After what seemed like months, “Shadowhunters” premiered last week on Freeform, the new name for ABC Family. “Shadowhunters” is based on The Mortal Instruments series of books by Cassandra Clare but will be taking its own spin on things, per se. The fandom of the series, myself included, has been anticipating this series since, admittedly, the failure of a movie adaptation was released in 2013. It was officially announced that a TV series would be made in late 2014 which means that everyone that has been wanting to watch this show has been waiting in agony for it for well over a year. Well, the wait is finally over!
“Shadowhunters” premiered on January 12th, a huge day for the channel. That was the day that ABC Family changed to Freeform, Pretty Little Liars jumped “five years forward,” and “Shadowhunters” premiered. My Twitter feed was chock full of tweets and retweets filled with #FreeformLaunch as a huge party celebrated the reformation of the channel. To make things even more exciting “Shadowhunters” now holds the record for most watched series premiere in over two years with 1.82 million viewers in the U.S. alone and this doesn’t include the stats from the show’s premiere on Netflix worldwide. Let’s just say, the hype is real.
Let’s dive into the show itself, shall we?
I can honestly say that I really liked the show,. Sure, I have some pet peeves, but I think the premiere really helped set up the world and the story that is going to be told. The important points of the world were at least mentioned, if not fully explained. Jace, the blonde bad boy who has a thing for Clary (the protagonist), does a lot of the world explaining that’s needed. He tells Clary what shadowhunters are and at least mentions the Downworld, which consists of warlocks, vampires, werewolves, and Seelies (fairies…and I have a slight pet peeve for the term Seelie being used as it doesn’t cover all of their kind).
We also get to see some demons get destroyed and turned to ash, and who doesn’t like that? The setting of NYC and the New York Institute is established as well. Oh yeah, and the villain…can’t forget him. Valentine and his Circle members are hiding out in Chernobyl of all places. For a premiere, it covers the bases of world building and setting everything up.
As for my pet peeves, they’re minor (and should not affect how you view the show). One of the major things is the technology in the Institute. Yeah, that’s not there in the books. Seeing it all kind of threw me off a little, but I can work with it if it isn’t overly used. I mean it is New York City, I guess the Institute should have some glam to it. Another thing is the ages of the characters, everyone was unnecessarily aged up. I think it’s fine for the show, but it bugs me in the grand scheme of things. While I won’t spoil anything, two characters do something as the The Shadowhunter Chronicles (the name for all of the books written in their universe) progresses that can only be done before someone is eighteen. This can be altered in the show though, so age isn’t much of an issue.
The show works fantastically even despite my pet peeves. Some people have more issues with the show, but in my opinion it’s too soon to judge how little things will affect the show. I, myself, am keeping an open mind to minor things in hopes that the show will make everything work. For fans of the books it’s important to realize that the books and the show won’t match identically, but the endgame will remain the same. Katherine McNamara was even quoted saying that the show will get from Point A to Point B, no question, but the way that the show gets there may differ from how the books get there. As a fan of the books myself all I can hope is that the major scenes are included (and Malec, which has been confirmed for the show).
Keep an open mind and enjoy this exhilarating new series!
