Shadowhunters Season 1

Well, a season of Shadowhunters has come and gone! And how was it…? It was, umm, serviceable…

It’s crazy to think, just a year ago the fandom was going crazy about the fact that Jace got cast and the show was officially going to air on ABC Family (*cough* Freeform), and now here we are, at the end of season one, and renewed for season two! Fan reaction for Shadowhunters has been extremely mixed since it premiered and I have been pretty open about the fact that I believe the show is not a quality show, but I enjoy it as a guilty pleasure.

From the first episode of Shadowhunters, I knew the show was not going to be of the best quality, but I knew it was going to be a great guilty pleasure watch! I LOVE watching Shadowhunters after I’m already in a good mood from The Flash the hour before, and laughing at the mistakes but still being interested in the differences from the books. But that’s my issue with Shadowhunters, you have all of these amateur mistakes where they clearly didn’t have the budget to do the effects they wanted, but you also have intriguing plot points and changes from the books that I am genuinely interested. Shadowhunters would be much better if only it had focused much more on plot points such as the politics of the shadow world and prejudices against warlocks (both things that are mentioned but never developed) instead of bland, underdeveloped characters, played by people who aren’t the best actors. These actors are just so bland and bring no charisma or CHARACTER to these characters! This is with the exception of Harry Shum Jr (Magnus Bane) who brought ALL of Magnus’s magic and flare to the TV screen! He was GREAT! Shadowhunters actually had a lot of potential, but I believe, since a lot of these more intriguing points were brought up towards the end of the season before being dropped, that the writers didn’t have the time to explore all the ideas they wanted. Writers had to wrap up the plot instead of exploring new and different aspects of the shadow world which could’ve expanded the universe and upped the quality of the show.

The negatives really are the amateur editing, uncharismatic acting, and lack of character development. Characters would fight and an episode later I had forgotten why they were fighting—it just wasn’t important. The editing drove me crazy since it felt that it was edited by an intern rather than someone who does this for a living. There was an awkward effect used to ‘speed the Shadowhunters up’ but it just looked bad, and the editing often cut to unimportant things or the same shot over again. Good to know though, the editing does get better as the season goes on, so you don’t have to deal with that forever.

Overall, check it out if you are a fan and want to see a different interpretation of the novel. It is incredibly cheesy and has some technical issues but most every day viewers won’t mind, and, if you do mind, it’s fun to laugh at! The characters are bland, but I choose to laugh and joke about it; I understand if you can’t get over that. If you like to joke around watching shows, Shadowhunters is a good show for you! Or you might like it as a serious watch. Either way, it is worth at least giving it a shot if you are a fan of the book!

Keep Watching…

Elise!