Mortal Instruments: Shadowhunters || The Series Review

An honest review on Netflix’s Shadowhunters: Mortal Instruments

As with many of us these days, finding something we HAVEN’T watched is a mission in itself! Too much time on our hands to sit and watch literally everything on TV. However, if you know me, I have been a long time fan of Cassandra Clare and her work. I have read pretty much all of her books. So when I heard that they were attempting to make a series out of the Mortal Instruments after the failure of the movie, I was… sceptical. Sceptical, because unfortunately the movie didn’t do so well, but I’ll get more into why I think it failed in a little bit.

So I will admit, excitedly jumped on to the Shadowhunters series, but honestly… I could barely make it past the first episode! And from there on, every time I went on to Netflix, I would longingly stop and stare at the series before moving on. Which got to the point where my partner would say; “Oh come on, you stop on this every time! You know you’re not going to watch it.” But then lockdown happened (I am in UK for those of you who don’t know) and I quickly made my way through everything I actually wanted to watch. With not many other options, I thought I’d just put Shadowhunters on and struggle through it. Who knows, maybe it would get better?

I have now completed all four seasons of Shadowhunters on Netflix, and I felt I needed somewhere to write my thoughts!

So to start, my overall opinion: it’s okayyyyyyy.

I’ll start with what they got right: the graphics! The demons are nasty and gross and done really well, and the angel wings are the FIRST I’ve seen on TV that actually look stunning! Although I loved the graphics in the movie too, I thought they were phenomenal. One thing they got wrong (again) was the seraph blades… Why is it so hard to translate swords as thin as glass that glow on to the screen? It’s frustrating. The ones they used in the first season were so tacky! But thankfully, they did change these at some point to much better-looking steel blades with runes on the sides. Not exactly how they’re described in the books but still better than the original ones they started with.

Now, the reason I think the series AND the movie didn’t do so well was purely down to the casting, because honestly, everything else was pretty on point. And the one character they absolutely could not get right: Jace Herondale.

I HATED Jamie Campbell Bower as Jace in the movie… just so wrong. But the Jace in the series was honestly not any better! Why oh why can they not get him right?!

Series Jace:

Movie Jace:

I LOVED Lilly Collins as Clary in the movie and HATED Katherine McNamara in the series. The hair? Way too orange. And the acting… not much better.

Series Calry:

Movie Clary:

Now for sweet Simon… initially I much preferred Robert Sheehan from the movie (I still do). However, by the end of the series, Alberto Rosende had weirdly grown on me (still, Robert would be my first choice).

Two major characters I will admit were much better in the series was Isabel and Alec. And can we just take a moment to appreciate how dreamy Matthew Daddario is? It is now that I will make my biggest confession… the only reason I managed to watch the whole series was because I enjoyed swooning over Matthew (heart eyes).

Anyway, movie Magnus versus series Magnus… meh, no real opinion on him. Both were not quite right to be honest.

But Jonathan Rhys Myers as Valentine and Lena Heady as Jocelyn in the movie were so spot on I just knew they weren’t going to be able to better them the series, so I didn’t even bother hoping for that.

I’ll stop there with the characters.

Personally, I just think that there were some real hits and misses with both the casts which was really what made the series (and movie) crash and burn. But I can’t blame the cast and their acting entirely. The directing was pretty atrocious too. It’s not always the actor’s faults that they were told to come across a certain way. I just think they were trying to make both the movie and series too aimed at teenagers. Like the scene in the movie where Clary dramatically falls on Jace when they’re running away from the vamps. Can I get a cliché!

Anyway, if you’ve made it this far into the review, thanks for sticking with me. Let me know your thoughts on the series in the comments. A part of me had hoped that they would at least try to carry on with the movies because that cast (bar Jace, Alec, and Isabel) was a little better than the series. Who knows, there are so many Cassie Clare books out there that I’m sure they’ll try again! I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the Infernal Devices. BUT PLEASE DO NOT USE THE JEM THAT APPEARED IN THE SERIES.

That’s all I have to say on the matter! Let me know what you’ve been watching during lockdown in the comments.

Oh, and just for fun I put together my favourite cast members in a little character board: