I just finished The Magicians on Netflix and what a wild ride. I really enjoyed this one a lot! This should be a spoiler free review with an overview of the plot and cast. This is a five season comedic fantasy series with a really colorful cast of characters. Think Harry Potter and Hogwarts grows up goes to college and discovers Narnia.
Whimsy is a theme in this series. As whimsical as it is though, this is NOT for children. There is drug use, sexual content, rape, suicide and a long list of other warnings before each episode. Surprisingly, the subject matter is action filled and absolutely hysterical at times.
The basic plot is centered around Brakebills University. Think Hogwarts but college and hidden in the middle of New York City. Students are selected to join the college based on their magickal abilities. Quentin is our main protagonist. He's a bit of a shy nerd and obsessed with children's books about a place named Fillory. Fillory is like a Narnia type place. While studying at magick school he discovers that Fillory is indeed real and that he and several of his friends must save this magickal kingdom from an evil monster.
I have to admit, I usually don't like when a franchise rips off the best parts of different movies and books and then remixes them into it's own story. That's a lot of what they did here. This is an adult version of Harry Potter, meets Narnia, meets Alice In Wonderland, meets every other fantasy book you've ever read throughout your life. But that is part of what makes this series so excellent. They did it well.
The cast and characters really make this work. It's great fantasy, a great plot and the colorful cast of characters make it entertaining and incredibly fun to watch. On top of that, they rip off almost every movie ever written from Star Wars to Die Hard and kind of poke fun at it in the script. In other words, they did it purposely and it works for this show.
As the series progresses the focus slowly slips away from Quentin Coldwater the main character and the light shines more on his group of magickal freinds at Brakebills University who join in on his quest to save Fillory from the evil monster.
When I first started watching this it's obvious that the theme has a "WOKE" agenda. It's hard to miss and gets stronger as the series progresses. Normally that annoys the hell out of me, but this cast of actors really made it work and it just fits. Many of the main characters are openly gay. This is probably the first series I've seen with openly gay main characters that play the hero. It worked! Whether you're gay, straight, or somewhere in between, you can't help but fall in love with the characters of this show.
If there's such a thing as "toxic masculinity" then the character of Margot Hanson just oozes "toxic feminity". She's an obnoxious, foul mouthed, co-ed with a very girl power vibe to her. Normally I love characters like hers but for some reason I found her annoying as hell. At first, I couldn't put my finger on it and it was driving me nuts. I wanted to like her so badly, and her role was actually really fun. Then with one facial expression it hit me like a ton of bricks. She reminded me of the vice president Kamala Harris. God that woman rubs me the wrong way. Once I realized she reminded me of someone I couldn't stand, I started to like her character again 🤣
Many of the episodes also have an underlying theme of equality and social justice. Seriously though, it works with this series. This show is fantasy, but it's also a really funny comedy. I found several parts absolutely hysterical and other parts extremely thought provoking.
With a name like The Magicians the series pokes light fun of the gods. Hades and Persephone make an appearance along with a few others. The gods of Fillory are two Pan like deities who are siblings and don't get along. Their names are Ember and Umber. Ember uses Fillory like a TV show for his amusement.
In the greater scheme of things, nothing is really off limits with this series. Somehow they make this all work. It's comedy, it's sci-fi, it's drama with elements of action and love. Somehow they package this into a fun fantasy series that actually works.
I also liked some of the underlying themes of the different episodes. Many of the plots seemed like they mirrored issues we face in real life. As silly and comical as the series was, much of the content was thought provoking.
One of the things I didn't like is somewhere around the third season they thought it would be fun to add musical elements into the script. That was really annoying! I hate musicals. It was almost a deal breaker for me, but I wanted to see how the series ended. I just fast forwarded through the musical sequences. This did continue into the fourth season, and a little into the fifth season.
Anyway, if you like your fantasy and adventure remixed with elements of pop culture and woke politics you'll probably enjoy this! I really couldn't stop watching this one.
This is post 21 for this months #HiveBloPoMo
