The Roku Channel Original Series The Spiderwick Chronicles was an interesting series to watch and I have to say this I don't know much about the book series so my opinions will be only about how I felt about the show. I thought the story was alright I like how they explain the history of the Spiderwick home, the town, and the creatures but after episode 2 it started to not make any sense to me. The Characters in this series were okay I liked some of them but the rest of them weren't good and I wanted to like the other characters but I could have done without them. The CGI was okay in some scenes but it was not the best throughout the series and the one thing I'm not a fan of is cliffhangers and the way this season ended I didn't like it.
Helen Grace was a good character in this series she is the mother of Simon, Jared, and Mallory and she is one of the characters I did like, I like the backstory we got about Helen and her family and I thought the writing for this character was okay and maybe I miss it but I didn't know what she did for a living and the short relationship she had with Dorian Brauer aka Mulgarath was a little weird. I like the interaction between Helen and her mother Melvina in episode 3 the conversation they had about Jared's mental health was really good but after that, the writing just wasn't good and it sucks because I think they could have done more with this character.
Simon Grace was an okay character I like his story for what it was and I also like his relationship with his family, I thought the friendship between Simon and Calliope was okay at first but after a while, I didn't care for it. The interaction between Simon and Jared just wasn't good to me and again I have to say the writing made me not care about this brother's story they were trying to tell us. I thought the interaction between Simon and Mulgarath was alright but again I didn't care about this, with better writing I would have liked this character more but I did like the conversation between Simon and his Father Richard Grace it was good and I wanted to see Richard have more interactions with the other Graces kids.
Mallory Grace was my favorite character I like her story in this series and the writing for this character was okay, it could have been a little better but I was fine with it. I thought the scenes with Mallory training with Valentina and Bree Kent were okay and it was nice to see Mallory finally believing her brother Jared and teaming up with him and the others to stop Mulgarath. I did like how Mallory was trying to get The Vorpal Sword to work for her and when she finally got the sword to work for her it was a nice moment. The fight scene she had with Mulgarath wasn't good but overall I like this character and it felt like Mallory should have been the main character trying to stop Mulgarath but what we got was okay.
Jared Grace was an alright character but to be honest I did not like this Jared character at all, I thought the writing made Jared look bad he was too over the top for me in most of the scenes he was in. Now I understand that Jared has Oppositional Defiant Disorder aka ODD and I did like how we saw Jared trying to deal with his ODD while also trying to figure out what is going on in the town and seeing magical creatures. What I didn't like was Jared being this energetic character who didn't know how to calm down and was always arguing with his family and the other characters. I did like the friendship between Jared and Emiko you can tell that Emiko started to like Jared after getting to know a little bit more about him, after Emiko went into that deep sleep just like everybody else in the town we see Jared check on her every day and I thought it was nice to see him care about her. The conversation between Mulgarath and Jared was good and I did like what they did with both characters at the end of episode 8, but like I said I did not like this character and if the writing was done differently I might not have a problem with Jared.
Mulgarath and Calliope were okay characters I thought the writing for both of them was alright in some scenes and the CGI of Mulgarath was not good, but I did think Mulgarath's backstory was a little interesting he has a typical villain story but it wasn't bad. Like I said before the short relationship between Helen and Mulgarath was weird he only got with Helen just to make Jared upset and watching Mulgarath impersonate Jared's brother, sister, and the other characters to get the maps from him was cool. To be honest I didn't care about him using a dragon and trying to control it to take over the town and the world. Calliope's backstory we got was okay, at first she was all about helping Mulgarath take over but after hanging out with Simon and the group more we see that she has a change of heart and decides to help them. I thought the interaction between Calliope and Mulgarath was good I liked seeing them working together and I would have liked to see the both of them go up against each other in the last episode. I wonder what Calliope is going to do next now that she is with The Grace crew in the next season if we get one but like I said this character was just okay to me.
Now I didn't like the writing for Lucinda Spiderwick this character was supposed to be the main focus of the story but she was only in a couple of episodes. We did get Lucinda's backstory and it was okay but this was not good writing and I don't understand why they did this to the Lucinda character, they could have done so much more with her but they didn't. Richard Grace was also a good character like I said before the interaction and conversation that Richard had with Simon were good and I wish that this character was in more episodes but I can see why they didn't want him involved in other ones.
The other characters were fine to me Emiko, Valentina, Thimbletack, and Bree Kent were cool but I didn't care for Hatcher or Tanner Kent. The writing for these characters was fine but it wasn't strong enough for me to care about them and if the writers had changed things around I think the series would have been a little better. The CGI in this series was okay but it wasn't the best, the cast was good but I can tell that some of them didn't work well with each other and I think if they had made changes to the cast it might have been a little better. This series wasn't the best it had some okay moments but it had some bad moments too. Like I said before if the writing and some changes to the cast were to happen I think this series could have been a little better.
If you are a fan of book series you might like this but to be honest I can't recommend to watch this, I try not to be too negative but I have to let people know how I feel about this show. If you just want to watch something new go ahead and check it out.
Comments