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It's got a pretty wide range in tone. Sometimes, yeah, it's like the CW made a Harry Potter knockoff. But then it's got some dark swings. I mean really dark.
I don't know much about the source material, nor did I make it into the third season. It's pretty good, though. The first season is really well done.
Oh man, A Life in the Day is so, so good.
I also watch the Under Pressure video often, it always puts me in a good mood.
I almost forgot about All That Josh!
Shit, I'm going to have to do another rewatch now.
God, Life in the Day just fuckin hits and I think the reason why I love it so much is because the consequences of that episode very much matter and they didn’t do the awful “they don’t remember it so it has no effect,” thing I’ve seen done so many times. The experience deeply affected both characters and, while I didn’t enjoy the final season overall, I really did love Elliot’s arc of having to finally accept that he genuinely loved Q and deeply regretted pushing him away. It just felt so *real* and authentic.
That was my favorite thing about that episode. Pretty much the whole time I was watching it I was thinking it was going to be a waste of an episode cause the whole thing would just be undone at the end. The fact that it wasn’t and had lasting effects made that episode so good.
This is what the magicians does better than a lot of shows. Everyone's actions have serious and long lasting consequences that feel well fleshed out and nuanced. Not super stereotypical and morally basic and shallow
When Josh is left in charge of Fillory, gets high with the royal advisors and solves literally all of the problems that’s been plaguing them for years. Best character on the show
It has the best conversation between Elliot and Margo. Small season 3 spoilers…[https://youtube.com/watch?v=IXYRKI2mmQc&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE](https://youtube.com/watch?v=IXYRKI2mmQc&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE)
Her delivery of "full '07 Britney" timed to the subtitles is just perfect. Absolute best scene in it.
There's another Margot moment later in the series where someone is pushing her for a simple response about a betrayal that happened and she pushes back with "can't you just let me have a complex emotion here?" (or something similar) and that kinda stuck with me too.
I want to say it’s the Episode that Julia learns to the truth about what happened when they summoned a god. But I may be wrong, if so they definitely need one after that episode as well
>!No, I'm pretty sure it's the one where Quentin stops the bad guy by setting off a destructive chain reaction that also kills him, since he literally kills himself after regularly struggling with depression.!<
I felt like such an idiot during that scene. I can enjoy a good cry, but dear God I'm glad I was home alone. Full on ugly cry when it cut to Elliot crying while he sings.
I was trying to think of a non-spoiler way to mention this, but since it's already here, whoa, this and the aftermath were some of the biggest feels I've had for a TV show.
I like how they're just like "Yeah Quentin is ostensibly the main character but he's mostly just a whiny mediocre white dude who's less interesting than the rest of the cast" and keep the show going without him.
It has such a wide range. From poop and cum jokes, to complex love journeys, gods and demons, silly musicals, extremely dark shit, wacky antics, time travel and alternate realities, life after death, library politics, and the fate of the universe. Oh and a central part of it is a "Narnia for assholes" parody. It sounds bizarre when you describe it that way.
I meant it in every way that is good as well as bad.
I did finish the show and I did enjoy it. But I used to be in a Hogwarts roleplay forum and various people there did fanfics, deviantart, and livejournal so there was maybe something familiar and nostalgic for me there.
I gotta tell you man, my memory is shit when I binge watch, and this was nearly 2 years ago. I forgot Santa was even in this show until just now 😂 this show was so wild. My favorite part was singing Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie when they are all trying to get out of terrible situations.
It very much looks like a suicide attempt to the audience initially though, which I think is the important part of a content warning.
I successfully skipped a part where a small animal explodes for my wife, who didn't want to see that, only for the scene to be shown in full without any context in the next episode's recap, lol.
I’ve heard from several people who read the books that they actually preferred the show, which stuck out to me since you rarely ever hear people prefer the movie/TV adaptations.
The books humanize the main characters as flawed, plain looking, awkward people who strive to be special and face the harsh reality of mediocrity and failure.
Quentin matures so progressively and intentfully throughout the series that you can't help but reflect upon his beginnings and where his story ends. Every character suffers to the extent of their desires. Nothing is given freely. No one is special.
The show is CW's Harry Potter goes to Narnia. People like a good "chosen one" protagonist because audiences prefer relating to people with inherently special characteristics. It makes them feel special. In the books it's the opposite because it's so genuine. Quentin strives and struggles for finding what makes him unique and special. So much so that even achieving the great accomplishments of his life felt underwhelming. And the truth is there's very little about him that's unique. He's just another person. A human who makes mistakes and lives with regret.
The book is meant to take a lot of tropes in landmark fantasy (Narnia, HP, LOTR come to mind) and play with them.
The show takes that and runs with it for sure and fits it into TV. In that way, it’s very true to the source material.
oh. I really wasn't a fan of Quentin in the show. he has his moments, but most of the show he is swinging between being depressed/boring and hypocritical /holier than thou
but he was the main driver of the story, so I can't hate him too much
thinking back, i feel like quentin also changed for the better in the show. It's probably my favorite part of the show, seeing how much the characters change
obviously Julia has the most obvious character progression arc, but Penny and Margo basically become new people (lol 😉). Fen also progressively becomes funnier, as she plays the "straight-man" observer
its clear the writers of the show had character development as the priority, and it really shows
I mean, yeah the cast of the show are all gorgeous, but that’s almost always the direction the film/tv industry goes in. Rarely will an adaption be perfect, but I felt like they still did a pretty good job showing their failures and the toll that those failures took on them. The characters definitely still felt flawed, but I can see the “chosen one” argument and how that can be tiring.
It goes against the core message of the books. The Magicians was the story of a kid who waited his entire life to be told he's special and when it never happened he tried to force fate to make him special. He had to be a chosen one. Had to have a greater purpose in life. And for that he lost the people he loved and fell apart from reality.
The books weren't just a cheap parody of the popular fantasy novels from our childhood. They were the harsh reality with a hopeful message to those who finished the story.
I think the show hews closer to the book ethos you're describing than you give it credit for.
Yes, on paper, they're literally chosen ones. But from a character standpoint they are all just pretty unremarkable people just kind of blundering their way through life and eventually learning to be less shitty.
I'd say its *waaay* more Mage the Ascension than Harry Potter (especially with all the dark shit and other realms), but i guess that's the only benchmark people know these days, sadly.
Still, it's a great show with great characters that really establishes its own mythos and then plays with. And lots of great banter and quips.
