Some people already saw this episode on Freeform app and said it's much better and darker, but I thought the pilot was much better. Now I'm very concerned about this show. If this fails, there probably won't be another reboot and this can be so good if done right. The books and the world Cassandra Clare created is amazing, but this show (for now, I hope it gets better) ruins it even more than the movie.
They promised us that this will do the book series justice. So far, it doesn't. There is barely any Gothic atmosphere and characters aren't fleshed out enough, but they still have time, so I'll forgive them here. The main problem I have is that it just doesn't feel as much of a big story anymore. It has all the important plot points from the books and I like that, but they are rushing it! In the books (and the movie), all the events from the first two episodes of the show happen in three days or something, but here it's all ONE DAY! I hope the entire season doesn't turn out to be just one crazy night for the characters. They are supposed to expand, but they rush it and that's the biggest problem here. Now, when I take a look at the plot point this episode is focused on (City of Bones part) they did a solid job and the central scene (the one with Silent Brothers) is okay but I liked it better in a movie because City of Bones was huge in a movie just like it was in the book. Here it's just one cave. I know that they have a much smaller budget here, but they could've at least show it as some kind of maze or something. But they totally nailed Silent Brothers. In the movie they were fine, they were well done, intimidating and everything, but they were even better here and the voices were better too and you could really feel uneasiness when they were around. And also, Valentine (the villain) is much better in this episode. In the pilot he was a little bit goofy, not as much as the one in the movie who was freaking out all the time and acted like a 12 year old, but still goofy, he was just like: "I'm so bad, muahahahaha", here they really show him as a psychotic power-hungry maniac and they show it in a best way possible. And really, Kat McNamara isn't as bad as some people say. She was very good, even better than Lily Collins in a movie in my opinion and the rest is pretty good and I liked that they fleshed out Isabelle more and she's not just that one hot girl, she's actually very cool and while I like how they are teasing all that romance that's yet to come, Freeform, let me tell you this: The Shadowhunters fandom isn't like Twilight fandom. Most of us care about story and the world much more than the romance (in my opinion, the romance should even be reduced a little bit). It can be nice to see your favorite characters get together and everything, bit that's not the only thing we care about. Also, they should take their time to set up the world because they are probably rushing the plot of the first book just because it was shown in a movie already, but they shouldn't do that. They have plenty of time here and they should set up the world properly because this probably won't get another chance if it fails.
They promised us that this will do the book series justice. So far, it doesn't. There is barely any Gothic atmosphere and characters aren't fleshed out enough, but they still have time, so I'll forgive them here. The main problem I have is that it just doesn't feel as much of a big story anymore. It has all the important plot points from the books and I like that, but they are rushing it! In the books (and the movie), all the events from the first two episodes of the show happen in three days or something, but here it's all ONE DAY! I hope the entire season doesn't turn out to be just one crazy night for the characters. They are supposed to expand, but they rush it and that's the biggest problem here. Now, when I take a look at the plot point this episode is focused on (City of Bones part) they did a solid job and the central scene (the one with Silent Brothers) is okay but I liked it better in a movie because City of Bones was huge in a movie just like it was in the book. Here it's just one cave. I know that they have a much smaller budget here, but they could've at least show it as some kind of maze or something. But they totally nailed Silent Brothers. In the movie they were fine, they were well done, intimidating and everything, but they were even better here and the voices were better too and you could really feel uneasiness when they were around. And also, Valentine (the villain) is much better in this episode. In the pilot he was a little bit goofy, not as much as the one in the movie who was freaking out all the time and acted like a 12 year old, but still goofy, he was just like: "I'm so bad, muahahahaha", here they really show him as a psychotic power-hungry maniac and they show it in a best way possible. And really, Kat McNamara isn't as bad as some people say. She was very good, even better than Lily Collins in a movie in my opinion and the rest is pretty good and I liked that they fleshed out Isabelle more and she's not just that one hot girl, she's actually very cool and while I like how they are teasing all that romance that's yet to come, Freeform, let me tell you this: The Shadowhunters fandom isn't like Twilight fandom. Most of us care about story and the world much more than the romance (in my opinion, the romance should even be reduced a little bit). It can be nice to see your favorite characters get together and everything, bit that's not the only thing we care about. Also, they should take their time to set up the world because they are probably rushing the plot of the first book just because it was shown in a movie already, but they shouldn't do that. They have plenty of time here and they should set up the world properly because this probably won't get another chance if it fails.