Open spoilers for Season 1 in this thread. Please no information about anything after Season 1, including casting info, promos, etc.
I just finished watching Season 1 of Syfy’s The Magicians on Netflix on the recommendation of a friend. Very glad I did. I was hooked seven minutes into the show with the first appearance of parody-Narnia, Fillory. I also just read the first book.
There was so much I liked about this show, but let me point out a few.
Performances Jason Ralph as Quentin, Arjun Gupta as Penny, Hale Appleman as Eliot, and Summer Bishil as Margo. There were so many beautiful acting moments by each of them, such as:
— Quentin’s little meta-commentaries half under his breath, like “that’s straight out of Dungeons and Dragons!”
— Penny’s reactions to what he considered inexplicable behavior by others, like Quentin singing Taylor Swift in his head, or the entire “Why do you all look like you did a crime?” post-threesome scene.
— Margo’s “I like competition” to Alice and “What did you do?” do the Margolem—basically catty Margo in general.
— Honorable mention for Esme Bianco as Eliza and Anne Dudek as Prof. Sunderland. Solid, delightful performances. Also Charles Shaughnessy as Christopher Plover. Most of the rest of the casting and performances were right on, except as noted below.
Olivia Taylor Dudley as Alice—not as good a performance as the others, but I am totally in love with her, so long as she keeps the eyeglasses on.
The introduction of The Beast at the end of Episode 1—wow, shocking. But now that I’ve read the first book, I wish that they had showed him actually devouring a student. That would have worked. I wonder why they left that out.
The twist at the end. Wow, I was not expecting that. And an admirable departure from the book, whose last act was rather weak.
Weaknesses:
Stella Maeve as Julia—boy, what a downer one-note performance. I dreaded her scenes and her constant hangdog expression. I wonder if the weakness came from having to cram her entire plot into the plot of Book 1.
Kady — I kept forgetting who she was and confusing her with Margo. She might have been one main character too many.
Okay, I’m about to reach my fill of rape as a character-driving motivation for significant choices. This time it was for both a male and a female characters. Can we come up with something else?
The Quentin-trapped-in-Inception episode. Weakest episode and a diversion from the story arc.
I enjoyed the first season, the early episodes of season 2 really should have been in season 1 though. Elliot is freaking hilarious and he just gets better as the show goes on, ditto Margo.
Because they didn’t want two major female characters named Julia and Janet. Movies and TV shows often go out of their way to avoid characters whose names start with the same letter. I did note the librarian’s little joke about Margo/Janet. The one I don’t get is why they changed Amanda Orloff to Kady Orloff-Diaz.
By the way, another thing I like about this show—two major roles played by Indian-American actors—Arjun Gupta and Summer Bishil. Also Professor March played by Hiro Kanagawa and Rizwan Manji as Tick Pickwick—yay, colorblind casting!
I loved the book series so much, so I’ve been amazed that I like this show even more. I think it takes the best elements of the books and translates them well on screen, and also shores up some of the aspects that didn’t really click with me in the books, such as changing up Penny a bit so that he’s much more critical to the events (and a lot more sympathetic). The humor that was part of the books works really well in the show.
I also love the aesthetic, not just Fillory, but even more how Brakebills looks like a hodgepodge of neogothic lecture halls, and then bad 1970s college glass and girder administrative buildings. In my head, when I was reading, it was always just like U.S. Hogwarts, and having it seem more like a realistic magic college campus is much better.
Maybe the best new element of the story is Fen – I’m very excited to see where they go with this next plot about the fairies.
The only I think I don’t love is how Alice dressed like a saucy schoolgirl.
Oh, I was disappointed with Ember being a mix between a guy and a sheep. I always pictured him as a literal sheep, like a straight up talking sheep, and I think that’s funnier.
I think because they wanted to combine the character with Kady from Free Trader Beowulf - esp, considering she’s helping Julia try to kill Raynard in the show.
I think the book is far superior to the show, but I do think the show has its charms. It’s righted some of the meandering and unevenness of Season 1. And has actually touched on (a bit) Q’s discovery over the book series that magic (or anything magical) won’t solve all your problems - you got to deal with those all by yourself. Of course that does have the effect of making Q far more likable in the show than it was in the books.
I finished watching season 1 about a week ago. I didn’t realize that there is only one season on Netflix. Augh! I have to be more careful when starting these TV series oon Netflix…
I was watching the TV show and reading Book 1 concurrently, so they are kind of jumbled up in my brain. I don’t recommend doing it that way. I like Quentin’s and Penny’s characters a lot more in the TV show compared to Book 1. Eliot is awesome. I thought Book 1 was quite depressing but it was weird, I couldn’t put it down. I am currently reading Book 3.
I really like the way the show/books turn the whole fantasy land adventure trope on its head. Life’s a bitch and then you die, even in Fillory.
Charles Shaughnessy was Plover? Dang, I missed that. Guess I will have to go back and rewatch that episode. Or, might as well just rewatch the whole season.
I watched episode 1 online (it was available free) but I don’t have cable so did not see the series until it showed up on Netflix. I just finished the last episode of season 1(I actually prevented myself from binging, and only watched 2 episodes max in a row) I have not read the books but was aware they existed.
Wonder how long I’ll have to wait for season 2 on Netflix…
Ah, I remembered another thing that I was slightly disappointed about the show with … no Josh. He was one of my favorite characters from the books.
I know that there’s a guy named Josh on the show, but it’s like they just used the name again for a completely different character – nothing about his story arc is the same as in the books.
Minor plot hole: when people were trying to contact gods, they mostly ignored the face that the local harvest god contacted Julia. They did mention that she (the harvest deity) doesn’t contact most folks, but they could have tried to contact her again to get some info on other deities…
But that lifting up was a response to a prayer/spell. There wasn’t any real contact (as in a conversation) there. And the guy who gave her the prayer is dead.
Yeah, my impression as well is that in the TV show there is no OLU like in the books. And I’m very curious to know if Richard was intending all along to bring Reynard out and if not, is Richard still in there or is it all Reynard just in a Richard wrapper.
There are all sorts of reason why it would not have worked, I would just have been happy if they mentioned it when they were “working up the food chain”.
Again, a minor point.
As I was wandering around Netflix looking for something new to watch during the summer doldrums, I hesitated to give this show a look because the promotional shot they’re using really makes it come off like some kind of irritating teen supernatural soap opera. But I eventually gave it a try and I have been really impressed. I think the point where I felt like I was in for something good was when Quentin asked Eliot if he was hallucinating and Eliot replies, “If you were, how would asking me help?” Jason Ralph is doing such terrific work. He’s hitting every beat I think the character should hit. I hope I don’t have to wait too long for Season 2.
is much better.