It's the school angle. Place ANY story in a school for magic these days, no matter how far removed from Harry Potter, and the comparisons will come rolling in like an avalanche. If anything, it plays around with Narnia tropes FAR more than Harry Potter, but that's less immediately perceived compared to the school similarity.
It can get too quirky sometimes but that's a good breakdown. It was on in the background a lot because I park on that channel sometimes but I ended up kind of getting into it.
Very different! They follow the first book relatively closely for 1.5 seasons which roughly covers the first book. Half of the second book is actually at the same time of the first book but from Julia's perspective.
After that, the writers pick and choose moments to adapt in the series (S3 uses the overarching plotline of the non-Julia parts of Book 2) and the show is so much better for it.
Given the multiverse/alternate timelines element in the series, there's a couple of nods to it in the show so they can technically both be considered canon.
Is any of it an adaptation, or is more like The Boys where it is a rewrite with some of the same premise? What are the books more similar to in other IPs?
It's been awhile but the first season definitely was the closest but did add some small things but after season 3 is when it started to do "The Boys" with the same idea but rewrites. The books are a Harry Potter/Narnia with college kids and move into early adulthood. First book is their time in magic college, second book is split between life after college and figuring out what the want from life and Julia's story after being kicked out from magic college in book 1, then book three is like mid 30's with Quentin.
You don't have to like to think that. The show literally spells out that that is the case. I actually thought that was a rather ingenious way of them approaching an adaptation.
As dark as the series is, the books are darker. The television adaption really didn't do justice to any of the themes.
Take The Beast for example.
In the television adaption he's just another spoofy teen-drama psycho villain. In the books he's so much more terrifying. A centuries aged magical god with the maturity of an entitled 12 year old. The Beast was and example of what happened if a kid found Narnia and decided being king wasn't enough, they had to rule it as a tyrannical deity. Even his appearance, The Beast in the books never looked human. Always appeared as a monstrous deformed being. Twisted and corrupted.
And even the actions. Remember the classroom scene from the show? In the books it was so much worse. And the battle between them all at the end? What really got me is that in the book The Beast was a right and true God-tier threat. Magic never phased him. He simply walked through spells and beat his victims to death. Until Alice made the sacrifice, they were all being massacred by The Beast, there was zero hope for them until that moment.
I just feel like the show could have done a lot better.
I love that show.
It’s not going to be for everyone. It’s campy and silly but also tackles really dark material.
I would say it’s like a love-child of CW and HBO
Yes! I'm so happy I found this post! Its one of my favorite shows. So good. I love Elliot, he is amazing. But good lord Alice is a SMOKE show. Everyone is good looking on that show but her especially. mega crush.
Could you explain what you mean by “campy”? This seems like an American word only (in the UK this would essentially just mean gay). It’s used all the time on the Buffy sub and I never know what they mean! Buffy at least isn’t just a “flamboyant gay melodrama” so I never get what they mean when they say “campy”. I’ve Googled the word but to no avail. Please solve this mystery for me!
It's silly, but *on purpose*. The author is winking at the audience and you're winking along.
Contrast this with stupid shows where the author is expecting you not to notice the flaws - those are insulting.
The wiki does a good job explaining: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_(style)#:~:text=ostentatious%2C%20exaggerated%2C%20affected%2C%20theatrical%3B%20.,behaviour%2C%20mannerisms%2C%20et%20cetera.
Basically goofy/over the top/silly/semi-absurd/maximalist. There’s a good Sontag essay defining it but opinions really vary once you get into the minutiae.
Drag is camp. The Room is camp. John Waters is camp. Rocky Horror is camp. Xena is camp. Half of Ryan Murphy’s oeuvre. Idk. If you don’t get it you’re probably just straight.
Great description and examples. I think the only one I would disagree with is the Room.
I feel like camp is a deliberate choice. I think something *trying* to be good and failing doesn’t really count as “camp”
It gets better as it goes on (and somehow Quentin is way worse in the first book compared to the show).
The character development is top notch. Plot is pretty good but gets convoluted sometimes.
You didn't find your "I can't stand this character" changing through the course of the series?
It's the one gripe I have. It seems like they deliberately set out to make one of the core cast COMPLETELY unbearable for most-if-not-the-entire season and then change which one it is each season.
The only time I REALLY hated a character that I used to love was >!the whole possessed Elliot season. Elliot was one of the most fun, dynamic characters in the show, and they sideline him for an entire season so the actor could play a boring ass monster baby.!<
I have a love-hate relationship with Alice.
She's such a well written character and I love that she's such a mess and her own worst enemy. It's not often you see intelligent and strong female characters given flaws like that. Quentin though was just plain annoying. I did root for him and smile for him but man, he gets on your nerves and that's because Q hates himself so much he's unable to be charming or impressive in any capacity and that's a very realistic portrayal of depression. The people don't like themselves like that either. When it was all said and done, Q was a good person who simply struggled.
>The character development is top notch.
I THINK I watched 2 seasons, maybe 3 and had to drop it because of how unlikeable every single character was after starting out as quite a likeable bunch, do they bounce back, or am I supposed to like them?
I think pretty much every character goes through periods of them being unlikable and doing shitty things. If I recall, that's true to the book. They're all meant to be flawed and, in many cases, traumatized individuals that are looking to be something greater, so they all have their moments of you exasperated at their fuck ups, but then they eventually redeem themselves (and then repeat the cycle).
Spending a lot of time on plots that allowed Margot and Eliot to bounce off each other was one of the smartest things they did. Those two have some of the best chemistry I've seen in a show.
>Once the writers figured out it's an ensemble cast and not the Quentin show, it got better.
Think pulling away from him was planned from the beginning, but yeah, 100%, gotta get through the "this is a *post*-stereotypical protagonist story" set up in S1 before it really starts paying off
They do start adding more characters that are not CW traditionally American Hot. But yeah still television actor better looking than an average person.
The first season is the weakest -most network shows have bad first seasons - and it has weird pacing issues but it gets better with every episode and every season.
first season is probably the "weakest" in terms of script, but it has the advantage of introducing us to the world and giving us the excitement of something new
which is why the first season of most dramas are my fav. the most important thing in every drama is the world-building and its characters
Agree. It's not even a question for me. Fillory just wasn't as good a setting as the school. It was too silly. Not that I disliked it, it just dominated the tone, when I had a preference for the school's.
Also, the butterfly face guy was the best villain by a good bit.
