Syfy's The Magicians: A Retrospective Update

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The first season of The Magicians ended a couple of weeks ago, so I've had plenty of time to mull over my reactions to the show (which took a day or two, and then I procrastinated a bunch). Season 2 is already a lock, set to air in 2017.

I'll certainly watch season 2, but I was ultimately disappointed with season 1. It started strong; I loved the first 3 or 4 episodes. There were obvious plot tweaks that helped transition the material from book to screen, but I understood and agreed with those changes. The characters were still true to their origins and fun to watch. As the season developed, though, the storyline started running off the rails. I was feeling uneasy by the middle episodes, and I was completely flummoxed by the end. Julia's story in particular took a cliff dive - I actively hated her screen time. There's a brief respite when she and Quentin make it to Fillory, when their chemistry really recalls their friendship and the magic from the beginning of the series, but that's quickly stolen away again.

Another issue I had was the gore. It was completely unnecessary. The books are far from clean, often touted as "Harry Potter with drugs and sex," but they didn't feature grisly murder after grisly murder. That addition may have upped the drama, sure, but it seriously took away from the fun.

So why will I still watch the second season? Complaints aside, there are some elements that I kept loving throughout the season. Eliot and Margo are great characters who get even better when they're together. Eliot is far and away my favorite part of the show, mostly because he's the closest to being the book character come to life. Penny's actually better in the show than he is in the books - he's a much more lovable grump on screen. I'm also dying to see more of Fillory! The magic looks awesome no matter what, but Fillory is the perfect setting for it. 

I know I said in the first post that we shouldn't expect the show to be identical to the books, but I honestly wanted it to be a little closer in comparison. Here's hoping they fix the mess that is Julia's story next season!

The Excitement Builds

I'll admit I don't actually have anything to review at the moment, since 99% of my energy is going to Olivia these days, but I've been missing this blog. I've got three different books started at the moment, but I'm far from finished with any of them. (For the curious, those are Unnatural Creatures, edited by Neil Gaiman; The Best American Short Stories of 2015, edited by T. C. Boyle and Heidi Pitlor; and The Girl in the Spider's Web (A Lisbeth Salander Novel), by David Lagercrantz.) I'm still devouring The Magicians on Syfy as fast as they can air new episodes, although I've completely given up on any comparison to their source material. And, of course, I'm eagerly awaiting the release of Everything You've Come to Expect, which will finally be available this Friday. Basically, I've got a lot going on but nothing that warranted its own blog post. So, I decided I'd modify my own rules for this space a bit.

I wanted to tell you guys that I'm excited. Excited to read these books, even if I can only do so in 10- or 20-minute increments during my daughter's cat naps. Excited to get back to writing my own book, even if I have to wait until she's down for the night to steal a little bit of time with pen and paper before I go to bed myself. Excited to bring some of the artwork in my head to life, although I haven't quite figured out when I can fit that into my new routine. (The ideas are currently just...maturing? We'll say they're maturing. That sounds plausibly productive.) Caring for a newborn is by far the hardest thing I have ever done, and it's overwhelming and rewarding and frustrating and hilarious all at once, but it has also been exactly the inspiration I needed to let go of some of the things I've been stressing over and start dreaming again. I want Olivia to grow up with a mother who trusts her own intuition, not a mother who got lost in a existential crisis because her life goals didn't necessarily match anyone's expectations.

I'm sure this all sounds very cliché to some, but to a new mother who is only beginning to stumble out of the "no sleep" fog, it feels like a revelation. Maybe I'm just delirious and hopped up on caffeine, but feeling my creativity return after months of second-guessing every decision I've made in the past year is the biggest weight off my shoulders I could possibly imagine.

Long story short, keep watching this space for upcoming reviews and other news as it comes up! At the very least, I'll be back soon with my thoughts on The Last Shadow Puppets' second album and probably a few schemes about how I might possibly manage to see them play at Lollapalooza this summer. When I find time to get some artwork underway, the VanDuinen Studio Facebook page will get a lot more active, so feel free to follow that if you're so inclined. I've also got my work out to several short story contests at the moment, so fingers crossed on that front!

And now, to sleep. At least for an hour or two.

Syfy's The Magicians

I've been sitting around the past couple of days wondering what my next post should cover, since I've been finding it difficult to read and nurse at the same time. The little munchkin likes to punch the book and lose my page, so it's slow going. Then I realized what I've been doing for the past two weeks - binge-watching good TV! Bryan and I are finally making our way through The West Wing at a respectable pace, pretending to keep up with current events via Stephen Colbert and The Daily Show, and devouring Syfy's small screen adaptation of Lev Grossman's trilogy The Magicians.

Let's talk about The Magicians. The first three episodes are streaming for free here, and the fourth airs tonight at 9/8c. I am in love. I've lost track of the number of times I've watched the first three episodes at this point, because it's too hard to wait a week to see the next one. (Why wasn't this a Netflix original series?! I need them all now!) I'm feeling the need to read the books again, too, so I've definitely got to figure out that skill ASAP. The show is nowhere near a perfect replica of the books, but to me, that's okay. As Bryan pointed out, it's like the movie they made for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - not an exact match in content or tone to the source material, but lovable all the same. It stands alone.

Aside from the superb writing that went into it, this show works because of the talented, diverse cast the producers pulled together. There aren't many recognizable names involved, but for me, that just means that I'm totally sucked into the universe. I'm not distracted by watching some big deal pretend to be Quentin; Jason Ralph simply is Quentin at this point. To be honest, very few of the actors look anything like what I imagined (a little more glamorous than the nerds described in the books), but they all handle their roles well. In my mind, there are two absolutely perfect casting choices: Hale Appleman is Eliot through and through, and I didn't even need to wait for anyone to say her name to know that when Olivia Taylor Dudley showed up on screen, she was playing Alice. It took some convincing for me to accept the rest of the cast, but once I saw how well they worked together, I was hooked.

One small note, for anyone who wants to dive into this show: watch the first two episodes back-to-back. They're essentially one gigantic episode, and without its second half, the pilot is a bit choppy. That shouldn't be hard to manage, though - once The Beast shows up at the end of the first episode, it's almost impossible not to find out what happens next.

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