"Magicians Has Somehow Become One of TV’s Best Shows" Topic

"The Magicians shouldn't be a good TV show. The series, adapted from Lev Grossman's popular series of adult-oriented fantasy novels, has a lot working against it. Not only is it hard to do genuine fantasy well on TV, it's even harder to do it when nearly everything onscreen inherently draws comparisons to Game of Thrones. Still, The Magicians has handily topped its solid-but-uneven first season to become one of the best shows on TV.

If you're unfamiliar with the novels or the TV series, which launched Season 2 on Syfy last night, here's a primer: Quentin Coldwater (Jason Ralph) is recruited to Brakebills, a literal magic school where students learn to cast spells and prepare to fight an evil monster. Eventually, he and his friends find their way into Fillory, a magical land filled with talking animals from a popular 20th century British series of novels. Sound familiar? Good, because the tropes The Magicians are working with—obvious and otherwise—are half of the point…"
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Amicalement
Armand

I like this show.

I find it "Meh" after reading the books, which were a rip-off of Narnia – with bad words and sex.

Man, I binge-watched the first two seasons (well, sorta-binge. It took me a few weekends), and I agree.

The Magicians is a much better show than the promo stuff had led me to believe.

It's full of wonderfully nerdy references (A wizard named "Bigby", a website for swapping spells named "Free Trader Beowulf", etc.) and it's clear that all the main cast LOVE their jobs. Even the "comic relief" characters are delightfully unpleasant people. Though in the second season, even they experience character growth.

It's definitely not kid friendly, but I can't tear myself away. At this point, I'm not actually sure who the "hero" of this story is meant to be.

I strongly suspect it's really Penny.