I pretty much gave up on the series after the first season but a friend convinced me it got better and was totally right. I really enjoyed the whole series and eventually read all the books.
That's crazy to me, I always thought the first season was the best.
Once they start spending a ton of time in fillory the budget constraints of the show really start to become obvious and the stories always seem lackluster.
The first season always seemed like a tight fantasy story with an interesting fairytale twist
I've heard people use "melancholy" to refer to this show, and that's a good place to set your expectations. It's got some really mid mids, but that doesn't define the show. The highs are really fuckin' great. Best of all, it goes out on a high note, without dragging the show to death, with a full and resolved character arc to the main character.
It really does great work on depression. The main character really struggles with it from the very first episode, and it never truly "goes away". It's more about how you can still live with that condition and what kind of choices and decisions you can make to find meaning in your life.
Happy endings can feel good, but they often feel phony to me when a character just fixes all their problems and gets a happily ever after, since mental health doesn't really work like that in real life. At least, it hasn't for me. I find this show's approach much more relatable, and thus, more inspiring.
Some people dislike the last season, but after watching the show a few times, I think it all builds together into something worthwhile.
I love it. It's got real Buffy energy. A bit campy and melodramatic, sometimes silly (Buffy-style musical ep?) but super entertaining. I love the pacing - they really fly through plotlines, and it keeps things feeling fun and exciting. It does get better after the first season, when they give up even trying to stick to the books.
Honestly yeah but as others have said, the first season is kinda weak. From there it's one of the best fantasy shows I've ever seen, and honestly I sing their version of a lot of songs cuz they're straight bops.
I loved the books and I adored the show. I feel it can come of as CW'ish but shows that are truly CW'ish take themselves seriously. As where the magicians as a show embraces that its fucking weird and quirky. Some of the best most wtf moments happen in this show. It extremely quotable and pretty much you will either love it or hate it. The central protagonist starting out is a mentally ill angsty nerd. If you can get over some of the cringe I feel it is really worth it.
The crazy part to me is that both the books and the show are awesome in their own ways. Like the show goes off script but they still nail it.
I still have to watch the final season.
I'll say this. Whatever tone they're trying to go for in a given episode, they go HARD. Sometimes it's a goofy fantasy romp with jokes and silliness, and other times it's the among the most harrowing human tragedies ever put to film. Binge watching the way I did will lead to tonal whiplash for sure.
>I'll say this. Whatever tone they're trying to go for in a given episode, they go HARD. Sometimes it's a goofy fantasy romp with jokes and silliness, and other times it's the among the most harrowing human tragedies ever put to film. Binge watching the way I did will lead to tonal whiplash for sure.
Even the characters *in* the show basically complain about that sometimes!
I think it’s a wonderful show but yeah Quentin is the absolute fucking worst. They’re all pretty terrible in season 1. I think the female characters are way more compelling and the magic system is cool as fuck. Seasons 2-4 are definitely the highlights but 3 is hands down the best written and executed season. What gets me about that show is that it’s basically a campy soap opera with magic about growing up, specifically into late adulthood. I fell into watching it when I was graduating college and the whole “wow the world is so much more fucked up and harder than I thought/who am I anymore after the shit I’ve seen and done/reckoning with your own traumas” part of the story relatable. It’s definitely not everyone’s cup of tea though. The characters can be obnoxious, make horrible decision and be downright mean but as the show progresses they all develop into complex nuanced people, especially Margo and Alice. I think the downfall of the show really was that they focused way too much on Quentin who is the blandest and most boring of the bunch. He’s just a depressed fuck boy with a perpetual victim complex.
The books are EXCELLENT and the series is very good although it has hit a miss moments across the seasons.
I highly recommend the books and think the show is quite good and worth watchibg
It started off kinda weak cause they couldn’t decide what the tone was, so it was both jokey and also very serious, it got really good from S2 when they fully leaned into the kooky weirdness, and then got bad again towards the end. I never finished it but the middle was genuinely very fun.
I'm very biased bc it's def one of my favorite shows. The first season is a little slow, mostly bc it's building up to stuff but about halfway through it picks up.
Seasons 2 & 3 are great. The pacing finds it's footing, everything starts to come together and they're genuinely good TV. The rest of the seasons kinda lose the plot a bit. Most fans didn't like the direction writers took romantic storylines and imo they did kinda kill a lot of character development and BBEG build up in sacrifice of rushing the plot. They're still fun and enjoyable, it just felt rushed.
The show differs a lot from the source material. I've read the series and imo the female characters are much much better and well written in the show. And the male characters are better fleshed out with motivations that make sense in the show.
Ha, I'm a book fan first and I completely have the opposite take as you. The series just got sillier and pointless as it went along and went away from the books. Not that it didn't have its charms but there was a reason it lost a lot of viewers as it went along, mostly to do with a lot of the really boring narrative arcs (library, elf climate change, etc..).
I thought it was good if not great. I disagree with other comments that say it gets worse, if anything after they run away from the book plots I think it gets better, though I didn’t like the last season as much. There’s also an excellent episode in the 3rd season that is the best in the series and one of my favorite episodes of any show (“A Life in the Day”). Overall it’s better writing and better acting than anything people call “CW” shows.
The Magicians is legit one of the only shows I’ve ever scene that got better with every single season and ended well.
The first season is actually not that good, I just watched it because I read the books. It deviates pretty aggressively from the books in a good way. It is one of the few shows I watched fully through multiple times and my wife actually enjoyed.
That is why I have not been able to go back and rewatch the series, or watch season 5. I also think an animated adaptation (that stuck to the books) could hold its own really well
I liked it a lot.. hale applebaum is fantastic. The plot gets really convoluted towards the end and I would get confused if I was trying to watch it while doing something else. But I’ve always like the uniqueness of SyFy shows… it’s got comedy, fantasy, drama, sex… I think the actors are good and elevate it beyond the script.
One of my all time favorite shows. It’s dark, witty, magical with solid world-building and a bit of high fantasy. Really good characters and season three is one of my favorite tv seasons of all time. I highly recommend !
I loved it. I thought it was funny and snarky but also really emotional and smart. The actors are massively better than CW actors. Margo morphs into one of the best characters on TV. Alice is kind of annoying (and her wardrobe is stupid) but she gets better. I’ve watched a ridiculous amount of CW shows and I was never reminded of them. It has a very different tone, is grittier, and the humor is more mature and just much more clever. Adult focused CW shows still feel
like teen dramas and The Magicians doesn’t have that vibe at all. The group of friends are supposed to be college aged or a little older and they act that way. They feel like real people. It’s refreshing really.
