Last night I watched the first few episodes of The Magicians. I’m a fan of the books. Normally I approve when screenwriters make extensive changes when adapting books for TV or movies. But theres one tone change that really sticks in my craw:
In the first 5 minutes of the first episode, they establish that Quentin Coldwater is “the chosen child of prophecy who will save us”. That totally misses the point of the novels! Argh!
I guess the world of TV production is cutthroat. The screenwriters feel that they need to draw viewers in quickly, and they think thats easier if theres a power-fantasy hero for the viewer to identify with. It changes the tone of the whole story though.
And Alice is way too pretty, but thats just standard “TV reality” for you.
Interesting comment about Alice. I actually think Olivia Taylor Dudley has done a very good job at downplaying her beauty and sex appeal in this role (the clothes help, too). So good that it actually took one or two episodes before I became fully aware of her hotness. I can’t recall another good example of an actress doing that so well.
Can’t really comment on books versus show as I was unable to finish the first book, a while back.
All four of the key women in this are quite attractive and the interesting thing is they are all attractive in different ways. As far as Alice, yeah you can only hid that rocking bod for so long.
Interesting. I was thinking it was kind of silly to do the whole ‘nerdy girls turns into beauty queen’ when it was obvious she was quite amazing from the get-go.
That last episode though was a bit much. ‘Sex magic’ and all that. Come ooonnnnn.
Agreed on the last episode. Tell me, had you seen her in anything else? Because I actually had to look her up to see what else she was in (nothing I’ve seen), at which point the slumbering hotness detector started going off big time.
And just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, it still manages to.
I tried to get through the first book, but in the end I lost interest. I certainly will come back to it after this season is over.
But the interweaving of the “A” and “B” story lines seems to be done rather well. I know that is the point, after all, but they are really moving this thing towards a crescendo. And yet they continue to (mostly) surprise me.
I had hopes I would like this series but The Magicians has turned out to be far, FAR better than I ever dared hope, back in January.
This might be a good example of fantasy source novels vs movie/TV series. When the Harry Potter movies were coming out, I quickly grabbed the novel series in preparation as my kid and her mom were really into them at the time, and having read the first two when the first Potter film came out, I felt that the novels were not much more than mature film treatments (and the films a relatively decent handling of the treatments). With The Magicians, it was the same but even more so. Like you, I couldn’t even make it all the way through the first book. Similarly, when the Game of Thrones series hit HBO, I grabbed the books and found that there was not much more there that the HBO series was not already doing better, and so abandoned the books after reading 1.5 of them. And this is all from someone who really, really wanted the books to be better in each case.
(For context I’ve just watched episode 4). They are trying, but Alice is just mismatched casting. The first time I saw her she looked like a character from a spoof comedy movie who takes off her glasses and shakes her hair in slow motion. Thats not the way Alice is in the books. Again it changes the tone of the story arch. Its probably fine, but as a fan of the books its jarring.
I agree. Initially I hated the A/B stuff, but I think they’ve figured it out, and the series as a whole (minus “Sex Magic”, for lurb’s sake) has gotten really good.
So happy they already ordered S2, I would have been crushed otherwise, this is one of my favorite shows on TV right now. The Sex Magic episode was one of the weakest, up there with the sanitarium episode, but the rest more than made up for those two stumbles.
I wish they would have spent more time in Antarctica, I was almost giddy when that episode started and pretty bummed when they skipped the whole dash to the pole storyline.
Nope, hadn’t seen her anywhere before (checked imdb to make sure - haven’t seen any of those titles). Maybe I’m simply attracted to nerdy girls too, so it didn’t matter which ‘phase’ she was in (she’s Chameleon from Xanth!).
This has become my favorite new show this season, as well. I do wish they spent a bit less time on the two protagonists and more on the supporting cast. I like Julia’s storyline better than the primary one, and I would love a mini-series about the adventures of Eliot and Margo ;)
Again, I only completed 2/3 of the first book before giving up (felt very formulaic and dry overall, despite being stronger than the Potter books, and I when I made that decision I was sure we’d be seeing a TV show emerge). So my take on the Alice character was probably weak and maybe hampered by the decision. It didn’t seem to me that her character was fleshed out enough to even warrant opinions like that, but it appears that I didn’t read enough. :)
That brings back memories, LOL!
I liked her before I actually registered the hotness levels, so I hope I still get man points for that. :)
Yeah, this last episode was great after all the relationship drama passed. And the druggie subplot is at least as good now as the main plot. Good stuff all around… I can’t wait for the finale.
Caught up finally. I still definitely think the book was more original, impactful and coherent. But the show’s take is growing on me, between some very funny writing and frankly excellent acting from all of the core characters. (I particularly adore Eliot and to a slightly lesser extent Penny.). Honestly it seems like it’s at its weakest when it’s (too fast and too clumsily) trying to push the Beast storyline. Which is one of the biggest changes in the show, since the Beast isn’t even onscreen for most of the first book - early on he appears mysteriously, eats a student, and then gets driven away, and no explanation is given until he later pops up in Fillory and we learn who he actually is and just how fucked up a lot of that backstory is.
Episode 12 would have made a great Season 1 ending, even ending on a high note. Followed by this one (ep 13) as Season 2 Ep 1. It has a new arc to follow, the “remember how fucking dark this show is” last 5 minutes (edit: actually, all throughout, but 2 major places), and a new revelation. Instead, “deal with this shit for a year-ish while we work on Season 2”.
