When graduate student Quentin Coldwater enters a university specializing in magic, he learns that the mythical fantasy world he once read about is very real. For those not initiated with The Magicians, it is one of the best science fiction series on television that doesn't get the attention it deserves. With so many people currently looking for escapism in all its forms, Syfy's The Magicians is a fantastic binge watch, an all-consuming experience with enough light to distract attention from the global pandemic. Last Sunday, I had a few hours to kill and a need to escape, so I turned on Netflix and gave Los Magicians another chance.
Quentin Coldwater enrolls at Brakebills University of Magical Pedagogy to train as a magician, where he discovers that the magical world of his favorite children's book is real and represents a danger to humanity. In fact, at a time when it seems that jumping the shark is preferable to simple storytelling, The Magicians does a stellar job of earning its amazing revelations. When it comes to entertaining, getting excited and forcing yourself to think, The Magicians will throw you against a wall, sing something sweet to you, and leave you reeling. Kady (Tailor of Jade), a rudimentary magician character created for the show, becomes the defender of amateur cover witches and evolves, through pain, into a mature stoicism.
But Margo succeeds, thanks to the discovery of the fact that the “reserve magic” of rich wizards actually comes from the fairy bones of enslaved fairies. To my delight, the first season of The Magicians quickly transformed into one of the best and most satisfying compulsive watches I can remember. Instead, The Magicians turned Quentin into a mere entry point into a series of ensemble driven battles to save the magic of Earth and Fillory. With a new gap in this carefully woven team, much of the last season oscillated between mourning and apocalypse, with plot problems that threatened to cut the fabric between the many worlds of The Magicians.
A magical being known as The Great Cock (get your mind out of the gutter) tells the magicians that the Quest for the Seven Keys is how they can return to magic. By merging nostalgia for fantasy stories and adult themes with self-awareness and fantasy, The Magicians quickly won praise as one of the best shows on TV you're not watching. An evil wizard from another world called “The Beast” invades a classroom and almost killed the dean of the school.
