Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments

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As binge-lovers, we find it hard to decide which show is worth watching.

We might stare at the balcony, trying to have a glimpse of some Apartments in Whitefield, or feel that we just need to reduce stress by throwing parties for guests.

Anyways, in this short article, we will give you a detailed review of Shadowhunters and why this show is a retreat for your weekend plans.

Let's give a short introduction to the main character of the show.

Oh, to be 18 once more! When your main priorities include getting into a good school, meeting the love of your life, and fending against legions of demons bent on annihilating humanity.

Clary Fray (Katherine McNamara) of Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments has already made headway on the first two; when we first meet her, she aced her final NYC art school audition and then boasts about it to her bespectacled, definitely lovelorn best friend Simon (Alberto Rosende, rocking the nerd-with-abs look).

Her enchantress mother, Jocelyn (Maxim Roy), has been hiding her from the dwellers of the demonic underworld since she was born, thus she has no idea about her monster-hunting powers. It's time for a rude adolescent awakening.

This scenario will be familiar to readers of Cassandra Clare's (Judith Rumelt's) best-selling young adult novel series The Mortal Instruments. They may also be suffering déjà vu, given that a cinematic adaptation of the first of Clare's six books, City of Bones, was released in 2013 to mediocre box revenue and general apathy.

However, as our reboot-obsessed culture has demonstrated, what flops in one media can thrive in another. And it's only right that the ABC Family network's premiere property be something similarly altered, as the network rebrands itself as Freeform.

Would this 13-part series, which adapts City of Bones and is said to cherry-pick events from the other five Mortal Instruments books, be a fresh crown treasure. However, based on the pilot episode, which was written by showrunner Ed Decter and directed (if you can call it that) by mono-monikered hack McG, it's more like polished fool's gold.

A chase scene in which a trio of Shadowhunters — Jace Wayland (Dominic Sherwood) and the brother-sister team of Isabelle and Alec Lightwood (Emeraude Toubia and Matthew Daddario) — track down a demon who can shift identities in the blink of an eye exemplifies McG's slick superficiality in his Charlie's Angels films.

Our heroes swagger, pose, and leap through the air like models at a gravity-defying fashion show, as pop music plays in the background.

A nightclub marquee is used in an eye-rolling visual comedy. (The first and last three letters of the word "Pandemonium" keep flashing off, leaving only "devil" — guys, be subtle.) The idiom is pure community theatre when the fresh-faced, basically talent-free cast finally opens their mouths to talk.

It's true that keeping a straight face while saying speech like "Rogue shadowhunters looking for the Mortal Cup!" is difficult for actors of any skill level. The action scenes are also stunningly incoherent; the climax of the pilot episode, in which Clary finds herself in the middle of a Shadowhunter-Demon fight, is a hyperkinetic, digitally glossed flurry of swordplay and roundhousing. There isn't a single punch or stab that lands with any real force.

What's left is monotony (a lot of talk about lost magical things and Clary's "destiny"), occasionally punctuated by accidental humor. It's difficult to choose between an out-of-nowhere smash-cut to "Chernobyl" (where the series' big evil is hiding out) and the moment in which supporting actor Isaiah Mustafa — better known in Old Spice commercials as "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" — speaks the phrase, "Hey, sorry I'm late... In his unmistakable basso profundo, the captain says, "The captain's got me on these demonic killings." You take your pleasures where you can with rubbish like this.

So, we hope that you loved our sweet and short review of the shadow hunters. If you still feel that it's not a binge-worthy show, then you can turn off your TV screens and have virtual site visits at Apartments in Whitefield.

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