The Magicians [SyFy series]

Thin_J wrote:

The biggest weak point of the show for me is still just struggling to keep from checking out every time Quentin shows up. He's just so generic and everything he does has been so completely predictable.

Julia and Penny and even Alice and pretty much all the other supporting characters are way more interesting.

Everything that isn't Quentin is what's keeping me watching for now.

Yeah I can relate to this. There is something about either the actor or the character (or both) that's not connecting with me too. HE seems so vanilla, so uninteresting at the moment.

RooksGambit wrote:
Thin_J wrote:

The biggest weak point of the show for me is still just struggling to keep from checking out every time Quentin shows up. He's just so generic and everything he does has been so completely predictable.

Julia and Penny and even Alice and pretty much all the other supporting characters are way more interesting.

Everything that isn't Quentin is what's keeping me watching for now.

Yeah I can relate to this. There is something about either the actor or the character (or both) that's not connecting with me too. HE seems so vanilla, so uninteresting at the moment.

God, I'm so glad it's not just me. Q-bag is boring and awful and mean. I have no idea why his friends even like him. At least in the case of Alice, she doesn't seem to.

I'm caught up through episode 4. LOVED the mental hospital episode. Very cool.

Yowzers. Hedge wizard life is tough!

I'm liking the show a lot, but funnily enough I'm not fond of any of the main characters.

slazev wrote:

I'm liking the show a lot, but funnily enough I'm not fond of any of the main characters.

Just like the book!

Here is a question about episode 6 I'm not sure may be explained better in the book.

Spoiler:

If Marina had her files prepared for theft (maybe after seeing the spell on the paper), why did she look so enraged as the file cabinets were shaking before teleport. It seems it would suit her character more to give a sly smile and gloat that someone was about to have their head bleed out. Unless she was able to cast a spell right before that did it?

Big sad face because SyFy isn't showing free episodes and I don't have cable. I think it's a good enough show to buy on Amazon, but I'll probably wait until the finale or right before

karmajay wrote:

Here is a question about episode 6 I'm not sure may be explained better in the book.

Spoiler:

If Marina had her files prepared for theft (maybe after seeing the spell on the paper), why did she look so enraged as the file cabinets were shaking before teleport. It seems it would suit her character more to give a sly smile and gloat that someone was about to have their head bleed out. Unless she was able to cast a spell right before that did it?

Yeah, didn't get that also, unless she used a spell after the fact. In this case, it would be a vengeful act and her pissed off face would make sense.

I don't think the book offers any insight for these characters. Feel free to correct me, book readers.

Oh snap.

Dang this show is good. Very tense episode!

I can't wait to get caught up. I stopped watching after episode 3 but not by choice, they stopped streaming free episodes on the SyFy website and I'm a cord cutter so no cable. It's definitely worthy of buying the season on Amazon and I plan to do that soon then binge watch a bunch of episodes.

Anyone know how many episodes will be in season 1?

Surprisingly, this is one of the shows I keep watching and it actually gets better with time. I love that they basically cut the books open and rearranged the insides because overall-plot-wise they were terrible and disjointed. He can write detail and interesting tidbits but can't plot for sh@t in my humble and uneducated opinion. Show writers seem to have a good sense of the arch and it's going in interesting directions.

RooksGambit wrote:

I can't wait to get caught up. I stopped watching after episode 3 but not by choice, they stopped streaming free episodes on the SyFy website and I'm a cord cutter so no cable. It's definitely worthy of buying the season on Amazon and I plan to do that soon then binge watch a bunch of episodes.

Anyone know how many episodes will be in season 1?

I thought it was 10 episodes, but, according to IMDB, it's 13.
That was a nice surprise. I haven't felt a lack of pace, meaning I haven't been bored yet.

I really liked the

Spoiler:

villain's identity reveal

in the last episode.

slazev wrote:

I really liked the

Spoiler:

villain's identity reveal

in the last episode.

Spoiler:

It's Martin, right?

Uhm, no?
Was I spoiled right now?

Gosh darnit!

That was just my guess. As far as I know, they haven't actually explicitly said who he is. I think there are two possibilities.

Really liking this show so far.

