#shadowhunters S0306

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

Shadowhunters Season 3 Episode 6, A Window Into An Empty Room -- Review

Welcome to another Shadowhunters review. Yup, it's time for my weekly subjugation of bad writing. But at this point, who's fault is it really? The writers? Or mine -- for consistently choosing to come back to this show. I could quite simply say no and drop the show but I'm just too damn curious to do that. I guess at this point, it’s self-imposed torture. So Season 3, Episode 6, A Window Into an Empty Room, here we come.

So some weeks back, I made a post about my thoughts and opinions on the Dom Controversy and I got a lot of new followers because of that. Apparently, some of you think I'm really wise and mature for saying the things I said in that post. And whereas I'm honored that you're showing an interest in me, I would like to preface this review with saying that I am NOT a huge supporter of this show. I do enjoy certain elements of it but I'm not what would be classified as a devoted fan. For me, Shadowhunters is not a good show and I do get very critical of the show in my reviews. Honestly, for me, I watch the show because 1) I'm too curious not to and 2) I find that this show can be so bad its funny and that's how I reap enjoyment out of it. I am not at all invested in this show or its characters anymore. If you're a die hard fan and you lash out at everyone who has a different opinion than you, you might want to skip these. I'm just saying. My reviews may not be for you. If you do decide to be a total troll, well then pay attention to the below disclaimer. 

This is going to be an honest review of my thoughts and feelings regarding this episode. If you're the kind of Shadowhunters fan where you only want to hear positive things about the show, this is not the place for you. If you decide to stick around and get offended by what is said, then that's on you. I warned you. Just know that if you send me any rude comments or messages, I will 100% ignore you. I find that's the best way to deal with bullies. I work 14 hour days. Do you really think I want to waste my incredibly valuable free time dealing with derogatory comments? Hell no. This review will consist of my honest opinions. Opinions are never right or wrong. I'm not telling YOU how to think and feel. I'm telling you what I, quirky and socially awkward me, think and feel. So please, lets discuss with dignity and respect. If I'm critical about this show, it's only because I want it to get better. There is, in fact, a difference between hating a show and being critical of it. I do not hate Shadowhunters, I am being critical and analyzing the flaws as I would with any other show. There are positives but there are also negatives. It's great if you want to promote positivity with this show (and I encourage you to do so) but that doesn't mean I'm not going to point out the things that are legitimately wrong with it. Also, keep in mind that despite the fact that I do like the books, me being critical of this show has nothing to do with my fondness for the books. I don't really care if the show deviates from the source material as long as the changes are good, it makes sense, and it doesn't create plot holes within the confines of the world the show has created. My problems with this show are problems I would have with any show or book for that matter. I think it's perfectly reasonable to take issue with a show that has plot holes, shoddy world building, and inconsistent characters. There will be spoilers for the books and movie. 

If any of you know me, you would think this would be the kind of episode I'd enjoy. Just chalk full of character moments and whatnot. That stuff's catnip for your resident hopeless romantic. But this episode really left me feeling apathetic and when I say apathetic, I mean BORED. Considering most of this episode took place in a bar, you’d think I would have a great time with this episode. Watching the Shadowhunters characters hang out a bar, watching their shenanigans, it should’ve been a lot of fun. Yeah, no. I can't believe I wasted my lunch hour watching this episode. This episode had a couple of issues. 1)Remember, how I talk about how the show switches through plots super quickly and as a result you lose any sense of empathy for the story being told? Well, that's what happened here except it was less about plot and more about character dynamics. We kept on switching through character scenes and you couldn't really get a grasp on the good, juicy character bits because once you were starting to feel something you were immediately taken to a completely different character dynamic and then you lost whatever impact that scene would've had the potential to leave you with. And 2) Subtlety. This show is always not subtle but this episode in particular failed a lot. It was completely unsubtle in everything it tried to do. And of course, like I say in every review, the dialogue is atrocious. It was so forced and it made me want to pull my hair out. I wish I knew what happened in the writers room. I wish I could have a meeting with the writers and be all, "Yo, this isn't how real people talk to each other." But let's get on with this.

The A-Plot...Which I Wish Would Hurry Up and End

Let's talk about this just so I can get it out of the way. Still hate this plot. There's nothing interesting about it. Lillith is being her typical bland self, giving Jace the exact same villain monologue she gave him a couple of episodes ago. Which by the way, makes no sense. Why is she grand standing to someone who clearly is not in control of his own mind at the moment? I mean, it would seem like he doesn't even really remember what happens so what's the point of her gloating to him? And like I said, she gives him her motivations a second time as if the audience didn't remember the first time. I really hate it when the writers treat me like I'm stupid.

