simon also seems to be the comic relief of both the TV show as well as in the books since there was quite a bit of good parts, mostly the way how he reacted to the things that were supernatural and mysterious that a normal Mundane wouldn’t be able to grasp.  As I stated in the review of the first episode, he serves as both the eyes and ears for Mundanes when exposed to the realm of Shadowhunters; however as fans like myself know…Simon doesn’t stay Mundane for long.  Since we get a look at the training room section of the Institute, I have to admit that the set designers did a great job on the appearance and we also get to see Isabelle’s room as well which despite being simple…I was thoroughly impressed on the look itself.  The design of the City of Bones was really simplistic and overall mysterious and creepy at the same time, while not as detailed compared to the movie version yet still kept that sense of foreboding.

                Considering that the writer’s are sort of trying their best to follow the books, I know and I’m sure some, not most fans know that sometimes isn’t the case.  Since episode 3 deals with Simon’s capture and viewers being introduced to the head vampire of New York Camille while Clary tries to convince Jace and the Lightwood siblings that they need her…I don’t even have to predict that the whole party with Magnus and Simon drinking something that isn’t supposed to be consumed by a Mundane is most likely going to be omitted (although parts of it was shown in the movie) and that the aftereffects of his encounter, getting a slight bite or not, will be a foreshadowing of him becoming a vampire.

Favorite quotes:

“Clary is there a war going on that I don’t know about?” – Simon

“There is now” – Jace

“There’s a lot of gear in here.  What did they do, rob a tech shop?” – Simon (Albert Rosende)

“Demons, right that makes perfect sense because there’s demons running all over New York”.  -Simon

“That is the first correct thing that you’ve said all day”. – Jace

“We’re a package deal”. – Clary (when  Jace tries to stop Simon from following them to the training room floor)

“Don’t worry Clary.  I’ll watch over the best friend.  In fact I was about to make breakfast”. – Isabelle

(inhales sharply). “On second thought, I think the runes might be less lethal”. – Jace (Dominic Sherwood)

(scoffs). “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that”. – Isabelle (Emeraude Toubia)

(to Simon). “Hey uh…don’t eat the food.  Dangerous”. – Jace.

“Shadowhunters: looking better in black than the widows of our enemies”. – Jace

Some of the twists that I knew weren’t part of the book were the following:

1.) Dot (Dorothea) being captured by Circle members and then getting killed by Valentine

2.) Downworlders having some connection to the Circle (in the case of this episode, vampires)

3.) Magnus doing a massive warlock-evacuation in the Pandemonium club

Overall, I liked the pacing in this episode as well as the interactions with Simon which were quite entertaining and amusing…including the parts with Isabelle and Simon since I am a #Sizzy fan.

My rating: 9/10

I’m sure many fans have their likes and possible dislikes regarding the episodes and a lot of fans probably were able to recall or spot things that I most likely forgot to mention and also, I am curious…what did you guys think of these episodes.   Feel free to state them in the comments below