Lev Grossman’s the Magicians isbeing adapted to television by the Syfy channel, it would seem.
What do ya’ll think about it? Excited? Annoyed? Ambivalent, like me?
I’m with you on that last one. Syfy’s series record is…mixed. And this could be a tough adaptation, depending on which way they go. Once you get to the second act of book 1 it could be hard to keep a TV audience riveted to the kind of louche douchebaggery on display by virtually every character ( minus Alice ). Change it too much so they are more likeable and fans will scream bloody murder. Then there are the rather serious pacing issues…
If done right it could be great, but the potential pitfalls are great. Hell, I struggled with my feelings about the series before ultimately deciding I really liked it as a whole, despite numerous issues with parts of it.
I doubt they’ll follow the actual plot of the books, as they don’t map very well to a TV series. They’ll just take the “Harry Potter for adults” setting and some of the characters, and occasionally grab some events from the book to stick in their own plots. Sort of like the Desden Files series from awhile back.
Which could be good. It probably won’t be, due to Sturgon’s Law, if nothing else, but there isn’t any a priori reason it can’t be good.
Eh. The book managed to suck all the fun out of magic (it’s nerdy, it’s hard, it’s dangerous) and the characters are generally speaking narcissist borderline alcoholics. I’d say that they have their work cut out for them.
I knew there had to be a thread going on the magicians. So three eps in and I am loving it. As some one mentioned up thread, Harry Potter for adults. I can almost see this academy being in the same millieu as hogwarts, Beau Batons and Strum and Drang.
She gave it all up and went total muggle, had to rewind to see if that was actually what I heard. I have heard Harry Potter references on other shows, latest was Agents of Shield. But in this context, I can definitely see JK raising her eyebrows, if they did not ask permission before hand.
Thoughts on this
Declan
You don’t have to ask permission to make pop culture references. So far I am enjoying this, i have not read the books at all so i have no idea how Harry Potterish it might be, at the start it seemed to be going more towards a Narnia thing than anything else.
I had heard of but not read the books; so far I’m enjoying it, but I can’t help but think that many (most? all?) of the characters are idiots who act nothing at all like real people.
I have no familiarity with Harry Potter, but the last thing I’d say about this show is that it’s “<whatever> for adults.” A cheesy 5-second levitating sex scene where you barely see shoulders is hardly “adult.” The rest of it is all cheesy teen angst, all the time. In other words, it’s a kid’s show, like the Shannara thing on MTV.
Shows for adults tend to have adult casts. For example, and note that I’m not saying it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread, but 12 Monkeys is actually for (super nerdy) adults. Hell, even the piss-poor Bitten is way more grown up than the Magicians.
I really liked the books, and note that the characters in the books had all read Harry Potter along with Narnia so they did reference muggles (and at one point one of them was joking around and said “send me an owl.”). So much for the Harry Potter references.
I’ve only watched one episode, and I thought it was weird that right off the bat they changed it from “applying to college” to “applying for graduate school”–to draw in an older audience? But I found it kind of disappointing, and it seemed to appeal to a younger audience than the books.
It would be a hard thing to adapt, though, I can see that. But it left me with the feeling that I was totally not the target audience, and I guess I’m not. I really thing its strengths are as a book and as an allegory for the transition into adulthood.
…not to say I’m totally down on the show. It’s retained my interest through three episodes so far. Largely due to Olivia Taylor Dudley, who was the only worthwhile part of Paranormal Activity: Ghost Dimension, and who is also the main reason I’m looking forward to The Vatican Tapes. But man, those glasses are clearly just for comic relief. All she’s missing is a ponytail before we step into full-blown parody territory.
This and this are all I think about whenever those glasses are on screen.
I’m following the show and enjoying it enough to keep watching. I haven’t read the books, but the comments made about the characters all being assholes definitely ring true for me. Not that that’s a dealbreaker.
Watching it. I read the books in a casual way; watching the show the same way. It is pretty funny to watch the hot kids do magic. Have to see if there is any more to the show. The Alice character, played by OTDudley as you mention - pretty funny. She looks like January Jones and has about the same acting skills, but is still startingly hot in a fragile blonde sort of way. But acting? The actress playing Julia is a bit better.
I didn’t quite see how they introduced the concept of a Niffin in the show. I noted that they had that charm which Quentin used, but not sure how they realized it would be useful.
This. I barely finished the first book and have no intention of reading the rest.
In some cases a boring book can be a good tv show, but I don’t think this will be one of them.
But I can absolutely believe that magic would be nerdy, hard, and dangerous; a world in which this is true works, for me.
I read the first two books and will definitely read the third. But I can understand why readers looking for a certain kind of fun wouldn’t like them. They’re a sort of deconstruction of the Narnia/Harry Potter type of fantasy.
As for the characters being unpleasant, I understand that criticism too, and somewhat agree with it, but I’m fine with that if it turns out that they “get better” and mature over the course of the series (which it looks like they are doing).
I haven’t watched the TV series and don’t really think I want to: I’m afraid the tone and literary quality of the novels wouldn’t translate well to the screen.
Oh I can absolutely believe it too, but that doesn’t mean I want to read about it.
Add the unlikable (and uninteresting!) characters to that and it results in a book I don’t want to read.
It’s true that the characters get infinitesimally better by the end of the first book, if you can tell me they improve significantly in the second I may gave it a shot.
I sorta liked but had a lot of issues with the first book, liked the second better ( but hated the ending ) and was overall quite satisfied with how it all was tied up in the third. Oddly enough it actually works well structurally as a trilogy - my enjoyment of the series increased progressively. And yes, the characters slowly cease being the kind of people you want to punch in the mouth.
Did any of you follow the series to the finale last week? I just got to watching it over the weekend. I thought the show got better and better throughout the season and became the one TV show I most looked forward to each week.
But having not read the books, the ending (as in the last 5 minutes of the last episode) kind of floored me (not in a good way). They were building and building all season long and the climax was so quick and obviously, “cliff-hangery”. I won’t spoil anything here in case anyone is still catching up, I was just curious how you book readers found it. Does what happened in the last episode stay true to the ending of a particular book in the series? That can’t really be the end, right?
Loved the series, bought the books to read over the next few months. My son-in-law calls it “TV on crack”, and can’t wait until the next season.
I read all three and noticed that the magic became considerably less nerdy and difficult. In the first book, it seemed as though you’d have to do research for a month and bend your fingers into four dimensional knots just to do a card trick. By the third book, the characters are doing impossibly difficult magics off the cuff. So I think Grossman dialed it down a bit. Also, the characters did become somewhat more likable, or at least, they didn’t just sit around drinking and wallowing like in the first book.
Haven’t watched the show yet.
The show is staying true to the spirit of the major plot points, but seems disjointed. Some of the plot points or scenes are from the second book. Julia’s story for the most part is running in parallel with the Brakebills characters ( she only makes cameo appearances in Book 1), and points from the final scene are book true, but its like they ran the finale through a final edit and changed it.
I dont think there was anything I did not like about the TV show, either characters or scenes.
Declan