But apparently, Owl Jace needs to find one last virtuous human to, I guess, desecrate their purity. I think that's what's going on here. Jace finds one on the street but bumps into Alec before he can complete his mission. Then we get this overly friendly Jace persona who is obviously not Jace. This is what I mean by subtlety. You can tell clearly from the tone, that Jace doesn't really have any feelings about anyone for that matter. Which I find odd to begin with since Lillith only took away his love for Clary. He should still be feeling things for Alec and Izzy, right? Unless his ability to love is tied to Clary, which on a psychological level, I hope isn't the case because that's really unhealthy. So for whatever reason, the show decided to go all the way across the room instead of just meeting somewhere in the middle with this. Writers, your audience is smart. You can throw in some subtlety, a pinch of subtext, and we'll pick up on it. 

Everyone has a seemingly happy reunion with Jace but Clary (being her typical Mary Sue self) feels like something's off. She meets with Magnus to discuss the demon who attacked her and after getting some kind of demonic heat signature off of Clary's body (yeah, it's just as convenient and weird as it sounds) determines that the demon he's been fighting is the same demon that attacked her. He sends a fire message for assistance and we get a visit from Brother Zachariah. Book fans know who he is. And I myself, as a book fan, didn't give two shits. Why? Because while I applaud the show for putting in book nods, especially someone as much loved as Brother Zachariah is, these nods mean absolutely nothing without the context. Brother Zachariah was completely unnecessary here. It could've been any Silent Brother or really any warlock to relay this information. And seeing how they've messed up the yin fen storyline, I don't want them to touch any of the TID characters. Please, keep them separate in their own universes. As I've said, I don't mind when the show puts book things in but at the same time, I wish they would throw the books away and do their own thing because them mixing and mashing their own ideas for the story plus book ideas hasn't been working out very well. Choose one track of adaptation and stay on that track. Trying to do both isn't working. It just makes the story overly convoluted and confusing. 

While at the Hunter's Moon, Jace comes across both Ollie and Charlie who are apparently giving off virtuous auras. And at this point, I was good with either one of them going crazy and potentially dying. I don't like either one of them but Jace goes after Ollie just as Clary and Magnus realize that she's in danger. They show up, completely suck at fighting Owl Jace and then Luke shoots Jace a few times and that causes him to lose the weird shape shifting mask he has going on and climbs up a building spider-man style and Ollie, now possessed (I guess), runs off. Most likely to kill her lover. As horrible as it sounds, I'm hoping both her and her partner (Sam) die in the next episode. I find both of them woefully uninteresting and since the show doesn’t have the time to flesh them out as characters, they're just a waste of screen time. And now everyone is super shocked now that they know what the audience has known for a long time, Jace is the Owl. Although, honestly, Clary didn't react super shocked. How about once more with feeling, Clary? 

And also, let's talk about how dumb the writers apparently think we are. Magnus tells Clary that Lillith most likely is hiding in human form and Clary legitimately asks, "Is that even possible?" What show has this girl been watching? Clary, practically everything in your world shape shifts. You, yourself, have done it. You turned the Mortal Cup into a World's Best Dad mug. The first demon you ever encountered was a shapeshifter. Of course it's fucking possible. Why did the writers feel like this question needed to be asked? Did they think we forgot? Considering how often it's integrated into the story, I'm thinking not. I know I'm certainly not likely to forget considering what a huge plot hole that shape shifting rune is and I'm reminded of the plothole every time its used. 

Also, I'm not sure if it was just me, but did anyone else find Clary particularly cringe-worthy in this episode? None of her lines were working for me. But then again, I guess I've never made any secret about how much I don't like her as a character to begin with. Plain and simple, she just such a cheesy, one-dimensional character and Kat really doesn't bring anything special to the table in portraying her. Even though I think Kat McNamara is a wonderful person, I think she's absolutely adorable, her as Clary just has never worked for me. 

Also, this episode ended in a really strange spot. They ended right on the climax. Even though I was glad the episode had finally ended, I was left with, "Well, where's the rest of it?" Which is something I haven't had to think since the ye old days of Season One. 

More Malec Immortality Drama

So we got more Malec drama in this episode with plenty of Alec salt, which I adore. Because speaking as a mortal being who will eventually die, coming to terms that your immortal lover is going to watch you wither and die over the years can't really be that comforting of a thought. But again, while this is a plot point in the books, I don't think it works that well for Show Malec. Show Alec has always been proven that he wants to talk things out, get things out in the open and here, he's just kind of giving up and letting Magnus call the shots on how this fight goes just doesn't feel like Show Alec. And so help me, if in the next episode he apologizes for everything and Magnus apologizes for nothing, I'm going to pull out my hair.