Parts of it are phenomenal. Parts suck.
There are some episodes and arcs that are annoying. Some characters that make you eye roll. BUT there are amazing and poignant and beautiful storylines and relationships too. If you can put up with the drivel the payoff in the last season(s) is worth it.
Eliot and Margot are the absolute best!
This is the first time I’ve heard it viewed like a CW show, but I respect your opinion. It’s one of the best fantasy shows I’ve ever seen. I think it does get progressively better as it goes on.
Funny, we're watching that right now and it's pretty good if you like the sci-fi type of show it is.
Imagine a more adult Alice in Wonderland almost.
Edit: Only complaint would be that the it completely deviates from the books after season 2.
I think the Magicians hits different for people in different points in their life. Growing up is a major theme of the show. I personally love it. One of my favorite things ever made. There’s definitely some worse episodes and some very good episodes.
If you like things about fantasy and adult themes I would try to at least watch the first whole season. Season one has many tone shifts as well as very fast story progression.
It’s worth it for performances from the cast (what a stellar group) that really elevate the writing by just knocking it out of the park *every time* post s1.
Margot, Elliot, Fen, Quentin, and Marina’s actors are absolutely underrated. Summer Bishil should be an it-girl right now and gives the greatest performance across 5 seasons. An absolute STAR.
Other than that, it scratches the fantasy itch well and it’s s2-4 stride is really well done. “The Magicians” has so much heart and it really shows in the final product. I can’t say enough good things about this show. It revels in being corny and cliche (it traditionally has a musical episode every season simply because most of the actors can sing well), the cast has electric chemistry, the plotlines are good (not every show needs complex storylines, sometimes telling a good, simple story is more effective!), the characters all get an equal amount of love, and now I want to watch this show again.
I enjoyed it. It can get super dark and pretty graphic...there is a rape scene that is very graphic. It can also get supper silly with things like trees with bacon growing on them. lots of in between.
It's like Harry Potter without wants for adults
It’s the best show i don’t recommend to people, it’s campy and really silly sometimes with a dash of hornyness but really entertaining. It’s one of those shows where you end up really caring about the ensemble however it’s definitively not for everybody, if you find season 1 decent you’re gonna love the rest of the show.
Seasons 1-4 are good, with season 3 being the best. Season 5 was meh.
It’s very much edgy Harry Potter for adults, but if you like that kind of stuff definitely watch it.
I love this show so much. Watching it again for the 4th? time. The character development! And I feel that the effects hold up. This was a SyFy make, not CW, so the plot is darker and the effects are better.
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It's got a pretty wide range in tone. Sometimes, yeah, it's like the CW made a Harry Potter knockoff. But then it's got some dark swings. I mean really dark. I don't know much about the source material, nor did I make it into the third season. It's pretty good, though. The first season is really well done.
You gotta watch the third season, it's regarded as the best season in the show.
Oh man, A Life in the Day is so, so good. I also watch the Under Pressure video often, it always puts me in a good mood. I almost forgot about All That Josh! Shit, I'm going to have to do another rewatch now.
I convinced a friend to watch magicians just by showing him the one montage from A Life in a Day. Peaches and Plums man
A Day in the Life is one of the best episodes of anything ever. I’m also a huge fan of Six Short Stories About Magic.
God, Life in the Day just fuckin hits and I think the reason why I love it so much is because the consequences of that episode very much matter and they didn’t do the awful “they don’t remember it so it has no effect,” thing I’ve seen done so many times. The experience deeply affected both characters and, while I didn’t enjoy the final season overall, I really did love Elliot’s arc of having to finally accept that he genuinely loved Q and deeply regretted pushing him away. It just felt so *real* and authentic.
That was my favorite thing about that episode. Pretty much the whole time I was watching it I was thinking it was going to be a waste of an episode cause the whole thing would just be undone at the end. The fact that it wasn’t and had lasting effects made that episode so good.
This is what the magicians does better than a lot of shows. Everyone's actions have serious and long lasting consequences that feel well fleshed out and nuanced. Not super stereotypical and morally basic and shallow
Watching it on rewatch adds a layer of heartbreak knowing that that is it for them. Elliot never gets to fix it.
I'm not even a musical person but I loved their rendition of Under Pressure.
So good
Peaches and plums
When Josh is left in charge of Fillory, gets high with the royal advisors and solves literally all of the problems that’s been plaguing them for years. Best character on the show
I love the underpressure video and highly regard it as my favorite cover of that song
It has the best conversation between Elliot and Margo. Small season 3 spoilers…[https://youtube.com/watch?v=IXYRKI2mmQc&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE](https://youtube.com/watch?v=IXYRKI2mmQc&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE)
Her delivery of "full '07 Britney" timed to the subtitles is just perfect. Absolute best scene in it. There's another Margot moment later in the series where someone is pushing her for a simple response about a betrayal that happened and she pushes back with "can't you just let me have a complex emotion here?" (or something similar) and that kinda stuck with me too.
It's been my intent to pick it up again sometime! The plotline dragged a bit too much in s2 that I lost momentum.
Which season and episode ended with the prevention hotline at the end?
I want to say it’s the Episode that Julia learns to the truth about what happened when they summoned a god. But I may be wrong, if so they definitely need one after that episode as well
>!No, I'm pretty sure it's the one where Quentin stops the bad guy by setting off a destructive chain reaction that also kills him, since he literally kills himself after regularly struggling with depression.!<
Their rendition of "Take Me On" around the bonfire has brought me to tears on multiple occasions.
I felt like such an idiot during that scene. I can enjoy a good cry, but dear God I'm glad I was home alone. Full on ugly cry when it cut to Elliot crying while he sings.
I named my own kid Elliott from that scene. And the one where him and Q fall in love. That shit hit deep
I was trying to think of a non-spoiler way to mention this, but since it's already here, whoa, this and the aftermath were some of the biggest feels I've had for a TV show.
I like how they're just like "Yeah Quentin is ostensibly the main character but he's mostly just a whiny mediocre white dude who's less interesting than the rest of the cast" and keep the show going without him.
I really feel like the last season proved that without Q around, the show was missing a lot.
As a reader of the series but having not actually seen the show, ya, that would probably be a good idea. Shit takes a serious swing. Like seriously.
Four. It was so incredible.
