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The Magicians Review
Aug. 30th, 2024 09:42 pmI've finished The Magicians and now want fanfic, specifically Quentin/Eliot and Julia/Penny, also Margo/Eliot and Margo/Alice.
I kind of wish we'd gotten a sixth season, mainly because watching Margo, Alice, Fenn and Josh create a new world or new Fillory, while Eliot, Charlton, Penny and Julia tried to teach at Brakebills, would have been fun. I liked how the series wrapped itself up in any event, leaving those openings. That's a series you can write fanfiction about for a very long time.
So many avenues to play with.
I'm tempted. I won't. I suck at fanfic. I like playing in my own world with my own rules and characters. I'm not a fan of playing in someone else's sandbox. The rules make me itchy. I want to make up my own.
I had a long discussion with my father about it once. He was much the same way. He couldn't write creatively on demand either, nor could he write in another person's world or with another person's creations/toys/characters. He felt like he was imposing himself or something.
I also want icons. Does anyone have Julia, Margo, Zelda, or Eliot icons? Even Kady or Alice?
The neat thing about the Magicians is it had cool and tough as nails female characters. More great female characters than male characters. The only cool male characters were Eliot and Penny, also possibly Quentin. Plus they occasionally broke out in song and dance numbers, and made fun of them. (Think Whedon's Once More with Feeling except more Glee with top 1980s and 70s pop singles. A lot of ear worm songs, I didn't realize how many ear worm songs the 1980s, 90s and 70s had? We got "I Wanna Be Sedated" by the Ramones, "Don't Give Up" by Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush, "Take on Me" by Aha....)
I may rewatch it. Or move onto AMC's Into the Badlands, Interview with the Vampire (which I couldn't quite get into), or Mayfair Witches also couldn't quite get into. I have a craving for Dark Fantasy Ensemble Series at the moment. Also need to finish Scavenger's Reign, and 3 Body Problem.
I talked to Chidi and AA about television shows. Rec'd The Magicians. And discussed how I could not get into Ted Lasso. ( Read more... )
Anyhow, after struggling to get into the first season, I fell in love with the series in the third season. Once you get past the dark crap in S1-2, it gets a whole lot better. I honestly think it had at least eight seasons in it. Too bad Netflix didn't keep it going a bit longer when it grabbed it from Syfy. Syfy had a tendency to cancel shows it owned or produced after about four-five seasons, sometimes less. While shows it didn't own, like Star Gate, went on forever, with multiple spin-offs.
The Magicians is only five seasons, on Netflix, and thirteen episodes per season with a diverse cast, and innovative plotting. It's loosely adapted from Lev Grossman's novels of the same name, although Grossman did serve as a consultant on the series and is a producer - so he had a say in how things evolved and what was changed. From what I understand - the first season and second seasons are closest to the books, but the others vary in a huge way. The series subverts the hero's journey trope, or the white male chosen one trope, while the books follow it closely or so I've seen via reviews online. I've not read the books. I do own the first one in E-book, so may read it to see.
I highly recommend the series, with the following caveats:
1. The first season is hard to get into and it took a while.
2. There's a rape that occurs, which is rather brutal, and an important plot point, furthering one of the characters. If rape is triggering for you, you might want to skip over those episodes? I don't know. It is a metaphor for how the Gods abuse their human charges at their whim. Or about power plays. That said, if you made it through Outlander, Game of Thrones, Buffy, Angel, or Supernatural - you should be fine. It's not as graphic as those or anywhere near it or as frequent. It only happens once, and is only seen once. There's no nudity with it. Just blood.
3. The story is dark fantasy/horror, with major character deaths. And horrific violence, and foul language.
4. The characters do break out in song occasionally, although it is always explained as magical in nature - either a spell or an acid trip or a test.
The songs are ear worm 1980s and 1990s songs.
5. There is a major character death but it's not POC or female.
It's a show that premiered in 2016, and it's liberal, so lots of pop culture references to stuff happening between 2016-2020. Last season was 2020, I think the pandemic got it cancelled. And it is for the most part politically woke. There are bisexual and gay couples in the series and one of the major characters is openly bisexual, and mostly interested in men with few exceptions.
