Critique: The Magicians (TV)

Quentin gets into Brakebills, a school that teaches magic. Eventually they go to Filory, a world from the novels Quentin was once obsessed with. He meets fellow first-years Alice, Penny and Kady, and other magicians like Margo (my favourite), Eliot and Tod. Quentin’s best friend Julia doesn’t get into Brakebills but she succeeds anyway.

 

*****SPOILERS*****

 

It felt more like a comedy show with magic than a magic show with comedy.

The Neitherland librarian broke their emotion bottles and Margo screamed, ‘I planned my entire outfit around that bottle!’ It was this line that made me want to critique this series.

When Penny has no hands, Margo says, ‘You’re wiping your own ass so figure that out.’

The centaur doctor walks behind a sheet and we see the shadow of his penis.

In Quentin’s dream, Penny has an Indian accent and says chicken curry is his favourite dish. So the real Penny (who can enter people’s minds and hence their dreams) calls Quentin out for being racist. The whole exchange is hilarious. Also it’s refreshing when the main character makes a major mistake without being an antihero.

Quentin says, ‘Let’s go hunt the White Lady’ (in order to grant a wish). Then Penny says, ‘People like me get shot for saying shit like that’.

When Filorians try to depose Eliot, he brushes it off as being ‘so French’.

A rabbit screams, ‘PREGNANT!’ in such a deep voice. It was so unexpected it forced a laugh out of me. From that point onwards, I giggled every time I saw a rabbit and brayed like a donkey when they spoke.

Margo says, “Don’t cock out on me. I’d say ‘pussy’ but we both know which is tougher.”

Fae starts dating a bear (an actual bear) and Eliot says to here, “I’ll say what I wish my dad said to me. I’m so happy you’re dating a bear.”

A book needs blood so they can read it. So Margo puts a tampon in it, naturally.

“When they explore it’s not good for morale but it helps with the over enrolment.” There’s always a silver lining… one you get past the skin lining.

Alice said, “My dad always said they [the Lunatics, followers of the moon] were batshit crazy. He married my mom so he had a high bar for mental instability.”

Ember says, “The dead contaminate everything like a pickle on a sandwich.”

Eliot points out that destroying planets is counter-productive to which Ember replies, “Only if you care about peasants. Which I do not.”

The World Seed needs to be kept in a hot, moist environment. Fen gets the seed but we don’t see her carrying it. Why? It’s in her vagina.

Father Christmas saying, “Hohoho, motherfuckers” was the best early Christmas present of all time.

 

 

Problems

 

The amount of problems was truly upsetting. I think this is the downside of American-styled programmes, where there are lots of writers. Without one person to keep track of everything, consistency falls apart because everyone has slightly different interpretations. Plus the competitive nature of getting your idea heard over the other writers can’t help matters.

When Quentin first entered the school’s ground on entrance exam day, Eliot was waiting for him. But no one else waited for any other potential students. Why?

Whenever they say ‘Filorian’, it sounds like they’re saying ‘Florian’. I didn’t realise what they were actually saying until I read up on the books.

Quentin and his best friend Julia have a massive fight at the start of season one. It seemed completely out of proportion for two reasons. One, they’re best friends, so why are they assuming the worst in each other? Two, there was no build-up: they just jumped in at the deep end.

Eliot feels betrayed when his wife Fen reveals that she was part of the FU Fighters and that the guy who just tried to kill Eliot was her ex-lover. Being offended and hurt I’d understand but betrayed is another kettle of fish. Also Eliot’s had past lovers so why isn’t Fen allowed them.

Eliot makes another body so he can be in Filory and Earth at the same time. Then we find out Eliot can’t use his penis if one of his bodies dies. But why? That’s so random. Why not all body parts?

Even though magic is gone for all humans, Penny is still capable of travelling (i.e. teleporting).

The Fairy Queen has one of Margo’s eyes so she sees all of Margo’s plans. Yet from about episode five, Margo plots and the fairies had no idea. Like scraping the walls with the material that can be used to hurt fairies, or stealing fairy eggs

The Fairy Queen is surprised at Eliot and Margo holding fairy eggs hostage. Really? You’ve been controlling and threatening Margo and Filory so of course they’d take action! Considering fairies are transactional, the Fairy Queen must have realised she’d get something in return.