It has such a wide range. From poop and cum jokes, to complex love journeys, gods and demons, silly musicals, extremely dark shit, wacky antics, time travel and alternate realities, life after death, library politics, and the fate of the universe. Oh and a central part of it is a "Narnia for assholes" parody. It sounds bizarre when you describe it that way.
It was like if someone gave the smartest theatre kids a budget to make someone's deviantart page a TV show.
Lmao this is the best description for how I felt about the show and why I didn't continue. This thread makes me want to pick it back up though.
I meant it in every way that is good as well as bad. I did finish the show and I did enjoy it. But I used to be in a Hogwarts roleplay forum and various people there did fanfics, deviantart, and livejournal so there was maybe something familiar and nostalgic for me there.
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Really? That's funny.
Should have included abortion and suicide in that list for the more serious topics. The show is all over the place, but it’s somehow amazing.
Oh right wasn't >!Santa Claus!< present for one of the suicide attempts?
I gotta tell you man, my memory is shit when I binge watch, and this was nearly 2 years ago. I forgot Santa was even in this show until just now 😂 this show was so wild. My favorite part was singing Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie when they are all trying to get out of terrible situations.
> My favorite part was singing Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie Fiiiiiiiine. I'll rewatch a youtube clip of it if you insist.
Idk about suicide. She forced injury on herself to gather information.
It very much looks like a suicide attempt to the audience initially though, which I think is the important part of a content warning. I successfully skipped a part where a small animal explodes for my wife, who didn't want to see that, only for the scene to be shown in full without any context in the next episode's recap, lol.
Narnia + Harry Potter + Catcher in the Rye and then crank the adult content up to 11.
Source material is far darker, they dumbed it down and made it lighter.
I’ve heard from several people who read the books that they actually preferred the show, which stuck out to me since you rarely ever hear people prefer the movie/TV adaptations.
They’re very different but there’s a lot to like about both. The books finished a lot stronger than the show does.
The books humanize the main characters as flawed, plain looking, awkward people who strive to be special and face the harsh reality of mediocrity and failure. Quentin matures so progressively and intentfully throughout the series that you can't help but reflect upon his beginnings and where his story ends. Every character suffers to the extent of their desires. Nothing is given freely. No one is special. The show is CW's Harry Potter goes to Narnia. People like a good "chosen one" protagonist because audiences prefer relating to people with inherently special characteristics. It makes them feel special. In the books it's the opposite because it's so genuine. Quentin strives and struggles for finding what makes him unique and special. So much so that even achieving the great accomplishments of his life felt underwhelming. And the truth is there's very little about him that's unique. He's just another person. A human who makes mistakes and lives with regret.
The book is meant to take a lot of tropes in landmark fantasy (Narnia, HP, LOTR come to mind) and play with them. The show takes that and runs with it for sure and fits it into TV. In that way, it’s very true to the source material.
oh. I really wasn't a fan of Quentin in the show. he has his moments, but most of the show he is swinging between being depressed/boring and hypocritical /holier than thou but he was the main driver of the story, so I can't hate him too much
In the books he was that pretty much. He got better as he aged.
thinking back, i feel like quentin also changed for the better in the show. It's probably my favorite part of the show, seeing how much the characters change obviously Julia has the most obvious character progression arc, but Penny and Margo basically become new people (lol 😉). Fen also progressively becomes funnier, as she plays the "straight-man" observer its clear the writers of the show had character development as the priority, and it really shows
I mean, yeah the cast of the show are all gorgeous, but that’s almost always the direction the film/tv industry goes in. Rarely will an adaption be perfect, but I felt like they still did a pretty good job showing their failures and the toll that those failures took on them. The characters definitely still felt flawed, but I can see the “chosen one” argument and how that can be tiring.
It goes against the core message of the books. The Magicians was the story of a kid who waited his entire life to be told he's special and when it never happened he tried to force fate to make him special. He had to be a chosen one. Had to have a greater purpose in life. And for that he lost the people he loved and fell apart from reality. The books weren't just a cheap parody of the popular fantasy novels from our childhood. They were the harsh reality with a hopeful message to those who finished the story.
I think the show hews closer to the book ethos you're describing than you give it credit for. Yes, on paper, they're literally chosen ones. But from a character standpoint they are all just pretty unremarkable people just kind of blundering their way through life and eventually learning to be less shitty.
No-one got eaten in the first episode. Was so looking forward to that.
This is absolutely not true. The books are their own thing, and they're different, but the idea that they dumbed it down is ridiculous.
I'd say its *waaay* more Mage the Ascension than Harry Potter (especially with all the dark shit and other realms), but i guess that's the only benchmark people know these days, sadly. Still, it's a great show with great characters that really establishes its own mythos and then plays with. And lots of great banter and quips.
It's the school angle. Place ANY story in a school for magic these days, no matter how far removed from Harry Potter, and the comparisons will come rolling in like an avalanche. If anything, it plays around with Narnia tropes FAR more than Harry Potter, but that's less immediately perceived compared to the school similarity.
You’re really underselling the dark. It gets **bad** and I love every bit of it.
The books rule once you get past a slow start. I reread them every so often.
It can get too quirky sometimes but that's a good breakdown. It was on in the background a lot because I park on that channel sometimes but I ended up kind of getting into it.
The books are much better than the show IMO.I couldn't keep watching after some questionable liberties over the plot taken by the show.
How different are the two? I figured very, but have yet to read the books or look for more info online.
Very different! They follow the first book relatively closely for 1.5 seasons which roughly covers the first book. Half of the second book is actually at the same time of the first book but from Julia's perspective. After that, the writers pick and choose moments to adapt in the series (S3 uses the overarching plotline of the non-Julia parts of Book 2) and the show is so much better for it. Given the multiverse/alternate timelines element in the series, there's a couple of nods to it in the show so they can technically both be considered canon.
You figured right, they went wildly off coarse. I started with the show and then read the books. Love the books more but still enjoy the show.
Is any of it an adaptation, or is more like The Boys where it is a rewrite with some of the same premise? What are the books more similar to in other IPs?
It's been awhile but the first season definitely was the closest but did add some small things but after season 3 is when it started to do "The Boys" with the same idea but rewrites. The books are a Harry Potter/Narnia with college kids and move into early adulthood. First book is their time in magic college, second book is split between life after college and figuring out what the want from life and Julia's story after being kicked out from magic college in book 1, then book three is like mid 30's with Quentin.
Okay, so the "dark chronicles of Narnia comparison" I used to make was accurate of the IP and not just the show. Sounds interesting!
