Shadowhunters Episode 1 Review (W/Spoilers)

Clary Fray is auditioning for an art school in Brooklyn on her 18th birthday. She presenting landscape drawings, but they accepted her for the monsters and strange symbols she had accidentally doodled on her portfolio. Her mom gives her a stele (family heirloom) and wants to have a big “18 y/o talk” but she begs to celebrate her birthday at Simon’s first concert. After the concert, she has a strange encounter with a man who keeps saying that she has some sort of special “Sight” because she can see him. When she follows him into the club and sees him with another boy and girl stabbing demon-like creatures, she accidentally stabs one herself and runs home to her mother. Her mom is able to show her her markings, but then the men from the club show up at her house.

Dot, a family friend, sends Clary through a portal to Luke before the fight starts and she is killed while Clary’s mom is taken. The men come for some sort of “Cup” but they say that they don’t have it. When Clary appears at the station looking for Luke, she overhears him saying that he doesn’t care about Clary or her mom, and so she decides to run back home. When Dot appears, she morphs into some sort of demon mouth monster thing, and almost kills Clary before the strange bar man shows up again. It is revealed that Clary’s mom is in Chernobyl with some strange evil,man, and then Clary wakes up in the Institute. The people from the bar introduce themselves as Jace, Alec, and Isabelle. Simon shows up outside, but he can’t see anyone until Jace reveals them, but he doesn’t trust him and begs Clary to return home with him. End Episode.

I almost died when I saw that they had increased the age of the characters. Clary was fine, I don’t know what other actor around that age would have been able to play the part. But some characters do not fit well old.  For example, GOOD LORD I do not like Jace being old. I don’t know how to explain what I wanted him to look like (maybe kinda like a younger, less creepy, Jasper from Twilight), but now he just looks like…blond Emmett. Alec isn’t bad, I imagined him looking more like a young Brendon Urie though. Isabelle isn’t bad, but I could easily imagine her being played by Camila Mendes. Simon is simon-y. If we were going with younger actors, I would have liked to see Cameron Boyce in the part.

Enough with me being picky about the actors. The age thing is going to change some of the main parts of the story. She’s able to use the “I’m an adult” thing, which basically ended all of the arguments. It will probably reduce her dependence on the adults when she gets to the later parts of the series. The main story was adapted pretty well from book to screen, but the age difference simply seemed unnecessary to me. The acting itself was good, the storyline engaging, and I can easily see myself enjoying the rest of it.

Episode 1 Rating: 3.5/5

(Not all of my reviews of the show will be this long, nor will it have this many spoilers, but I just felt the need to go over some simple stuff like that and get it out of the way before I get too deep into the series)