Shadowhunters - 'The Mortal Cup'

Like, 90% of the images which come up searching for 'Shadowhunters TV
series' are fan-made fantasy casting posters.

This year, Netflix brings us the series based on the movie based on the books! Or possibly just the series based on the books ignoring the movie. Whatever; when the movie version of City of Bones crashed and burned, the planned sequels went into the can, and now Netflix has nabbed the rights (or rather, are funding the original filmmakers to produce this series. Or maybe it's another network entirely, as despite the version I saw calling itself a Netflix original, Wikipedia lists the network as Freeform.)

Clary Fray is an ordinary teenager(TM), just turning 18 and gaining admission to Brooklyn Academy of Arts thanks to her hugely generic monster drawings. She also possesses the ability to turn actual biscotti into pencil drawings of biscotti. Out celebrating her birthday with her love triangle (best bud with a crush Simon and the girl who fancies him,) she almost literally runs into a trio of broody goths that no-one else can see and stumbles on them cutting up a room full of demons.

Now, one of the big changes for the series is that we depart quite a bit from Clary's viewpoint, so we've already seen these three - self-absorbed Jace, moody Alex and exhibitionist Isabelle - tool up to hunt a shapeshifting demon who has been draining blood from humans. They are Shadowhunters, working from a high-tech ops centre with a sizable staff (a big change from the movie,) and Clary's mother explains - badly - that Clary is also a Shadowhunter, gives her a glowy wand thing called a styla, and pushes her through a magic door while she gets captured by 'the Circle'. Clary goes to her mother's friend Luke, but hears him telling a couple of Circle members that he doesn't give a crap about her, he's just been trying to get the Mortal Cup for 'his people' (a loaded phrase, as TV Luke is black, and also a cop rather than a bookshop owner.)

Look again; the bookseller is now a cop.

Clary goes home and is bitten by a demon in the shape of her neighbour, but rescued by Jace and taken to Shadowhunter HQ. Simon traces her with some modern version of Googlestalk and we close with her choosing whether to stick with the weirdoes or go home with Simon.

Meanwhile, archbaddy Valentine is obsessing over Jocelyn Fray and the fact that she has a daughter in his evil lair-type base in Chernobyl.

There are some left-field decisions in this adaptation: Luke Garroway, Werewolf Cop; Chernobyl; the mass of touchscreen technology in the Institute; and a flashback which lets us know that Jocelyn has been having Magnus Bane monkey with Clary's memories right out of the gate. Also Werewolf Cop*.

On the plus side, the characters are a little less self-consciously joyless in this version, even Alex, who is basically made of brood. Overall, the aesthetic is much the same as the movie (unsurprisingly, coming from the same production company,) although Clary's hair is changed from dark red to bright orange. The series has some potential, so long as the budget doesn't start to bite too hard.

* I suspect that this may tie in later to a more episodic style of storytelling once the series is established, with Luke-as-cop able to explain his presence at crime scenes and the like.