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| Maxim Roy and Kat McNamara as Jocelyn and Clary Fray in Freeform's Shadowhunters |
I’ve been waiting for this show for a very long time. This is the first time I’ve followed the production of a series so closely and been so wrapped up in it. I was optimistic about everything, though I had a few “I don’t know about that” moments throughout production. I knew that the first few episodes would probably be lackluster but most supernatural shows are lacking at the beginning (Teen Wolf, The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural). The beginning of a series isn’t meant to be this wild, epic thing. It’s there to introduce plots, characters, and some mythology. So anyone expecting to be blown away by the first two episodes needs to bring down their expectations to a more realistic level. This review will contain spoilers for the first two episodes of Shadowhunters. That being said, let’s rip this baby apart (please don’t rip apart an actual baby, you’ll get blood everywhere).
The bad:
- “The Mortal Cup” was… not very good. There was too much confusion, even for me, someone who read the books it was based on. We open on the Pandemonium scene and knowing that Clary’s not meant to see Jace and then we jump back to earlier then we (at a really awkward placement) jump back 10 years then we jump back to now then we go to the Pandemonium scene again. And all this happens within 20 minutes. The fight in Pandemonium was a hot mess. I could see an entire foot of space between the Shadowhunters hands and legs and the demons they were hitting. The editing in the fight was all over the place, Clary was awkwardly sliding on the ground, she inexplicably picked up a Seraph Blade, her reactions to everything were odd. Then some of the dialogue is kinda… bad. Clary calling her life “mundane,” Clary saying she’s not going on an epic journey, the random “all the legends are true” that doesn’t explain a damn thing even though Jace said it would explain things simply??
- There are a few jumps and things that aren’t explained. I’ve rewatched the episodes to see if I missed anything or if there were explanations and there weren’t. If I’m two episodes in and already seeing glaring holes, that’s not a good thing. For example, I’m assuming Dot died when Valentine stabbed her in episode 2 but she was thrown, by a Shadowhunter, through a window, hit her face on a metal gate, and then smacked into the ground and she lived. But a stab kills her? And when Clary mentions that the guy had a Circle rune? She didn’t even know what the Circle rune was? Neither did the audience? We hadn’t even met Hodge yet? Even if we saw other Circle members’ runes, Clary didn’t???? How did Jace find her house?
- It’s been two episodes of Shadowhunter this and Shadowhunter that but I don’t get why they’d explain that warlocks are half demon, half human, but not say how Shadowhunters, who the show is actually about, are half human, half angel. They’re just glossing over that right now and I feel like that should really be explained, sooner rather than later.
- It’s not really a bad thing but it’s not a good thing either. One of the things I liked about the City of Bones book was that Valentine didn’t show up until the ending and he was just talked about until that point. Sometimes having a villain appear at the beginning can be good and I guess we’ll see if that’s the case here. But when you build up a character being dangerous for multiple episodes, it makes the villain that much scarier. Like on The Vampire Diaries, season 2 took between 8-10 episodes to build up Klaus’s character so when he actually showed up on the show, it was automatically frightening. Even Jessica Jones took a couple of episodes to show us Kilgrave for the first time, though by the time we actually met his character, he was built up so much and so disturbing from just what we’d heard about him that he was 10x as nasty and gross as he would’ve been if we’d met him in the beginning. I just feel like with a character as crazy and evil as Valentine, they could’ve waited until at least episode 4 or 5 to meet him, let it stay a bit of a mystery where he was holding Jocelyn.
- I still can’t stop laughing at “demonic murders”. Like, I’m not sure if it’s meant to be funny or not. What major police force is going to label a bunch of murders as “demonic”? “Hello, ma’am, I’d like to ask you a few questions. I’m investigating the demonic murders.” I didn’t think we could get a police force more campy than the Beacon Hills police. I was wrong.
The good:
- I like the idea of Shadowhunters having the younger generation not know everything about the Circle. It’s like a mysterious thing for the characters to figure out throughout the season. The show is dumping a lot of information and twists on the audience rather early on so some of the things that weren’t a big deal in the books (the characters always knew everything about the Circle in the books) can be expanded on and switched up. And I thought it was cool how they show the physical effects of Hodge’s curse by having him be hurt whenever he speaks about the Circle or Valentine. This is going to make ~something~ with Hodge that happens in the books make you feel more sympathetic towards him because one, he was being tortured, and two, you’ll wonder if he tried to prevent what he does in the end of City of Bones and tried to get some help from the other characters but he literally, physically couldn’t do it.
- In the books, I thought it was ridiculous that everyone knew Clary’s birth date and that Jocelyn would’ve had to have been married to Valentine at the point when she got pregnant and nobody thought “hey wait, this girl could be Valentine’s daughter” and in the show, I was not looking forward to a dragged out, obvious twist. But then they revealed that he was her dad in the second episode and I was so happy. This is followed up by Alec being suspicious that she’s a spy because she’s related to Valentine (not going to spoil the books but this mirrors something that happens in book 2) and Clary being like “well I just found out my dad is some psycho who’s gonna kill everybody” and I feel like everyone has a logical reaction to this.
