Shadowhunters Review: Of Men and Angels (Season 1 Episode 6)

Shadowhunters is a hot mess. There, I said it.

We’re six episodes in, and while there has been the occasional glimmer of hope, the show consistently fails to offer up any substantial or lasting improvement. Plot lines and character development are rushed towards and hackneyed, “tell” is favored over “show” to a glaring degree, and (probably the biggest problem of all) the show is incredibly boring. I’m not invested in anyone, even a little. I still feel like I don’t really know these characters. They all feel, to varying degrees, like cardboard cut-outs of attractive teens.

“Of Men and Angels” unloads a huge amount of backstory within the span of its hour, particularly about Valentine and the genesis of his evilness.

The gist: He and Jocelyn married, they conceived Clary, Valentine went out of control trying to control the “purity” of the Shadowhunters by offing half-demon Downworlders, and he finally went mad after injecting Downworlder blood into veins when he thought Jocelyn and Luke were having an affair (to his credit, they kinda were).

Essentially, Valentine is a lukewarm version of Voldemort. All of the Nazi-inspired/genocidal motivations, none of the menace or engaging backstory.

Also, there have been some BAD actors on this show but holy heck, those flashback younger versions of Jocelyn and Valentine are atrocious. Young Jocelyn’s “Nooooooooo!” and knife throw when she sees young Valentine about to stab young Luke is so, so cringeworthy.

This episode fails because it’s about 100% exposition by dialogue. Clary flails her hands around going “Oh my god, this is like, soooo much to deal with!” (paraphrased) while Magnus works on saving alpha-bitten Luke and fills her in with the Sparknotes version of her family history. She is convinced that getting the full story will “unlock” her latent knowledge of the location of the Mortal Cup.

Magnus is an enjoyable character, and easily one of the more interesting ones, but Harry Shum Jr.’s portrayal has a tendency to veer a little hammy. It’s a lot of suggestive eyes and flamboyant hand gestures. Also, I’ve heard tell that book-Magnus is supposed to be this all powerful, mega-suave warlock, but show-Magnus has yet to do anything particularly epic, magic-wise.

That said, I am totally here for more Malec. Though, again, the show did a shoddy job with developing them by telling rather than showing (“You’ve unlocked something in me,” says Magnus, instead of, you know, showing that through their connection). Basically, I’ll take the good where I can find it in this show. The Magnus/Alec flirtation is very cute, and I’m hopeful that once it really gets going it will make Alec more tolerable/less of a walking hot-guy cardboard cut-out.

Meanwhile, while Magnus sprints around trying to save Luke, Simon and Jace go on the most unpleasant team-up errand ever. Logically, it makes no sense why Simon would insist on going with Jace. There is no reason for him to be there, and if Simon’s goal is to be close to Clary, would it not make more sense for him to stay behind and comfort her as Luke struggles near death? I suppose Simon is blinded by his desire to not let Jace be Clary’s hero. Regardless, Simon and Jace going to retrieve the potion ingredients is a very silly and wholly inconsequential subplot. It doesn’t serve to deepen or alter those two characters or their relationship to one another.

They just repeatedly attack one another, like middle schoolers. Jace has a half a second where he appears to be putting two and two together about Simon’s sudden aggression and his recent stay at Casa di Vampire, but he completely drops that (either because he doesn’t care, or the magnitude of the issue doesn’t dawn on him). So, the whole Simon/Jace team-up is completely useless to the larger plot.

They do retrieve the ingredients that allow Magnus to save Luke, but that easily could have been accomplished with one or the other of them going on the errand.

After Magnus saves Luke, Luke takes over exposition duties, unveiling the rest of the Valentine/Jocelyn story. This leads to the confession that Clary had a secret dead brother (killed by Valentine in a fire) named JC (the owner of the box that Jocelyn conveniently kept right next to Clary’s bed). This revelation causes Clary to repeat her physical-object-turns-into-drawing parlor trick, what she did to the biscotti back in the pilot, pre-Shadowhunter revelation. Once Luke establishes that this power could be hereditary, Clary makes the logical leap that Jocelyn must have hidden the cup in a drawing somewhere. This discovery is very poorly strung together and it’s not all that believable that Clary would put the pieces together so quickly, but there you have it.

Side note: Isaiah Mustafa is a very handsome man, but the acting is… not quite there. Yeah, let’s put it like that.

Back at the Institute, Maryse (the Lightwood matriarch) continues to strut around with her phenomenally lengthy ponytail and be snarky to her daughter. She does betray a softer side, silently weeping when Alec comes upon her, which at least makes her slightly more interesting. What she’s crying about, I have absolutely no idea. Maybe the amount of money she has to spend on conditioner to maintain that magnificent mane.

Papa Lightwood and little brother Max also show up. Max is, by all accounts, a very typical goofy/precocious/trouble-making kid brother. Robert is markedly kinder to his kids than Maryse is, particularly with Isabelle. He tells her that the Shadowhunters breaking the rules to help Clary pissed off the Clave and now Alec must be offered up for a political marriage, to strengthen the Lightwood name again, because reasons.

This is a super abrupt development. It basically comes out of left field and isn’t much expanded upon. In my mind, there is zero chance that Alec will go through with this marriage, so I’m not expending too many thoughts about it.

The Lightwood family scenes are far more engaging than the developments with Clary and Luke. Seeing their dynamic deepens each of those characters and results in what is possibly the most interesting character development so far—Isabelle, lectured by her mother about the dangers of being passionate, transforms into her mother, mimicking her slicked back low ponytail and conservative style of dress.

Like many aspects of this show, Izzy’s transformation is too abrupt, but it clearly holds weighty significance. Izzy is willing to do anything for her family, including changing the very essence of her self. I’m curious to see where she will go with this, and how mimicking her mother will solve any of the Lightwood family’s problems.

Stray thoughts:

• Little Max Lightwood has a better wardrobe than me. Ouch. (But seriously, the kid’s got style.)
• Jace is super touchy whenever Simon brings up Alec. Am I not supposed to think there’s something there? Because I do. Maybe I’m reading too much fanfic, I don’t know.
• Similarly, there is about 40 times more heat during that Simon/Jace confrontation than the Clary/Jace face touch. Can show-Jace just be gay, please? Freeform, I’d love you forever and stop making fun of your dumb name.
• Does this mark the end of the Alec/Clary tension? I hope so. It seems like his coming through for her (and for Magnus) by showing up to help save Luke patches things up between them.
• The blurry special effect meant to indicate the Shadowhunters moving at super speed continues to look stupid. They need to stop with these bargain bin SFX, it’s quite distracting.

What did you think of this episode of Shadowhunters? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Shadowhunters airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on Freeform.

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