Unfortunately, this fight is very in character for Show Magnus. How dismissive he is of issues but this is an issue I feel he really shouldn't be so naturally dismissive of. He's had a lot of lovers. Surely, he's had this problem before. And yet, he just expects Alec to forget about it and just be fine with it? No words of wisdom, nothing? At least in the book, there was kind of a reason given for how this was handled. When Malec first started, Magnus was very upfront with the relationship they were in. They were to live in the now and not talk about his past and it only became an issue when Alec realized he wanted more. And then Show Magnus gets angry with Alec and calls Alec a child and Alec decides to leave. Which good for Alec. I feel like they both need to do some soul searching here. Alec needs to figure out what he really wants and if Magnus can give him what he really wants. We all want love but love is founded upon equality. It requires both parties to be on equal ground. Both parties need to be able to grow and change with the other. And that's something that's not possible for Magnus who won't be able to grow and change with Alec. So Alec needs to decide if he's really okay with that. And Magnus also needs to look at this and really think about why this bothers Alec. Why Alec can't just let this go. He's essentially asking Alec to give up everything while he loses nothing. It's that compromising issue I've often talked about with Magnus. For him, it's always his way or the highway. He never meets at common ground. Like I've said before, there's probably a reason why he's had 12,000 relationships and I don't think it entirely has to do with the immortality issue. If I'm dating someone who refuses to compromise, I'll show them my lack of compromising when I toss them to the curb.

And Magnus stans, feel free to come at me if you want. But you’ll only be wasting your time as I have little to no investment in this show or its characters anymore. I’m literally just watching to see what happens. 

But Alec meets that shadowhunter who complimented his bravery last episode and of course, we only get one nice shadowhunter in the Institute because he's needed to further Alec's plot. Why can't there just be nice people at the Insitute? Why do they all have to be jerks? Complexity, writers, PLEASE. I get that the shows’ going for this whole xenophobic angle with the shadowhunters but not only is it boring as hell but I think it's kind of unbelievable considering these shadowhunters are living in NYC, home of the weird -- and that's just on a mundane level, I bet the shadow world is infinitely more weird. Maybe the Institute's xenophobic shadowhunters would make more sense if the Institute was in Lima Ohio but NYC, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But blonde shadowhunter (he doesn't even have a name yet) tells Alec to pretty much just stay true to himself and do whatever he feels is right. I'm not sure if this is going to lead to Alec cheating on Magnus, who knows. But hopefully this fight will end with both of them having done some thorough soul searching and coming out with a much stronger relationship than they had before. Because I'll be real with you guys, the way Malec was left off in the finale of 2B, even though they were together, it still felt like a pebble could be thrown at the foundation of their relationship and it would crumble to dust. And we got fans talking about how much they can't wait for these two to get married? They have far too many issues to be thinking about marriage right now. 

But in this Malec subplot, Magnus does tell Clary that both he and Alec said things they regret so #progress for Magnus, I guess. 2B Magnus would never have said that. Never would've entertained the idea that he might've reacted badly to something. 

Izzy and the Boyfriend I Don't Care About...And Then the Boyfriend I Do Care About

The show is really toting around this Charlie angle. They're trying so hard to make the audience see this guy as a legitimate character. But the show's issue is that by them having every character tell us how great Charlie is, good character that does not make. We need to see him interact with Izzy, interact with Izzy's world, build real bonds with these other characters for me to give a shit about him. The only thing we know about this guy is he's a pediatric surgeon which I find laughable considering the atrocious stitches he gave Izzy last episode and potentially a creepy stalker. See my episode 5 review if you're confused about my stalker remark. Basically, the show has its characters treat Charlie as this amazing guy for Izzy but do nothing to make the audience care about him. He's just a very bland, run of the mill character and I hope he doesn't stick around for too long. But then again, did he really have any potential to be anything but that anyway? The show keeps on jumping through plots and character dynamics so quickly, they don't have time to develop Charlie as a character. Again, subtlety is the key here. When introducing a new character, the audience doesn't want a character jammed down there throat and being told we should like him, we want to make that decision on our own with actual given character development. But sadly we get none of that.

Then we got some Sizzy feels which were just awesome. I really like the angle the show has been going with Sizzy. Just being these really casual friends supporting each other whenever they need it. This may be the one endgame book couple that the show doesn't completely screw up. I actually really like what they're doing here and hopefully they'll keep doing what they're doing. I don't know if they're going to be endgame in the show but I really hope so. Alberto and Emeraude have a really fun chemistry and I'm interested to see how that'll play out in a relationship dynamic. But again, it all falls on the writers to be subtle and complex with the relationship. Because if there's any endgame couple within the TMI books that's complex, it's Sizzy. 

Also, Izzy was completely badass with her staff again. Yes, I approve. Throw that whip to the trash.