Quinton had a son in an alternate timeline in the past. Yet at no point does Quinton think to go looking for his son or other descendants. Neither do the descendants think to look for Quinton when Quinton became king? Or when Eliot became king because Eliot was like their third parent? Sure, it was an alternate time line, but Margo got a letter from Quinton and Eliot from the alternate timeline, so if the letter existed then surely the descendants should, too?

Josh becomes one of the main characters? Really? Why him? If anyone should have taken a slot as another main character (when there are already so many), then Todd would make more sense.

Many times, it’s mentioned that Filorians were illiterate. Then how could they read the campaign posters, or vote for that matter?

Josh becomes a human again and he says yes to wearing a towel in front of Margo, his girlfriend, who’d already seen him naked. Yet Josh was more than happy to walk around naked in front of Eliot and the entire Filory Court?

Margo sends bees into the past to warn Josh and Fen they’ll be killed by the Dark King. But Josh dies anyway because he’s allergic to bees. Whilst this is hilarious, if the bees were clever enough to talk, surely they’d be clever enough not to sting people, especially knowing the bees themselves would die in the process. Maybe these bees had issues? Considering all the other characters in this programme, this wouldn’t surprise me.

Eliot sent a letter to make Josh and Fen come forward three hundred years. (The process they went through to do this made complete sense.) The pair brough the government with them, too. Surely the entire government leaving would leave Filorians bitter and betrayed, a feeling that would expand over time and make the new Filorians disinclined towards the government?

Josh hides the key behind a loose stone in the prison before coming to the future. Yet we know they could take things with them (they came clothed, after all) and someone could have found the key in the prison, thus the characters would have lost a vital item forever.

Dean Fogg 17 tries to steal Brakebills and Julia surprised Timeline 17 wasn’t reset. But if she thought the timeline disappears, then how could you have Penny 27? Didn’t you go to Timeline 27?

Alice and Julia agree to help someone if they give her a shade. This isn’t mentioned for a few episodes and Alice and Julia act normally, as if they still have their shades.

Magic’s gone to whack because the moon is pissed that she was moved. But the ritual they did was to ask her to move and her aura went green, meaning she was receptive to the request. Yet no one wonders why the moon changed her mind.

The TV that was used for whale-human communication showed humpback whales and pilot whales. Yet pilot whales are actually dolphins (it’s the same deal as orcas).

They need the new world to have a Wellspring so that everywhere can have magic. But magic existed before Fillory, i.e. before there was a Wellspring. Also, the group activated the World Seed after Fillory was destroyed, meaning after the Wellspring (and hence magic) was destroyed. Yet they needed magic to activate the World Seed: how can use magic when magic was destroyed?

 

 

Other Good Shit

 

Despite the problems, there were so many good elements that kept you coming back for more.

Someone is set to get the powers of the Fiolrian god Ember. Quentin has always been obsessed with Filory forever so the audience assumes it will be him. If not, surely it would be Eliot who is the new high king? No, it ends up being Alice who was already the best magician of the lot.

They encounter the Cock of the Wood. Hilarious. But then he unfurled his tail like a peacock and I was mesmerised.

The prow of the ship had an entire antelope skeleton on it.

A scene from Harriette’s perspective, with the audience being def like her, was really clever.

It turns out Harriette is the librarian’s child. This explains the librarian’s trademark walk of hands up and out: so she’s ready to use sign language all the time.

We learn that magicians hunted fairies near extinction on Earth so they fled to Fillory. Julia said, “I had no idea,” to which the Fairy Queen replied, “Short memories are the privilege in the oppressor.” That’s such a powerful line.

Alice is split into two distinct individuals: her timid self and her arrogant self. They are both, naturally, so different, and without both in the same body, neither’s tendencies are reduced by the other’s. Still, it’s a wonder how they ever made a coherent, consistent whole. But they did: much to the writers’ credit.

After Quentin died, his hairstyle was taken up by Eliot. A nice tribute.

The show doesn’t feel empty without Quentin. Removing him from the cast could have easily left a gaping hole in the show, considering he’s the main-est of the main characters, but the writers managed this really well. To choose to remove Quentin was a bold move that this time paid off.

 

Conclusion

The animation for the magic and the magical creatures was well-executed. With so many episodes per series, I’m surprised they had the budget to fund the animation.

Each season has very different plot lines but they follow each other smoothly. Hence nothing feels disjointed.

The dialogue is always good and there is joke after joke after joke, almost like the writers made it their personal mission to make everyone’s days a little brighter, a little more joyful.