Shadowhunters "Raising Hell" Review: The Demon Deceived Me!

Harry Shum Jr. as Magnus Bane in Freeform's Shadowhunters

See? Filler episodes can be fun! Filler episodes, for those of you who don't know, are normally put into shows that have over 20 episodes per season, where they have the time to slow down, explore characters, and set up new plot lines. These episodes are notoriously boring, and aren't common in shows that have limited episodes. The first season of Shadowhunters only has thirteen episodes to get through roughly the first book of The Mortal Instruments series so it doesn't make much sense to have filler episodes when every minute is crucial to the complicated world of Shadowhunters. So when a show like this gets a filler episode, it can make viewers wary. But of course, Shadowhunters continues to show viewers why it's one of the best shows on television: even when nothing happens, it's still gripping. Let's jump into this review! *minor spoilers for The Mortal Instruments books will follow*

The good:

• "Raising Hell" gave us our first real look at Magnus Bane - the High Warlock of Brooklyn. He'd had a few minutes of screen time up until now but this is when he truly arrived as massive improvement on his book and film counterparts (like pretty much every aspect of this show). He was kind of a dick, which he has every right to dislike Shadowhunters (if you know about his relation to the ideology of the Circle... it's really hard not to majorly spoil this). Magnus is a warlock who has spent hundreds of years putting up with a bunch of bratty Shadowhunters so it's understandable why he'd be so antagonistic towards them. But we also get to see that he has a soft side and is a protector of other warlocks, especially those younger than he is. He's funny, obviously very powerful, and surprisingly emotional, which brings him a step up from the sparkly caricature he often came off as in the novels. Harry Shum Jr is perfect in the role, giving subtle facial expressions, showing the swagger of an ancient warlock, and being over the top without being laughable. This version of Magnus is the fun guy that long time fans of The Mortal Instruments know and love, but there's an extra aura of intrigue surrounding him that is going to keep viewers that haven't read the books interested in his character.

• I've said it before and I'll say it again: the slow burn revealing about Alec is so well done. TV shows that have LGBT+ characters like to jump out of the gate with telling the audience the character is queer as soon as the character appears because they're pretty much trying to say "hey look at our representation, keep watching because we're progressive!" And while, of course, representation is important and shows are allowed to let the audience know early on that a character is queer, the way Shadowhunters is doing Alec's characterization is preferable to me because they're letting the audience like (or dislike) him as a person before bringing up the fact that he's gay. It's just important that in an age when fiction is trying to be inclusive of the LGBT+ community, writers understand that a character being queer is not more important than them being a person.

Emeraude Toubia and those other people as Isabelle
Lightwood and those other characters in
Freeform's "Shadowhunters"

• Clary and Isabelle continue to be cute and supportive of each other while making not-so-subtle comments about the other's naughty bits and, honestly, this show could just be a series of Clary and Isabelle flirting and I would be totally cool with that.

• I know that I talk a lot of shit about The Mortal Instruments books but one thing that is really nice about them is the humor. It's pretty hit or miss but when it does hit, it's very funny. So imagine my surprise when direct quotes from the novels started making their way onto my screen. It made me so gleeful, and the only things I typically get gleeful about are cupcakes and Chris Hemsworth.

• Speaking of novel references, there were a few easter eggs in this episode, and one in particular that likely gave a few fans heart palpations. First, we have the cautious warlock Elias, who meets a different fate in the book series. He isn't a major character but it was nice that they are using the book characters in new ways such as they've done with Elias and Maureen (she was a thirteen year old who was stalking Simon in the books). Second, that kid Kirk that Simon said Jace is like? In the novels, Kirk is the lead singer of Simon's band before he is replaced by an actual piece of shit named Jungle Kool-aid, which I'm sure is why the writers of the show gave Simon the "Kool-aid" line while he argues with Clary. Third, and this is the big one, Magnus name dropped Tessa, as in Tessa Gray, as in the protagonist of the prequel to The Mortal Instruments, as in the protagonist of The Many Adventures of Tessa Gray and Her Sweetheart Jem Carstairs The Infernal Devices. Word has been going around that if Shadowhunters proves to be a successful enough show, Freeform will start production on a spin off based on The Infernal Devices, which is pretty much Shadowhunters mixed with steampunk and automatons. So yeah, name dropping Tessa so casually may be a hint of a future adaptation of her story and that's something the world needs to be blessed with.

Emeraude Toubia as Isabelle Lightwood in Freeform's Shadowhunters

The bad:

• The show seems to be flipping between good and bad effects which makes it even more noticeable. If it's 100 degrees outside and someone drops a bucket of ice on you, you're going to notice. That's how I feel about the effects here. Magnus's magic looks amazing, the Portals look good, and I love it when demons and vampires die and they explode into the golden orange lava. It just looks aweseome. But the demons... could be better. The entire memory demon scene was unintentionally hilarious because the demon looked like a tornado and Jace's flying was strange. It just wasn't as good as previous effects on the show have been. However, this is a television series on Freeform, and it's just on the first season and doesn't have a huge budget, so I will give it the benefit of the doubt. It's still funny though.

• Simon's subplot was disruptive. It only happened two or three times but it was still so removed from the main action that it just didn't gel right. We had most of the episode being about Clary, Magnus, and Alec and how their development all goes together, but we'd take breaks to check in on Simon and his vampire drama. They have to get Simon's symptoms into the plot somehow, but I feel like that could have been saved for the next episode. 

• Clary is wearing a very tight, short dress, she doesn't have a bag to put anything in, so she doesn't have anywhere she could be hiding the handle of an unlit Seraph Blade yet she miraculously has it when they get to Magnus's? Alec's bow and arrows disappear after he kills Valentine's assassin? And then they reappear later? Weapons pop up when needed and it's confusing. Isabelle's whip is always on her as a bracelet and Jace has pockets he can hide weapons in but Clary and Alec don't have these luxuries so where are these weapons coming from? This is a minor thing and doesn't really affect the story but it's still irritating because while I could see perhaps Clary strapping her blade to her thigh, or Jace carrying it in his pocket for her, Alec can't strap a big ass bow and a bunch of arrows to his thighs. And they're certainly not going to fit in Jace's pockets. 

• Valentine actually sent just one assassin to find Magnus the first time. He sent ONE person after the High Warlock of Brooklyn. He did send more later on but still. He originally sent one person to kill one of, if not the most powerful warlock in the world.

Overall summary:

"Raising Hell" was a filler episode and nothing much changed in the plot except that Clary's memories are forever gone and Alec is almost completely out of the closet. But despite the lack of the plot moving a lot forward, and a few things not making much sense, there was still a lot of fun to be had in this episode. "Raising Hell" gets an 8/10 intricately drawn pentagrams stars from me.

Shadowhunters airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on Freeform (formerly ABC Family)