More Heidi vs Maureen

We got more Heidi in this episode and whereas I didn't completely hate her storyline, I can't help but feel this might be more impactful with Show Maureen. For one thing, Show Maureen has a relationship with the audience. We've met her before so we're more likely to care about her. She was a friend of Simon's to begin with so the guilt of knowing that he did this to one of his friends would've been so much more powerful. And then giving her up to the Praetor Lupus probably would've killed him. I keep on imagining this storyline of Simon accidentally turning Maureen and Raphael torturing her into becoming a daylighter and through her torture the only thing she could focus on was Simon and the massive crush she had on him. That through this torture, he was her center and this caused her to fixate on him in an unhealthy way. Simon could've been dealing with this and having a hard time trying to save Maureen from herself but also trying to protect his friends from her. Since Maureen was also Clary's friend we could've had some interesting character dynamics with her. Clary, despite being a fully fledged shadowhunter, still wants to help her friend. And then at the end, when Maureen really goes off the rails, Clary realizes the identity problem she has. She hasn't chosen to be a shadowhunter or a mundane. She's trying to keep one foot in each world instead of choosing. And her lack of choosing is what brought her to the Maureen situation. So yeah, this basically just turned into a rant on how I think Maureen would've been far more interesting in this plot than Heidi could ever hope to be.

Also, I want to point out how dumb it is to incorporate Heidi into the story only to get rid of her a few episodes later. If she doesn't come back at a later point, what was the point of this storyline? It'll just turn into a waste of screen time. 

Maryse De-Runed and Everyone's Fine With It

So everyone's being super chill about Maryse's derunement. Or I should say everyone who has a name on this show and if they have an attachement to an actual character plot. I still don't agree with Maryse's punishment. I definitely feel like it's a little uneven and dumb. I kind of wish we got something leading up to the derunement. But instead Maryse just pops up and is all, "yup, no longer got my tats." The show also needs to make up their minds on rules for this derunement as well. Are they or are they not allowed to have relationships with other shadowhunters? The altercation when she first shows up leads me to think they're not but then Alec as the leader of the Institute says no, Marsye is welcome anytime. And I'm all for Alec breaking rules but then I'm also like, "It is the law, why is he still the head of the Institute if he keeps on breaking rules?" Clearly he's the only progressive shadowhunter around besides blondie. I highly doubt they'd allow someone like him to be in a position of power. Shadowhunters are a military force and in a military force, rules are probably the most important thing within the structure. You don’t break the rules and not suffer consequences. But this is Freeform, what am I thinking? Apply logic? Maybe I really have gone insane.

Then we get some really clunky dialogue. Seriously, who says, "My Daughter" in a serious way anymore? Whenever my parents utter that phrase, it's usually meant to be sarcastic or glib. And Izzy tells Maryse she, Alec, and Jace are taking her out for the night. In which they spend some time with Maryse and then all immediately abandon her at the Hunter's Moon because you know, they've got relationship dynamics to flesh out after all. Maryse was just a way to get them all in one place. 

And in another attack of the writers not being subtle, we have Luke out of nowhere flirting with Maryse which I found to be quite cringey. Not the acting because I could watch Isaiah Mustafa all day. It's just him out of nowhere being all of sudden overly friendly with Maryse. When it was teased that Maryse and Luke were going to become a thing, I was like, "I'm down with that." They're relationship could be really interesting. But of course, I forgot about the writer's inability to be subtle and a relationship like theirs requires both complexity and subtlety. Which sadly does not exist in this show's resume. 

Well, that's Season 3 Episode 6, A Window Into an Empty Room for you. Man, that title is a mouthful. Honestly, not a fan of this episode. A couple of scenes I liked but as I've said previously, this show has a tendency to have too many plots going on at once and as a result can't give enough time to those individual plots. The same thing happened here with this episode. Instead of plot, though, it was character relationships. Lots of character relationships to get through but not nearly enough time was spent with on any single one to leave me resonating with emotion. It was all very clunky and boring to watch. And this episode was extremely unsubtle with everything it attempted to do. Plus, the dialogue was atrocious and I really do feel like these writers are either 1) sociopaths who have only a very surface level grasp of human emotion and a very surface level grasp of what you should say in certain situations or 2) they feed their scripts through a robot that writes the most generic dialogue to move the episode along. It’s not even that the dialogue is bad (I mean it is, don’t get me wrong), but it’s also boring as hell. I'd probably give this episode a C. I just didn't find it interesting. Sorry guys. As always, I'll hope for better next week. 

That's all I've got for you guys. If you had any thoughts, I'd love to hear them. As always, please be respectful. These are my opinions and they do not, in any way, reflect yours. If you really feel you need to be a troll and leave me hate, feel free to do so but just know, I probably won't respond. Like I’ve said, I have very little investment in this show and its characters. Leaving me hate isn’t going to do anything because I just don’t care enough to be offended.