Dear Todd Slavkin & Darren Swimmer,
We have never met. But in the past 4 hours, I have researched you – wanting to know what I should expect.
Cause even though I am happy that Ed is no longer Shadowhunter’s showrunner – to be honest, I am still scared. Kinda terrified really. Yes, I am scared of you.
Why?
Well let’s start at the beginning. There are so many fans who have had high hopes for Shadowhunters – and there are some that believe that the first season was great. I believe that it was a shit show. Like a literal shit show. It felt as though they were tossing words up on the walls and saying this makes a coherent sentence.
It didn’t.
Now, I will tell you – I love the casting. But it pissed me off to see the characters that I love be made into a joke. They were all laughable in season one. Yes, I am one of the ones that didn’t even like Malec – and that’s not because I don’t love them – I do. It’s hard to explain. It’s like you know that there is perfection that lies underneath, but if felt like writers who had no idea how to write the relationship – so they were stuck together.
And it felt forced. It felt fake. They deserved more.
Shadowhunters has been like one of those movies that is so bad it will become a cult classic – because people need something to laugh at. And well frankly – we all deserve better. We the fans, the actors, the studio, and most of all Cassie. Now, I know that books aren’t literally translated to the screen. Changes happen. But with what happened in Season 1 – that was like – no one read the books.
Please require all the writers to read the entire series. Going on Wikipedia hasn’t cut it.
But the first season of Shadowhunters took a world that we all love and found a way to destroy it. And I am not talking about the kind of breaking that can easily be put back together. I am talking about the kind of breaking that is like “well shit, that things gonna have gaping holes for the rest of time.”
You are walking into a fandom shit show. It’s sad to watch everyday. We want it healed. But how do you do that, you know?
There are the fans that feel like the TV show should be completely different from the books and there are those that are wondering why no one read the source material. I am on the side of no one has read the source material.
So you are gonna see a lot of arguments online. My suggestion – stay neutral. Don’t give too much away and don’t single out people online repeatedly. But most of all – don’t lie to the fans.
We’ve had enough of that.
We have been told by producers that the show would honor the books. But if that is honoring – well, let me tell you – I need to talk to someone. Cause that first season was disrespectful.
It was gross.
But it didn’t have to be.
You have great actors in your cast. You have an amazing world. I hope that you immerse yourself in it. I hope that you take every bit of it and run with the rich vibrant world that it could be.
But don’t disrespect it.
Don’t create characters that make no sense or have no real purpose. Don’t leave gaping plot holes (BTW – if you could tell us why the hell the demons were buying mundane blood, that would be fantastic – cause still don’t understand that). Don’t treat the characters like the only thing they have going for them is there sexuality. Don’t stray so far from the world that we’re stuck in episode 10 (that’s the one with the alternate universe, right?).
Look – I liked Alphas and I loved Smallville.
I want to believe that you are going to fix this travesty. I want to believe that you are going to come in and really give the fans what they deserve.
I want to believe in you and I know a lot of us do.
This fandom is brutal. They can be kind, but they can also be really mean. No matter what has happened, Don’t isolate the fandom. Embrace them.
Know this – you won’t please everyone. But we’ll be able to tell if you are trying. We’ll be able to tell if you are embracing the fandom. We’ll all be able to tell if you are sitting back and throwing words at the walls again.
We’ve written out our hopes for Season 2 – you can read them here. We have talked about how Malec deserved more (and for the record if people actually read the article, they would see that we said they deserve a better story and more screen time), we’ve addressed the issue with wondering where all the warriors have gone, we’ve addressed Clace, talked about Simon, and addressed some issues with Izzy. And we’ll probably write a lot more – because we CARE. Not to give you a hard time, because we know just how amazing this can be.
We’ve taken more shit than one can imagine.
But we haven’t given up on this show. It can be great. It can leave a legacy. It can be amazing.
You just have to fix what was destroyed.
We’ll be cheering you on – hoping that you give us something better. And we’ll always be honest.
Sometimes too honest. But that’s fandom.
Welcome to the fandom sirs. We truly mean it.
Sincerely,
Fangirlish