I kind of wish we'd gotten a sixth season, mainly because watching Margo, Alice, Fenn and Josh create a new world or new Fillory, while Eliot, Charlton, Penny and Julia tried to teach at Brakebills, would have been fun. I liked how the series wrapped itself up in any event, leaving those openings. That's a series you can write fanfiction about for a very long time.
So many avenues to play with.
I'm tempted. I won't. I suck at fanfic. I like playing in my own world with my own rules and characters. I'm not a fan of playing in someone else's sandbox. The rules make me itchy. I want to make up my own.
I had a long discussion with my father about it once. He was much the same way. He couldn't write creatively on demand either, nor could he write in another person's world or with another person's creations/toys/characters. He felt like he was imposing himself or something.
I also want icons. Does anyone have Julia, Margo, Zelda, or Eliot icons? Even Kady or Alice?
The neat thing about the Magicians is it had cool and tough as nails female characters. More great female characters than male characters. The only cool male characters were Eliot and Penny, also possibly Quentin. Plus they occasionally broke out in song and dance numbers, and made fun of them. (Think Whedon's Once More with Feeling except more Glee with top 1980s and 70s pop singles. A lot of ear worm songs, I didn't realize how many ear worm songs the 1980s, 90s and 70s had? We got "I Wanna Be Sedated" by the Ramones, "Don't Give Up" by Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush, "Take on Me" by Aha....)
I may rewatch it. Or move onto AMC's Into the Badlands, Interview with the Vampire (which I couldn't quite get into), or Mayfair Witches also couldn't quite get into. I have a craving for Dark Fantasy Ensemble Series at the moment. Also need to finish Scavenger's Reign, and 3 Body Problem.
I talked to Chidi and AA about television shows. Rec'd The Magicians. And discussed how I could not get into Ted Lasso. ( Read more... )
Anyhow, after struggling to get into the first season, I fell in love with the series in the third season. Once you get past the dark crap in S1-2, it gets a whole lot better. I honestly think it had at least eight seasons in it. Too bad Netflix didn't keep it going a bit longer when it grabbed it from Syfy. Syfy had a tendency to cancel shows it owned or produced after about four-five seasons, sometimes less. While shows it didn't own, like Star Gate, went on forever, with multiple spin-offs.
The Magicians is only five seasons, on Netflix, and thirteen episodes per season with a diverse cast, and innovative plotting. It's loosely adapted from Lev Grossman's novels of the same name, although Grossman did serve as a consultant on the series and is a producer - so he had a say in how things evolved and what was changed. From what I understand - the first season and second seasons are closest to the books, but the others vary in a huge way. The series subverts the hero's journey trope, or the white male chosen one trope, while the books follow it closely or so I've seen via reviews online. I've not read the books. I do own the first one in E-book, so may read it to see.
I highly recommend the series, with the following caveats:
1. The first season is hard to get into and it took a while.
2. There's a rape that occurs, which is rather brutal, and an important plot point, furthering one of the characters. If rape is triggering for you, you might want to skip over those episodes? I don't know. It is a metaphor for how the Gods abuse their human charges at their whim. Or about power plays. That said, if you made it through Outlander, Game of Thrones, Buffy, Angel, or Supernatural - you should be fine. It's not as graphic as those or anywhere near it or as frequent. It only happens once, and is only seen once. There's no nudity with it. Just blood.
3. The story is dark fantasy/horror, with major character deaths. And horrific violence, and foul language.
4. The characters do break out in song occasionally, although it is always explained as magical in nature - either a spell or an acid trip or a test.
The songs are ear worm 1980s and 1990s songs.
5. There is a major character death but it's not POC or female.
It's a show that premiered in 2016, and it's liberal, so lots of pop culture references to stuff happening between 2016-2020. Last season was 2020, I think the pandemic got it cancelled. And it is for the most part politically woke. There are bisexual and gay couples in the series and one of the major characters is openly bisexual, and mostly interested in men with few exceptions.