The Magicians/Syfy

I actually missed the premier last night, but it sounds interesting.

Based on The Magicians by Lev Grossman.

edited 26th Jan '16 7:06:15 AM by yellowturtle

I liked it. Not perfect, by any means. Quentin is the big one. I think he should have switched places with his friend, so she'd be the one at the school and he'd be the one desperate to find anywhere he could fit in. He's painfully boring as is, but at least they lampshaded his boringness, so they're aware it's a problem, and hopefully are planning to fix it.

I'm unsure how I feel about the complete lack of exposition on magic. I love new magic systems and stuff, but this almost felt like them saying "yes, our magic system is perfectly generic, so we're not going to bother telling you much about it. This story is about magical politics."

Quentin ending up at Brakebills as the same as it happens in the book. He's the main character.

of course he's going to end up in the Wizarding School.

edited 30th Jan '16 8:04:29 PM by higherbrainpattern

I was just saying from a pure story perspective, not from an adaptation perspective. It doesn't really matter what happens in the books, in the show he's just too boring right now. Like I said, they seem to know he's average, so hopefully that will improve.

Quentin was pretty much the least likeable or interesting character in the book as well. If you want a hero it's really Alice

edited 31st Jan '16 7:08:04 AM by tricksterson

Omg, the show moves a lot faster than the book but I looooove what they've done with Quentin's character. Also appreciate the focus on Julia

Same. Well, I didn't read the books, but otherwise same. Still not enamored with Quentin, but I think they're taking him in a good direction. Kinda hated the "You knew I liked you and you were nice to me and that makes you a bitch" speech, but I definitely didn't get the impression that we were supposed to agree with him there, so I'll accept it as just sometimes people are dicks. And besides, I've been in that situation (on both sides), so I understand where he was coming from.

So... what exactly does Quentin do? He teleported the Dean's stopwatch and made some cards fly about, so not really a pattern here.

He seems to just be a normal magician without any specialty. He's doing fine in his classes, but he's not at the head of the pack, and he doesn't seem to have any specific ability.

The key word, of course, being seem. I'm guessing he's going to be able to use all the special abilities to a limited extent, but that's just my "the main character must be better than everyone else" alarm going off. I actually hope he turns out to have no specialty, forcing him to work harder to catch up. I'm a big fan of Weak, but Skilled.

That's why I'm having a hard time figuring out what special thing he does. Because 'main character=superior'. There also a little bit of a The Chosen One floating around.

I like that idea, though.

edited 3rd Feb '16 3:24:18 PM by yellowturtle

I like the hints that they're not playing The Chosen One straight. It seems more that he's just in the right place at the right time, and while it would be for the best if he shapes up and serves his role, they'll find another if he fails. It's implied that the fake paramedic was the previous chosen one, and since she failed now it's the next generation's turn to try.

I think he clouds minds. Glamour, Charm Person (aura), ect. He's a dick, but people go way out of their way to help or involve him regardless. It's not at purple man levels, but the behavior of people around him doesn't make that much sense, because they are acting as if he is the most important person in the room, even when that makes very little sense from their perspective. So. That's his talent. He draws people's attention.

Now I need Kilgrave to show up and get pushed into the bottomless fountain.

Uh... what? Where are you getting the idea that people are giving Quentin special attention, or even particularly like him? Two of the teachers seem to know he's some sort of chosen one, but even they mostly ignore him. Alice gets his help because he insists (not because she went out of her way to find him), Penny is his roommate and avoids him as much as possible because his thoughts are too loud, Kady barely interacts with him at all, the gay physical kid thinks he's cute but mostly just uses him as a lackey, Margo ignores him in favor of Alice, and Julia is his oldest friend but magic quickly drives them apart.

So I have absolutely no idea why you think he's getting any special treatment from anyone.

This episode was better than I expected. I thought it was a little early for an episode like this, but they did it well.

It's been renewed for a second season!

I don't know what happened to Kady, and I probably don't want to know? I agree that is was little too early for the 'I've been hallucinating/dreaming all along' episode, but I liked it.

I think Marina said "she'll never talk," implying that she wouldn't have to punish her, and she can stay as The Mole. But we'll see.

Oh no, poor cancer puppy

Great episode, but Julia's life needs to start improving at least a little. I'm not saying she needs to get into Brakebills or have her fiance's memories restored, but when everyone you knows either hates you or dies, I think we can officially call it rock bottom.

And Marina needs to be killed. That woman...

The Brakebills side was fun, though. Who wants to bet the last test didn't actually require nudity, and Elliot and Margo were just screwing around?

I suspect that the spell didn't require it, but they had them take off their clothes anyway because having them shapeshift inside a pile of clothing is just asking for someone to break a wing.

Julia met the woman she fears becoming above all else.. It's kind of hilarious, because Julia got pretty good advice from her - Getting the fuck out of New York and seeing what she can learn elsewhere would have been so much safer/saner a move than trying to steal Marina's archives.

edited 23rd Feb '16 5:35:22 AM by Izeinsummer

So... did they just... turn into geese, and fly away?

Yes, yes they did.

I loved this episode. The first half, where everyone was mute, was beautiful. The Alice and Quentin romance is going a bit better than I expected, but we'll have to see where it goes. I also wish Julie had been given a bit more screentime, but a lot of stuff was going on.

When Julie and her sister were talking about the guy who got sent to rehab, did they say Danny or daddy? If it's the first one, I guess they have a brother.

And I guess the Beast was mind-controlling Elliot. A basic Charm Person, but still, the parallels to the insects the others were controlling is clear.

I know! I had to go over that part as well. Pretty sure she says 'Danny'.

...whom I hope we meet sometime. Julia is getting very interesting.

They're definitely saying "Daddy".