Ep 10

Spoiler:

I thought it was odd they didn't go to a teacher for help to get Penny back. Still loved the episode.

I guess the fountain guys need to steal portal items if they want to escape.

I do think the format of the show might be a little off. They have a major plot but they rarely touch on it. These episodes have all been good but the main moth monster plot doesn't seem to be moving much.

I caught up on this over the last week or two, and man I think this show is just fantastic. I've read the books, which I thought were really impressive in the way they improved in quality--the first book, I barely managed to finish, and I really hated Quentin. But, for whatever reason, I eventually picked up the second book, which I think grew the characters in interesting ways, and by the third book improved even more, a really great ending.

It's especially helping for me that, although I read and enjoyed the books, it was kind of a while ago, and I'm pretty fuzzy on the details of the plot. So, although I generally know where things are going, I'm surprised by lots of details, and at other times am debating whether something is new or different from the book. (I was relieved when I realized why I didn't remember a Kady, and although Margot's name sounds right for her character, I didn't realize it was a change until I was doing a little reading on the show).

I guess contrary to some of you, I think both the writing and acting for Quentin is pretty strong here, perhaps in part because I'm comparing it to the Quentin of the first book, who was much more of an unlikable twit than he is here.

complexmath wrote:

That was just my guess. As far as I know, they haven't actually explicitly said who he is. I think there are two possibilities.

Well, it may not be

Spoiler:

Plover

, but that's who the group thinks the Beast is and what was implied by the episode.
Having said that, your guess is good. He seemed pretty obssessed with Fillory and is also probably psychologically damaged.

Yeah, I agree that the group has certainly drawn one conclusion. My reasoning though:

Spoiler:

They mentioned that the Beast is trying to gather up all the keys to Fillory. You don't do that unless you want to keep people out. And we've already seen that Martin is terrified of Plover getting into Fillory. Why would Plover care if more people go to Fillory? Maybe he has a reason, but we haven't seen it yet. Also, Jane spoke to the Beast as kind of an equal. It didn't come across as a woman to her foster parent. And the Beast just plain looks younger and thinner than Plover. Most telling though is that the Beast knows about the button, and far as we've seen, Plover shouldn't have any idea that it exists.

It's already been established that pain grants power, and Plover certainly wasn't keeping his research a secret from Martin. I think Martin learned magic from Plover and is trying to accumulate power to "protect himself" from Plover, which is also why he's collecting all the keys to Fillory. I think he also blames Jane for what happened to him, and that's why he killed her.

Again, all of this is just conjecture, but I think Martin being the Beast is a better fit than Plover, even though we know that Plover is a horrible person in his own right. The big question in my mind though is who is Quentin and why is he significant? The Beast knows who he is, clearly. He's too young to be Jane's kid. Is he from Fillory? What threat does he pose?

Spoiler:

I'm not so sure about Martin easily and brutally killing his sister. You say he blames her, but she did bring him the button. She cared about him and tried to give him easy access to Fillory.
I don't think Quentin is Jane's son, but why do you say he's too young? She seemed, uhm, healthy enough.

More importantly, should we still continue using spoiler tags?

Unless the thread title says "spoilers", yes. Just in case people are behind or are waiting for a Netflix release or something.

Spoiler:

He could be her son I suppose. I have no idea how old any of them are supposed to be. But if Quentin were her son I'd expect to see more... I dunno... chemistry between them?

On Martin--yes Jane is his sister but she's also a sister who, from his perspective, repeatedly abandoned him to the old man's attention. I can see how Martin might have ended up blaming her for a lot of the suffering he faced, even if Jane meant well. We also know that, at least at the time of that ghost replay, Jane had no idea what was going on, so her obtaining the button was just so that Martin could continue to come to Fillory so they could play together. She's surprisingly innocent in that scene compared to Martin. If she had known I imagine she'd have acted differently, but Martin appeared to be trying to protect her.

That doesn't mean that Martin did turn out that way. Different people respond differently to abuse. But I do think there's the potential. And the show has also talked about how magic, if not used carefully, can change a person. If Martin began practicing "wild magic" in that kind of headspace, what might it have done to him?

