The Magicians

[AndrewLowe]

I'm curious as to what all your thoughts are on SyFy's The Magicians based on the work of Lev Grossman.

I was personally a big fan of the books, but I'm still unsure about how I feel about the show. They've definitely changed a lot of elements, but it still seems fairly true to the voice of the original work. I think they did a solid job casting. Especially with Arjun Gupta from Nurse Jackie (!). Still, I can't help but feel that they are trying to appeal to the YA audience too much. I think that a lot of the tongue-in-cheek tone from the books is missing... For some reason this bothers me.

What do you guys think?

 

[FifthView]

The first episode was available free through Amazon Prime, so I watched it. It seemed extremely rushed, poorly written, and the characters didn't act or react realistically. I gave up on it. Maybe I'll try it again when it is free through one of the streaming services.

 

[AndrewLowe]

The first episode was available free through Amazon Prime, so I watched it. It seemed extremely rushed, poorly written, and the characters didn't act or react realistically. I gave up on it. Maybe I'll try it again when it is free through one of the streaming services.

I felt kind of the same way. It's improved somewhat with the later episodes, but they're moving WAY too fast and there's a few absolutely pointless episodes that have no bearing on the plot whatsoever. The acting improves, but I'm not so sure that the writing really does.

 

[FifthView]

I'm bumping this thread because I was able to watch the full first season on Netflix and want to modify my original impressions.

I found myself greatly enjoying the show.

My initial impression of the first episode remains unchanged. It was rushed. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone who hasn't watched it yet but...When a person who loves the idea of magic but is resigned to living in our mundane non-magical world, and who has no idea magic is real, is suddenly introduced into a world of magic, I want him to be in awe. Like Harry Potter in the first movie. But in the first episode of The Magicians, Quentin Coldwater and his friend Julie simply accept the revelation matter-of-factly. Sure, there's a little forced "OMG" attitude concerning the existence of this alternate magical dimension to the world; but they basically go with the flow. One moment, their entire world is mundane; next moment there's a magical dimension to the world; and a moment later they are already inured to that magical world.

Also, I have an extreme dislike of the method of having a character who knows nothing about how to use magic suddenly whipping up an outburst of power and dexterity in using it when in moments of stress or strong emotion. This happens in episode one and many, many times in later episodes. Basically, all you have to be is prophesied [edit: or "special" in some way] and put under pressure: most of the time, he can't do much of anything significant, but I suppose we're supposed to be reassured that Quentin is GREAT because his power springs forth when under duress.

But once I got over that hump and just went with the flow myself, the season improved.

That said, I don't much like Quentin as a character. He's insecure to the Nth degree. It's as if the director told the actor to keep reinforcing Quentin's insecurity, and the actor took this direction to heart, so practically every moment he's acting he's also hitting us over the head with this character trait.

There are other problems with the show. I haven't read the books, so I suspect a fan might say, But yeah, that's the way they are written; but the obvious trope-smashing can be a bit irritating. The show is basically a rip-off of C.S.Lewis and Narnia, if filtered through a horror lens—like Stranger Things doing E.T. as a horror. Just not as subtle/clever. One episode in particular was basically the Narnia books meeting V.C. Andrews' Flowers in the Attic and getting it on.

BUT...again, once I got over that hump....Elements were added that did strike me as being clever. Sometimes it's hard to separate the outright trope mashing, allusions, and theft...from a wide range of original elements. I was also surprised as the season moved forward by how each character is individualized and given an interesting arc—I really hadn't expected that. Given how it ended, I find myself looking forward to S2.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

It was about a three star for me. I liked the idea / premise - Harry Potter goes to post grad university etc, and I liked that they didn't use wands and spells and all those childish things. But there were a number of things that spoiled it for me.

The first was that I didn't know there were so many brunette twenty something actresses around all of whom look so bloody near identical that I was constantly mixing up who the hell was who. Yeah maybe I'm face blind, I don't know. But I've never had this problem on any other shows.

Next the casting. Dear lord what a mess! Yes I'm happy with people casting with gestures. But twiddling their fingers insanely? It looks what it is - awkward and stupid. And to really show up the deficiencies of it, in one of the later episodes one of the wizards pulls out a gun and shoots an enemy. Now while that's meant to be funny, it brings up a very obvious point. If it takes twenty seconds of intense concentration and finger twidling to cast a spell and your enemy's got a gun - guess who's dead?! Hint - it aint the guy with the gun. So why the hell aren't they all carrying guns? Enough said.

The characters, again a problem. Yes Quintin is drippy and pathetic. I can live with that. His best friend though is so angry about not being accepted for training that she betrays him (though he sort of betrays her too). What does that say about the quality of friendship eh? And then there's his roommate who's an arsehole who simply destroys the most prized possession of Quintin who he doesn't know for no reason. Actions in this often don't make sense in the context of the characters.

And the plot is just confusing.

Still, hopefully it will improve.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[ascanius]

Terrible, horrible. Change the names and it could be any generic sifi TV show. The only thing that makes it have anything to do with the books are the names. I watched the whole season streaming, for free, that is all it merits, free.

Problems. Doesn't have anything to do with the books aside from fillory, and names.
The casting of the actors,. Penny went from a bookish plump nerd to a PC hunk? WTF. The girls do look all alike.
Gad school? Again WTF.
Completely rewriting entire character arcs for? I have no idea. Julias plot line in the books was one of my favorites. in the show she is a neutered little miss perfect who cries if she gets an A-, yet she is going to grad school guess she never managed to grow up? It's her story line that really pissed me off. In the books she went all over the use US trying to find more magic, like an addict trying to find her next fix. In the show she simply had a vendetta against Quinton and the school. Then one day 'email we will teach you magic' and bam they are going to summon a god? It doesn't show the work she put into getting to her goal, only her trying to find shortcuts and get handed what she wants. She went from being an engaging character who was working towards her goal in the books to a vindictive spoiled girl who wants to be handed what she wants in the show. The show completely lacks any subtleties that made the characters interesting much less the magic. Not to mention Alice. Quinton was redeemed because of the sacrifice Alice made for them, in the show they just erased her for the most part, like the possibility for books two three and four.
Quinton. I hated Quinton in the books, he was a sniveling Whiny child. In the show he was just meh, middle ground, forgettable unimportant. The whole depression thing rang hollow, it was an annoyance, it made no sense. I didn't even realize that was what they were going for until I read reviews.
You can tell this was a low budget show, an apartment, a dingy apartment, a campus, classroom, dorm rooms, roman villa house. Did I forget any?
and the plot? enough said!

The whole thing felt like an elaborate commercial for some ivy league grad school.

I give it a zero


In the end I was fuming. This was just a failed attempt at getting on the grit show bandwagon. Its not worth the bandwidth.