- While reading the books (or even watching the movie *shudder*) I really couldn’t stand Alec or Jocelyn. They were just completely unlikable for me. I didn’t like Alec because he had no personality that went beyond “I hate Clary, I like Jace” and Jocelyn was just lying so much that I was like ??? Get your shit together?? In the show, Alec is an ass but he’s an ass to everyone and we can see that he’s such a rule follower and he doesn’t like deviating from plans and he always focuses on the job at hand. And he’s like this when he’s around anyone, to the point where Isabelle says he’s always so rigid so his entire characterization isn’t centered around him being jealous of Clary, much like it was in the first few books. Jocelyn tries more than once to tell Clary the truth and she feels remorse for what she did. The fact that she tried to right her wrongs actually makes you care for her and want Clary to find her.
- Episode two, “The Descent Into Hell Isn't Easy” was a lot better done than episode one. The acting was much less over the top, the dialogue wasn’t cringy and super foreshadow-y, the characters seemed more emotive, there were more intentionally funny moments. It was just better.
- If you’ve followed me for a while, you know I was really “uhhhh” about Kat McNamara as Clary. I just wasn’t a fan of her acting and the clips and peeks we got either had her being really good or reaaaally bad. And then “The Mortal Cup” was going and I kept cringing at her line delivery and I was thinking “dear God, please just let this be because the entire episode is messy because I can’t take a whole season of this” and then I got to “The Descent Into Hell Isn't Easy” and she was noticeably better. Of course, there’s still room for improvement but she’s much better than she was in “The Mortal Cup”.
The fuck?:
- I don’t get why Valentine isn’t in Idris? Or really just why, of all places he could hide, he went to Chernobyl? Who the fuck thinks to have a secret hideout in Chernobyl?? Take your ass to Hawaii. Nobody would look for you there.
- I’m not a fan of Luke’s werewolf eyes being green because he looks like an alien and it’s just weird.
- Is there something up with the Captain? She seems much too concerned with Clary. It could be she’s just a good family friend but I don’t know, she’s fishy.
- I don’t know why they’re having Jocelyn use the strength rune to turn invisible or to burn Clary's bedroom down?
- Who put out the fire in Clary's room? Shouldn’t the entire building have done down?
- If Jocelyn burned Clary's room, why were the Tarot cards still in perfect condition?
- I still don’t know if this show is called “Shadowhunters” or “Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments”.
Overall opinion:
- “The Mortal Cup” was alright, for all its messy glory, but “The Descent Into Hell Isn't Easy” fixed a lot of the issues I had with the pilot. I still have a lot of questions and I still see holes and things that need to be explained in future episodes. I rate “The Mortal Cup” a 4.5/10 and “The Descent Into Hell Isn't Easy” an 8/10.
You can watch Shadowhunters (or whatever it’s actually called) on Freeform or Netflix.
The bad:
- “The Mortal Cup” was… not very good. There was too much confusion, even for me, someone who read the books it was based on. We open on the Pandemonium scene and knowing that Clary’s not meant to see Jace and then we jump back to earlier then we (at a really awkward placement) jump back 10 years then we jump back to now then we go to the Pandemonium scene again. And all this happens within 20 minutes. The fight in Pandemonium was a hot mess. I could see an entire foot of space between the Shadowhunters hands and legs and the demons they were hitting. The editing in the fight was all over the place, Clary was awkwardly sliding on the ground, she inexplicably picked up a Seraph Blade, her reactions to everything were odd. Then some of the dialogue is kinda… bad. Clary calling her life “mundane,” Clary saying she’s not going on an epic journey, the random “all the legends are true” that doesn’t explain a damn thing even though Jace said it would explain things simply??
- There are a few jumps and things that aren’t explained. I’ve rewatched the episodes to see if I missed anything or if there were explanations and there weren’t. If I’m two episodes in and already seeing glaring holes, that’s not a good thing. For example, I’m assuming Dot died when Valentine stabbed her in episode 2 but she was thrown, by a Shadowhunter, through a window, hit her face on a metal gate, and then smacked into the ground and she lived. But a stab kills her? And when Clary mentions that the guy had a Circle rune? She didn’t even know what the Circle rune was? Neither did the audience? We hadn’t even met Hodge yet? Even if we saw other Circle members’ runes, Clary didn’t???? How did Jace find her house?
- It’s been two episodes of Shadowhunter this and Shadowhunter that but I don’t get why they’d explain that warlocks are half demon, half human, but not say how Shadowhunters, who the show is actually about, are half human, half angel. They’re just glossing over that right now and I feel like that should really be explained, sooner rather than later.