Got all caught up. All the characters in the show are flawed in some way or another but I kind of appreciate that, it makes them more real. Also, there's a couple Stargate connections in the last episode (11). First, it was directed by Amanda Tapping who played Carter in SG1, also the first guy they visit when looking for a connection to the gods was the same actor who played Lt Davis, in Stargate. He was the Pentagon advisor in who appeared off and on the first 5 seasons.

End of episode 12. Someone looks like they are about to explode.

Damn Q

Cool stuff with Julia though. I wonder how that is going to tie in with the BB crowd.

Those hangovers are powerful stuff...

Is the Beast close to god-level status?
I don't even know his goal. He wants to close all roads to Fillory, but why?

I saw the Alice thing coming.

4/4 episode

Spoiler:

Even though I did see the Alice and Penny thing coming I was kind of hoping one of them would see how wrong it was. Well they do make a cute couple.

I didn't think they would ever get to Fillory just because it is filled with fantasy creatures. I thought they would figure something out without having to go there.

I do think the Goddess is somehow tied to the beast.

This show is just getting better and better.

Thoughts on the Quentin/Margo/Elliot situation, spoilered for comparing the version of events in the show to the version in the book (I don't think this is actually spoiling anything for non-book readers, as it seems clear to me the show decided to do this differently and isn't saving it for later or something, but just in case):

Spoiler:

I think it's interesting how differently Quentin cheating played out in the show from the books. My recollection is that in the books, Quentin (and to a degree Alice too, I think) was in a bit of a depressive funk, and his cheating with Margo (and I'm pretty sure it was Margo only, no Elliot involved) was semi-malicious by both Quentin and Janet (renamed Margo on the show). For Quentin it was a self-destructive act by someone who was angry, aimless, and resentful, more or less intentionally seeking to ruin the one good thing he had going. And for Janet I think she later admits to basically wanting to assert her social dominance and desirability by breaking up Quentin and Alice on a whim. None of that seems to be present here; instead, they all seem to be victims of magical drunkenness. On the one hand, the show's use of "emotion bottles" seem like kind of a cop out, as it's hard to find Quentin or Margo hugely responsible for their actions. This presentation makes me inclined to give Quentin, Margo, Elliot, and Alice all a pass for their actions and reactions, so it avoids some hard choices and more complicated feelings. On the other hand, the way the whole cheating scenario played out in the books was one of the things most contributed to Quentin being hugely unlikable and hard to care about. My kneejerk reaction is to think stories are somehow more serious and sophisticated when heroes act like bad people. But on further reflection, I think that's probably a wrong impulse and that this version of the characters and this version of the cheating scenario makes for a better story.

Also, as a fan of the books, the exchange where the librarian calls Margo "Janet," Margo corrects her, and the librarian says something like "well, this time, maybe" was great. I like the suggestion that the show is sort of an alternate reality in the same universe as the books.

Another book/show comparison re Julia (this one could be a show spoiler if this book plot point is still in reserve)

Spoiler:

So in the books, summoning the God gets everyone in the group but Julia murdered, but here, I guess we are to believe it actually worked out just fine? Or is there another shoe to drop there? I wasn't clear how we got to Julia relating these events, so maybe there's still time for us to learn that things didn't work out so well.

In any event, it seems clear that the show is aiming for less darkness than the books, which I think is probably a wise decision. (Oddly, it reminds me of Kickass the comic vs. Kickass the movie) Do any other book readers remember, was the timeloop thing and Jane's death at the hands of the beast a part of the first book? They felt like new/changed parts of the story to me, but it's been quite a while since I read the first book so that may just be my faulty memory.

A really great episode. It started out a little weak and I was a bit worried about soap opera drama but that was quickly brushed aside. I really really like the show a lot. I'm so glad it was renewed for a 2nd season. I may even re-watch all the episodes again before season 2, something I almost never do.

On a related side note, I really like the music in the show. Not just the soundtrack of songs from earlier episodes (which is great) but the score as well. It's a really subtle score but I find it really compelling and it fits the show perfectly.

Penny has become one of my favorite characters on TV.

His little conversation at the table with Alice was great. Want them to be best pals forever.

I was shocked at how much I enjoyed Julia and Quentin getting over their sh*t and going on their little journey.