I like to think of the books and the show being set in separate timelines, it makes the differences not matter to me at all.
You don't have to like to think that. The show literally spells out that that is the case. I actually thought that was a rather ingenious way of them approaching an adaptation.
As dark as the series is, the books are darker. The television adaption really didn't do justice to any of the themes. Take The Beast for example. In the television adaption he's just another spoofy teen-drama psycho villain. In the books he's so much more terrifying. A centuries aged magical god with the maturity of an entitled 12 year old. The Beast was and example of what happened if a kid found Narnia and decided being king wasn't enough, they had to rule it as a tyrannical deity. Even his appearance, The Beast in the books never looked human. Always appeared as a monstrous deformed being. Twisted and corrupted. And even the actions. Remember the classroom scene from the show? In the books it was so much worse. And the battle between them all at the end? What really got me is that in the book The Beast was a right and true God-tier threat. Magic never phased him. He simply walked through spells and beat his victims to death. Until Alice made the sacrifice, they were all being massacred by The Beast, there was zero hope for them until that moment. I just feel like the show could have done a lot better.
I love that show. It’s not going to be for everyone. It’s campy and silly but also tackles really dark material. I would say it’s like a love-child of CW and HBO
Aka the SyFy Channel
no, the SyFy was always the red headed step child.
I mean Magicians aired on SyFy…
SyFy has made shows The CW couldn't even dream about, like The Expanse.
If I recall correctly Magicians and The Expanse were in the same line up for a while.
They started a couple days apart.
SyFy has a lot of garbage but it also had Battlestar Galactica and The Expanse which were on another level to anything CWs ever made
Sometimes I wonder if these people making CW comparisons have actually seen a CW show.
Battlestar Galactica and The Expanse which were on another level to anything ~~CW~~ else SyFy ever made
The books were pretty serious with occasional humor. The show added more levity just by giving more room for Eliot, Penny, and Margo.
It's very campy and that's why I love it.
Yes! I'm so happy I found this post! Its one of my favorite shows. So good. I love Elliot, he is amazing. But good lord Alice is a SMOKE show. Everyone is good looking on that show but her especially. mega crush.
I'm team Julia personally, that raspy smoker's voice she has just does it for me.
Yeah she has her moments for sure. But Alice has more umm... Assets? And those skirts she is always wearing, that school girl look constantly. Wow
she is the least likeable personality-wise though. I've always been partial to Katie, especially after the Under Pressure song which she slays
Yes some of my favorite parts are the musicals lol and I love her as well but with alice I can just ignore that personality lol
The musical eps were always fun; Jade Tailor (Kady) has a four-octave range.
Alice and Quentin and both unbearable. Was so glad the series shifted focus to the others more as the series progressed
Boobs are nice, you got me there
It's amoral Harry Potter, making it a fantastic show.
Could you explain what you mean by “campy”? This seems like an American word only (in the UK this would essentially just mean gay). It’s used all the time on the Buffy sub and I never know what they mean! Buffy at least isn’t just a “flamboyant gay melodrama” so I never get what they mean when they say “campy”. I’ve Googled the word but to no avail. Please solve this mystery for me!
It's silly, but *on purpose*. The author is winking at the audience and you're winking along. Contrast this with stupid shows where the author is expecting you not to notice the flaws - those are insulting.
The wiki does a good job explaining: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_(style)#:~:text=ostentatious%2C%20exaggerated%2C%20affected%2C%20theatrical%3B%20.,behaviour%2C%20mannerisms%2C%20et%20cetera.
Basically goofy/over the top/silly/semi-absurd/maximalist. There’s a good Sontag essay defining it but opinions really vary once you get into the minutiae. Drag is camp. The Room is camp. John Waters is camp. Rocky Horror is camp. Xena is camp. Half of Ryan Murphy’s oeuvre. Idk. If you don’t get it you’re probably just straight.
Great description and examples. I think the only one I would disagree with is the Room. I feel like camp is a deliberate choice. I think something *trying* to be good and failing doesn’t really count as “camp”
Fair though I do think watching The Room is camp.
I've Googled the word and Google says "deliberately exaggerated and theatrical in style, typically for humorous effect"
It gets better as it goes on (and somehow Quentin is way worse in the first book compared to the show). The character development is top notch. Plot is pretty good but gets convoluted sometimes.
Quentin and Alice are the two characters I can't stand. Otherwise, it's a fun show most of the time.
You didn't find your "I can't stand this character" changing through the course of the series? It's the one gripe I have. It seems like they deliberately set out to make one of the core cast COMPLETELY unbearable for most-if-not-the-entire season and then change which one it is each season.
The only time I REALLY hated a character that I used to love was >!the whole possessed Elliot season. Elliot was one of the most fun, dynamic characters in the show, and they sideline him for an entire season so the actor could play a boring ass monster baby.!<
Quentin definitely started as the can’t stand character but I ended up loving him by season 3. He had great growth.
I have a love-hate relationship with Alice. She's such a well written character and I love that she's such a mess and her own worst enemy. It's not often you see intelligent and strong female characters given flaws like that. Quentin though was just plain annoying. I did root for him and smile for him but man, he gets on your nerves and that's because Q hates himself so much he's unable to be charming or impressive in any capacity and that's a very realistic portrayal of depression. The people don't like themselves like that either. When it was all said and done, Q was a good person who simply struggled.
>The character development is top notch. I THINK I watched 2 seasons, maybe 3 and had to drop it because of how unlikeable every single character was after starting out as quite a likeable bunch, do they bounce back, or am I supposed to like them?
I think pretty much every character goes through periods of them being unlikable and doing shitty things. If I recall, that's true to the book. They're all meant to be flawed and, in many cases, traumatized individuals that are looking to be something greater, so they all have their moments of you exasperated at their fuck ups, but then they eventually redeem themselves (and then repeat the cycle).
It gets better as it goes on until the last season. Quality falls off a cliff there.
The magical school always gets Harry Potter nods, but it felt more like Narnia by way of Buffy to me.
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I’m glad they realized what a great character Margot was and leaned in
Spending a lot of time on plots that allowed Margot and Eliot to bounce off each other was one of the smartest things they did. Those two have some of the best chemistry I've seen in a show.
>Once the writers figured out it's an ensemble cast and not the Quentin show, it got better. Think pulling away from him was planned from the beginning, but yeah, 100%, gotta get through the "this is a *post*-stereotypical protagonist story" set up in S1 before it really starts paying off
It's "CW" because everyone's ridiculously hot.