- It’s not really a bad thing but it’s not a good thing either. One of the things I liked about the City of Bones book was that Valentine didn’t show up until the ending and he was just talked about until that point. Sometimes having a villain appear at the beginning can be good and I guess we’ll see if that’s the case here. But when you build up a character being dangerous for multiple episodes, it makes the villain that much scarier. Like on The Vampire Diaries, season 2 took between 8-10 episodes to build up Klaus’s character so when he actually showed up on the show, it was automatically frightening. Even Jessica Jones took a couple of episodes to show us Kilgrave for the first time, though by the time we actually met his character, he was built up so much and so disturbing from just what we’d heard about him that he was 10x as nasty and gross as he would’ve been if we’d met him in the beginning. I just feel like with a character as crazy and evil as Valentine, they could’ve waited until at least episode 4 or 5 to meet him, let it stay a bit of a mystery where he was holding Jocelyn.
- I still can’t stop laughing at “demonic murders”. Like, I’m not sure if it’s meant to be funny or not. What major police force is going to label a bunch of murders as “demonic”? “Hello, ma’am, I’d like to ask you a few questions. I’m investigating the demonic murders.” I didn’t think we could get a police force more campy than the Beacon Hills police. I was wrong.
The good:
- I like the idea of Shadowhunters having the younger generation not know everything about the Circle. It’s like a mysterious thing for the characters to figure out throughout the season. The show is dumping a lot of information and twists on the audience rather early on so some of the things that weren’t a big deal in the books (the characters always knew everything about the Circle in the books) can be expanded on and switched up. And I thought it was cool how they show the physical effects of Hodge’s curse by having him be hurt whenever he speaks about the Circle or Valentine. This is going to make ~something~ with Hodge that happens in the books make you feel more sympathetic towards him because one, he was being tortured, and two, you’ll wonder if he tried to prevent what he does in the end of City of Bones and tried to get some help from the other characters but he literally, physically couldn’t do it.
- In the books, I thought it was ridiculous that everyone knew Clary’s birth date and that Jocelyn would’ve had to have been married to Valentine at the point when she got pregnant and nobody thought “hey wait, this girl could be Valentine’s daughter” and in the show, I was not looking forward to a dragged out, obvious twist. But then they revealed that he was her dad in the second episode and I was so happy. This is followed up by Alec being suspicious that she’s a spy because she’s related to Valentine (not going to spoil the books but this mirrors something that happens in book 2) and Clary being like “well I just found out my dad is some psycho who’s gonna kill everybody” and I feel like everyone has a logical reaction to this.
- While reading the books (or even watching the movie *shudder*) I really couldn’t stand Alec or Jocelyn. They were just completely unlikable for me. I didn’t like Alec because he had no personality that went beyond “I hate Clary, I like Jace” and Jocelyn was just lying so much that I was like ??? Get your shit together?? In the show, Alec is an ass but he’s an ass to everyone and we can see that he’s such a rule follower and he doesn’t like deviating from plans and he always focuses on the job at hand. And he’s like this when he’s around anyone, to the point where Isabelle says he’s always so rigid so his entire characterization isn’t centered around him being jealous of Clary, much like it was in the first few books. Jocelyn tries more than once to tell Clary the truth and she feels remorse for what she did. The fact that she tried to right her wrongs actually makes you care for her and want Clary to find her.
- Episode two, “The Descent Into Hell Isn't Easy” was a lot better done than episode one. The acting was much less over the top, the dialogue wasn’t cringy and super foreshadow-y, the characters seemed more emotive, there were more intentionally funny moments. It was just better.
- If you’ve followed me for a while, you know I was really “uhhhh” about Kat McNamara as Clary. I just wasn’t a fan of her acting and the clips and peeks we got either had her being really good or reaaaally bad. And then “The Mortal Cup” was going and I kept cringing at her line delivery and I was thinking “dear God, please just let this be because the entire episode is messy because I can’t take a whole season of this” and then I got to “The Descent Into Hell Isn't Easy” and she was noticeably better. Of course, there’s still room for improvement but she’s much better than she was in “The Mortal Cup”.
The fuck?:
- I don’t get why Valentine isn’t in Idris? Or really just why, of all places he could hide, he went to Chernobyl? Who the fuck thinks to have a secret hideout in Chernobyl?? Take your ass to Hawaii. Nobody would look for you there.
- I’m not a fan of Luke’s werewolf eyes being green because he looks like an alien and it’s just weird.
- Is there something up with the Captain? She seems much too concerned with Clary. It could be she’s just a good family friend but I don’t know, she’s fishy.
- I don’t know why they’re having Jocelyn use the strength rune to turn invisible or to burn Clary's bedroom down?
- Who put out the fire in Clary's room? Shouldn’t the entire building have done down?
- If Jocelyn burned Clary's room, why were the Tarot cards still in perfect condition?
- I still don’t know if this show is called “Shadowhunters” or “Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments”.
Overall opinion:
- “The Mortal Cup” was alright, for all its messy glory, but “The Descent Into Hell Isn't Easy” fixed a lot of the issues I had with the pilot. I still have a lot of questions and I still see holes and things that need to be explained in future episodes. I rate “The Mortal Cup” a 4.5/10 and “The Descent Into Hell Isn't Easy” an 8/10.
You can watch Shadowhunters (or whatever it’s actually called) on Freeform or Netflix.
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