Courtesy of ABC Family and YouTube.

The shadowhunters are coming to a television near you? Coming January 12, 2016, ABC Family is giving the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare another breath of life after the 2009 Movie City of Bones did not do so stellar in the movies.

The Mortal Instruments follows Clary Fray’s tumble into the supernatural world of the shadowhunters which exists parallel to our mundane world when her mother is abducted from their home. She soon learns that her mother was a shadowhunter, a person who is part angel part human. Clary, like her mother, has shadowhunter blood, and begins to see the supernatural world as it really is.

Below is the second trailer for the show (the first is at the top of the article):

Courtesy of ABC Family and YouTube.

As for my impressions of the trailers, I really like the actors that play both Jace and Magnus. I think we are going to see more of the snarky side of Jace that was in the books. It also looks like the fact that more of the story will be seen in the television show, which is to be expected considering that a television show has more room to tell the full story. I especially like that Magnus’s part is not severally truncated as it was in the movie. And I see we see Simon at Hotel Dumont, which I really like. It seems like a lot of the main points will be similar or the same, but there will also be some nice changes and additions like I really like the fact that Luke Garroway will be a detective because it makes more sense since he will be able to monitor the human and supernatural world. I liked the fact that they aged the characters up to eighteen years old, which will allow for more mature subjects to be broached. I also thought that the actor chosen to play Valentine (Alan Van Sprang) is an amazing choice.

ABC family has also released a small clip of the first scene in the book which is the murder of the demon in the Pandemonium club. Here it is:

Courtesy of ABC Family and YouTube.

This clip gave me more of a look at how this series is to be adapted and I actually liked the clip more than the trailers because I felt more confident in the adaptation that we will be given. Firstly, yes there are changes from the book in that opening scene. No good adaptation should be an exact replica of its source material. We’ve all read the book (or most who read this article will have). A good adaptation, in my opinion, strives to meet a balance of staying true to the source material, and adding something fresh and different for those who have already read the source material. In this case, and in this scene, I think the adaptation did a lot of good things.

If you have read the books and that scene in particular, you know that things that happened in the clip did not happen as it did in the book. In the book, Clary and Simon go to the Pandemonium club where she sees this demon disguised as a charming boy. She starts to follow what she thinks is a handsome young man to a backroom after he has been led there by the alluring Isabelle. She had noticed two other young men stalking after the demon boy. Meanwhile, Simon goes to get security after Clary tells him she thought one of the guys following the demon boy had a knife. Clary follows them all into the back room where she then witnesses Jace killing the boy she had been following. She thinks she has witnessed a murder. When security gets to the backroom, the guard doesn’t see the shadowhunters right in front of him, and thinks Clary is pulling his leg. It is at this point that she realizes that she has just seen something out of the ordinary, and tells the guard she was mistaken. For that, Simon and Clary are kicked out of the Pandemonium Club. That was the scene.

As you can see from the clip above, this scene is very different in the television adaptation. Here are the changes that I noticed in the clip: 1.) the shadowhunters are after a group of demons peddling illegal substances (human blood) versus the one demon 2.) Clary is following Jace and not the demon boy and she seems to be at the club with Simon and another friend for her birthday 3.) two former circle members are in the club, and receive the human blood from the demon 4.) Magnus Bane is in the club and owns it 5.) Clary kills one of the demons 6.) Magnus confronts the two circle members, who’ve seen Clary and thinks she is Jocelyn Fairchild (Clary’s mother), and 7.) Isabelle reveals a lot of skin and does not have a single shadowhunter’s mark on her skin.

I have to say that I liked the changes they made to the scene. We still have the very strange Pandemonium club, and the viewer is quickly and subtly introduced to the fact that this is no ordinary club. I like the fact that the Shadowhunters are given a more legitimate reason as to why they are stalking these demons and ultimately killing them. A person who has not read the books would be quickly introduced to the various types of creatures and conflicts that will appear in this series as well as some tantalizing mysteries. I thought the fight scene was much more action packed and we get to see the shadowhunter trio (Jace, Isabelle, and Alec) fighting together as a team. Clary is not only a witness to a murder, but the stakes are raised for her character as she actually (and accidently) kills one of the demons. Now some people may be disappointed that Isabelle has no shadowhunter marks on her in the clip, but as we see in the trailers, the shadowhunters have a way of masking the marks.

Another change to that scene that I really liked was Magnus Bane’s interaction with the two former circle members. Some people would say that the circle members being at the club is superfluous and unnecessary, but I think it was a clever way to introduce some back history and immediately increase the danger that Clary is in. For those who read the books, the circle members are extremist shadowhunters who follow Valentine Morgenstern (Clary’s father) in his belief that all downworlders can not be trusted and should be killed. The circle completely disregards the accords (a peace treaty between shadowhunters and downworlders). Clary’s mother, Jocelyn Fairchild, defected as well as some others, and took her daughter on the run to hide in the mundane (human) world.

So in this one clip we are introduced to two circle members and that they see Clary and mistake her for Jocelyn, which hints at Jocelyn’s back story. This ups the stakes and dangerous element that is around Clary. We were also introduced to the antagonism between downworlders and circle members, giving the viewer a hint of some of the drama to come. I also loved the fact that we get to see Magnus Bane as the powerful warlock (a person who is half demon half human) that he is, and I think Harry Shum Jr. nailed Magnus’s portrayal. I myself can’t wait to see some Alec and Magnus interaction, but that is a side note.

Overall, I thought the changes to this scene were really refreshing, but stayed true to the world that Cassandra Clare built. I thought Jace, Isabelle, and Magnus were spot on in their character portrayals. I didn’t get to see enough of Simon or Alec to make a judgment yet, but from what I was able to see everything looks good. Alec fights like a true shadowhunter and acts as a parabatai should act. The only one I was a little uncertain about was the actress who played Clary, whose acting, at times, seemed a little shaky, but I think I need to see more of her to really pass a judgment.

So in conclusion, I am really excited to see where this television show will take us. I like all the actors chosen, and I like the fact that the writers are choosing to explore the world of Cassandra Clare more, and the things they could add are endless. ABC family has impressed me before with their television shows (Pretty Little Liars), and I’m hoping this show will impress me as well.