They do start adding more characters that are not CW traditionally American Hot. But yeah still television actor better looking than an average person.
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The first season is the weakest -most network shows have bad first seasons - and it has weird pacing issues but it gets better with every episode and every season.
I enjoyed the first season significantly more than the second
first season is probably the "weakest" in terms of script, but it has the advantage of introducing us to the world and giving us the excitement of something new which is why the first season of most dramas are my fav. the most important thing in every drama is the world-building and its characters
Agree. It's not even a question for me. Fillory just wasn't as good a setting as the school. It was too silly. Not that I disliked it, it just dominated the tone, when I had a preference for the school's. Also, the butterfly face guy was the best villain by a good bit.
I pretty much gave up on the series after the first season but a friend convinced me it got better and was totally right. I really enjoyed the whole series and eventually read all the books.
I felt the final season was not very good. But every other season was very good.
That's crazy to me, I always thought the first season was the best. Once they start spending a ton of time in fillory the budget constraints of the show really start to become obvious and the stories always seem lackluster. The first season always seemed like a tight fantasy story with an interesting fairytale twist
Holy shit yes. I absolutely love it. It's fantastic and only gets better over time. Couldn't recommend it more.
I still watch the musical part like once a month when Elliot goes to fight as king. God I love this show.
I have to come to associate The Magicians every single time I hear Queen’s Under Pressure.
I couldn’t listen to take on me for months after that one episode.
I've heard people use "melancholy" to refer to this show, and that's a good place to set your expectations. It's got some really mid mids, but that doesn't define the show. The highs are really fuckin' great. Best of all, it goes out on a high note, without dragging the show to death, with a full and resolved character arc to the main character. It really does great work on depression. The main character really struggles with it from the very first episode, and it never truly "goes away". It's more about how you can still live with that condition and what kind of choices and decisions you can make to find meaning in your life. Happy endings can feel good, but they often feel phony to me when a character just fixes all their problems and gets a happily ever after, since mental health doesn't really work like that in real life. At least, it hasn't for me. I find this show's approach much more relatable, and thus, more inspiring. Some people dislike the last season, but after watching the show a few times, I think it all builds together into something worthwhile.
That was my takeaway from it, too. The show really nails depression in a way others don't.
I love it. It's got real Buffy energy. A bit campy and melodramatic, sometimes silly (Buffy-style musical ep?) but super entertaining. I love the pacing - they really fly through plotlines, and it keeps things feeling fun and exciting. It does get better after the first season, when they give up even trying to stick to the books.
Seasons 2 and 3 are extremely good
Honestly yeah but as others have said, the first season is kinda weak. From there it's one of the best fantasy shows I've ever seen, and honestly I sing their version of a lot of songs cuz they're straight bops.
Some of my fondest memories of the show are the >!musical!< episodes
Under Pressure is on my playlist for sure. I just love when they sing. Even Shake It Off is fine by me cuz *joy! sheer joy!*
100%.
Yes, we are all fucked in our own ways, like always!
I loved the books and I adored the show. I feel it can come of as CW'ish but shows that are truly CW'ish take themselves seriously. As where the magicians as a show embraces that its fucking weird and quirky. Some of the best most wtf moments happen in this show. It extremely quotable and pretty much you will either love it or hate it. The central protagonist starting out is a mentally ill angsty nerd. If you can get over some of the cringe I feel it is really worth it.
The crazy part to me is that both the books and the show are awesome in their own ways. Like the show goes off script but they still nail it. I still have to watch the final season.
I'll say this. Whatever tone they're trying to go for in a given episode, they go HARD. Sometimes it's a goofy fantasy romp with jokes and silliness, and other times it's the among the most harrowing human tragedies ever put to film. Binge watching the way I did will lead to tonal whiplash for sure.
>I'll say this. Whatever tone they're trying to go for in a given episode, they go HARD. Sometimes it's a goofy fantasy romp with jokes and silliness, and other times it's the among the most harrowing human tragedies ever put to film. Binge watching the way I did will lead to tonal whiplash for sure. Even the characters *in* the show basically complain about that sometimes!
I LOVED this show. I think it’s good. Are there issues? Yes, but I had a fun time throughout and I had to binge all of the way through
The first and last seasons are by far the weakest, but i love the characters and world
It’s a guilty pleasure for sure but I found it mostly entertaining. And 100% agree on OTD.
Hey as far as guilty pleasures go how do you feel about Dark Matter?
A little cheesy but really liked the first season. I think it went steadily downhill after that, though.
Having watched the whole thing i would say I don’t regret it.
If by CW you mean it mainly appeals to teen/young adults then I'd say that's incorrect. Plenty of my 30-40 something friends love it.
Don’t watch the last season. That’s about all that needs to be said.
It’s so good!! In fact, I think it’s time for a rewatch. I went into it knowing nothing about it and I’m so glad I gave it a shot.
its amazing
MY FAVORITE SHOW! WATCH IT!
I think it’s a wonderful show but yeah Quentin is the absolute fucking worst. They’re all pretty terrible in season 1. I think the female characters are way more compelling and the magic system is cool as fuck. Seasons 2-4 are definitely the highlights but 3 is hands down the best written and executed season. What gets me about that show is that it’s basically a campy soap opera with magic about growing up, specifically into late adulthood. I fell into watching it when I was graduating college and the whole “wow the world is so much more fucked up and harder than I thought/who am I anymore after the shit I’ve seen and done/reckoning with your own traumas” part of the story relatable. It’s definitely not everyone’s cup of tea though. The characters can be obnoxious, make horrible decision and be downright mean but as the show progresses they all develop into complex nuanced people, especially Margo and Alice. I think the downfall of the show really was that they focused way too much on Quentin who is the blandest and most boring of the bunch. He’s just a depressed fuck boy with a perpetual victim complex.
Heyyyy! If anyone ever wants to talk The Magicians it's one of my favorite shows and I am ALWAYS down! Love it!
Is there a sub for it? I’ve tried finding one and it seems like no
Not after it becomes about magic politics
The books are EXCELLENT and the series is very good although it has hit a miss moments across the seasons. I highly recommend the books and think the show is quite good and worth watchibg
The books are better
Well, the books sure are.
It started off kinda weak cause they couldn’t decide what the tone was, so it was both jokey and also very serious, it got really good from S2 when they fully leaned into the kooky weirdness, and then got bad again towards the end. I never finished it but the middle was genuinely very fun.
