It feels like we’re in an era of reboots and revivals, and we’ve got another one in the form of ‘The Spiderwick Chronicles‘, a book series written by Holly Black and illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi that got adapted into a movie back in 2008 by Paramount. Paramount Television Studios and 20th Television have partnered up to bring a reboot in the form of a television show. Originally, the show was planned for Disney+ but was dropped for cost-cutting reasons; thankfully, Roku was able to pick up the already-completed show.
‘The Spiderwick Chronicles‘ follows the Grace family, who move from Brooklyn, New York, to their ancestral home in Henson, Michigan, the Spiderwick Estate. Helen (Joy Bryant) makes the move with her 15-year-old fraternal twin boys, Jared (Lyon Daniels) and Simon (Noah Cottrell), and her older daughter, Mallory (Mychala Lee). Shortly after moving to the Spiderwick Estate, Jared discovers a boggart and realises that magical creatures are real! The only one to believe him is his great-aunt Lucinda (Charlayne Woodard), who implores Jared to find the pages of her father’s field guide to magical creatures and protect them from the murderous Ogre, Mulgarath (Christian Slater).
I had never watched the 2008 film adaptation and had only read the first book in the series. I had also heard things about the film, so I knew roughly what to expect with this show. Firstly, the designs for the creatures were beautiful, and the VFX were done well on them, specifically on the smaller creatures such as Thimbletack and what I believe were sprites, which appeared occasionally throughout the show. To help make the creatures stand out, the colours highlighted their best aspects, making them visually stunning and captivating to watch on screen. Additionally, the attention to detail in the set design added to the overall immersive experience of the show, bringing the fantastical world of the books to life in a visually striking way, which was accompanied by great lighting that the entire show made great use of, along with amazing cinematography that always showcased the beautiful landscapes and, at times, had some interesting camera techniques. Unfortunately, there were only a few times where they got creative with the camera angles early on, and as the show went on, it felt like it became lazy, especially with some awkward and out-of-place shots within a fight sequence that takes place in the show.
This show could’ve genuinely been a really good one, but its downfall comes in the form of just being inconsistent. Like any other show, we get introduced to the characters, the antagonists, and the problems that will need solving by the end of the season, while also introducing a few side stories like Mallory’s fencing class, which will play a big part in the show later. These first few episodes can feel quite slow as there’s exposition galore, but it wasn’t an issue until it felt like we were still setting up the story halfway in. The overall flow of the story started becoming boring, and I unfortunately didn’t care all that much for these side characters. Not to mention, the lack of magical creatures became very noticeable, to the point where I can almost count how many there are in the entire show on one hand. It does pick up once again towards the end, but by that point, it’s too late to save my interest in the show, and I really do love the ending, making me want to see what happens next, but the thought of a second season at Roku sounds highly unlikely.
It’s not all doom and gloom; ‘The Spiderwick Chronicles’, when the writing is good, is at its best, and is what kept me motivated to keep pushing with the show. A heavy element within the show is mental health, a subject that, if handled wrong, could cause problems. For the most part, the show handles it well as one of the main characters, Jared Grace, suffers from oppositional defiant disorder, and it plays a huge part in the story—the way he treats others and why they even had to move to Michigan in the first place. Specifically, during episode seven, we get a deep look into how Jared struggles with it and how it affects him.
I do wish that the mental health was handled better with the other side characters that Jared comes across as he meets Emiko (Momona Tamada), who’s a pathological liar, and Hatcher (Hunter Dillon), who has body dysmorphia (which is why he keeps his helmet on) and generalised anxiety. The show roughly goes into Hatcher’s body dysmorphia, but not enough to create a bigger picture of it and provide educational information on it to the viewers. With Emiko, it only ever seemed like her pathological lying was used for comedic relief, which wouldn’t have been an issue if they actually deep-dived into her character and showed how it affects her life in a bad way and how she tries to deal with it, but the show never goes to that extent with its other characters who suffer from mental health.
Another great thing about the writing was the dynamic between the siblings. Most shows make sibling relationships seem perfect with the occasional argument, but this felt real and relatable, constantly fighting and then getting along again once it mattered. Lyon Daniels, Noah Cottrell, and Mychala Lee really sell it in their roles as siblings and make it believable from the start with the chemistry that they hold with each other. There’s no surprise that the sibling relationship is good, as the show was developed by Aron Eli Coleite, who also wrote some episodes himself and developed and wrote for Locke and Key, which also had some great sibling writing.
The standout of this show comes from its villain, Mulgarath, who is played by Christian Slater as he takes the form of Dr. Dorian Brauer. Christian Slater gives off a menacing performance as Mulgarath, but without that horror inspiration that the 2008 film or the books have, he misses his full potential as this threatening villain with stakes. It also doesn’t help when there are cliffhangers that are genuinely jaw-dropping, only for the next episode to slightly brush over the previous reveal. This is a problem that occurs quite frequently throughout this show.
Accompanying Mulgarath is Calliope, played by Alyvia Alyn Lind. Her performance isn’t bad, and she actually has some good scenes that are memorable, but overall, as a character, she doesn’t offer much and feels irrelevant to the overall story that they’re trying to tell. A character that is relevant to the story is Thimbletack, and before watching this show, I wasn’t aware that Jack Dylan Grazer was in the show, and that was because I couldn’t tell that Thimbletack’s voice was indeed his. Jack Dylan Grazer has stepped into the realm of voice acting recently and proves in ‘The Spiderwick Chronicles’ just why he’s so good and deserving of these voice roles, but unfortunately he feels underutilised compared to his prior version and quite possibly is the weakest version of the character.
‘The Spiderwick Chronicles’ is an inconsistent retelling of the children’s novels that is reimagined for a teen audience, and this is what personally lets it down, as it completely misses that sense of adventure and identity. The performances are great, with good visuals and set design, but strong components of the story, such as the inclusion of mental health, can sometimes not be written to the best of their capabilities.
As mentioned previously, with the move to Roku and the lack of marketing this show has received, I find it impossible for it to get a second season renewal, but I would love to see one with some honest improvements to the writing.