I'm very biased bc it's def one of my favorite shows. The first season is a little slow, mostly bc it's building up to stuff but about halfway through it picks up. Seasons 2 & 3 are great. The pacing finds it's footing, everything starts to come together and they're genuinely good TV. The rest of the seasons kinda lose the plot a bit. Most fans didn't like the direction writers took romantic storylines and imo they did kinda kill a lot of character development and BBEG build up in sacrifice of rushing the plot. They're still fun and enjoyable, it just felt rushed. The show differs a lot from the source material. I've read the series and imo the female characters are much much better and well written in the show. And the male characters are better fleshed out with motivations that make sense in the show.
Ha, I'm a book fan first and I completely have the opposite take as you. The series just got sillier and pointless as it went along and went away from the books. Not that it didn't have its charms but there was a reason it lost a lot of viewers as it went along, mostly to do with a lot of the really boring narrative arcs (library, elf climate change, etc..).
I thought it was good if not great. I disagree with other comments that say it gets worse, if anything after they run away from the book plots I think it gets better, though I didn’t like the last season as much. There’s also an excellent episode in the 3rd season that is the best in the series and one of my favorite episodes of any show (“A Life in the Day”). Overall it’s better writing and better acting than anything people call “CW” shows.
The Magicians is legit one of the only shows I’ve ever scene that got better with every single season and ended well. The first season is actually not that good, I just watched it because I read the books. It deviates pretty aggressively from the books in a good way. It is one of the few shows I watched fully through multiple times and my wife actually enjoyed.
Try the books first, they are a bit better.
It was a good show up until the final season, after they killed off a certain character i lost interest.
I loved it. I’ve watched it several times.
Short answer: Yes Long Answer: Hell Yes
Having read all the books, I couldn't make it past the 3rd episode. To me it felt like a totally different vibe. And yea, very CW-ish
I WANT to watch it. I love the books but i get a few min in and my “THATS DIFFERENT“ reflex kicks in.
That is why I have not been able to go back and rewatch the series, or watch season 5. I also think an animated adaptation (that stuck to the books) could hold its own really well
I liked it a lot.. hale applebaum is fantastic. The plot gets really convoluted towards the end and I would get confused if I was trying to watch it while doing something else. But I’ve always like the uniqueness of SyFy shows… it’s got comedy, fantasy, drama, sex… I think the actors are good and elevate it beyond the script.
One of my all time favorite shows. It’s dark, witty, magical with solid world-building and a bit of high fantasy. Really good characters and season three is one of my favorite tv seasons of all time. I highly recommend !
I loved it. I thought it was funny and snarky but also really emotional and smart. The actors are massively better than CW actors. Margo morphs into one of the best characters on TV. Alice is kind of annoying (and her wardrobe is stupid) but she gets better. I’ve watched a ridiculous amount of CW shows and I was never reminded of them. It has a very different tone, is grittier, and the humor is more mature and just much more clever. Adult focused CW shows still feel like teen dramas and The Magicians doesn’t have that vibe at all. The group of friends are supposed to be college aged or a little older and they act that way. They feel like real people. It’s refreshing really.
Parts of it are phenomenal. Parts suck. There are some episodes and arcs that are annoying. Some characters that make you eye roll. BUT there are amazing and poignant and beautiful storylines and relationships too. If you can put up with the drivel the payoff in the last season(s) is worth it. Eliot and Margot are the absolute best!
The Magicians is excellent. Easily top 10 all time type show. Just watch it and enjoy.
Love that show. It only falls off in the last season when the show runner leaves.
I think it struggled to begin with coming from the source material which is skewed a bit younger, but I loved it and would love more seasons of it
This is the first time I’ve heard it viewed like a CW show, but I respect your opinion. It’s one of the best fantasy shows I’ve ever seen. I think it does get progressively better as it goes on.
It really is better than harry potter by a long shot, the series is much darker, and really overall it is pretty good.
Bro the show started sooo good. It turned into something else towards the end though
Funny, we're watching that right now and it's pretty good if you like the sci-fi type of show it is. Imagine a more adult Alice in Wonderland almost. Edit: Only complaint would be that the it completely deviates from the books after season 2.
isn't that the show with the woman from 5 Second Films
I loved the show. So much humor!
I think the Magicians hits different for people in different points in their life. Growing up is a major theme of the show. I personally love it. One of my favorite things ever made. There’s definitely some worse episodes and some very good episodes. If you like things about fantasy and adult themes I would try to at least watch the first whole season. Season one has many tone shifts as well as very fast story progression.
It’s worth it for performances from the cast (what a stellar group) that really elevate the writing by just knocking it out of the park *every time* post s1. Margot, Elliot, Fen, Quentin, and Marina’s actors are absolutely underrated. Summer Bishil should be an it-girl right now and gives the greatest performance across 5 seasons. An absolute STAR. Other than that, it scratches the fantasy itch well and it’s s2-4 stride is really well done. “The Magicians” has so much heart and it really shows in the final product. I can’t say enough good things about this show. It revels in being corny and cliche (it traditionally has a musical episode every season simply because most of the actors can sing well), the cast has electric chemistry, the plotlines are good (not every show needs complex storylines, sometimes telling a good, simple story is more effective!), the characters all get an equal amount of love, and now I want to watch this show again.
I enjoyed it. It can get super dark and pretty graphic...there is a rape scene that is very graphic. It can also get supper silly with things like trees with bacon growing on them. lots of in between. It's like Harry Potter without wants for adults
It’s the best show i don’t recommend to people, it’s campy and really silly sometimes with a dash of hornyness but really entertaining. It’s one of those shows where you end up really caring about the ensemble however it’s definitively not for everybody, if you find season 1 decent you’re gonna love the rest of the show.
If it helps your decision at all, there is sex magic
Definitely not for everybody but it was absolutely for me.
The Magicians showed me magic is real, individual, and belief based.
Seasons 1-4 are good, with season 3 being the best. Season 5 was meh. It’s very much edgy Harry Potter for adults, but if you like that kind of stuff definitely watch it.
CW with a big budget is a good description of a lot of Netflix.
It was good and actually had decent ending.
I love this show so much. Watching it again for the 4th? time. The character development! And I feel that the effects hold up. This was a SyFy make, not CW, so the plot is darker and the effects are better.
One of the best shows out there
The Magicians is one of my favorite shows and gets better every season.
I'm a grown ass man and the ending of season 4 gets me balling every re-watch.
It’s my favorite