Amph Welcome to Fillory: The Magicians - SyFy Series (and book series by Lev Grossman) - Season 4

Is anyone watching The Magicians? If not, you should. Go. Now. I couldn't believe there wasn't a thread already.
Season three started in January, and you can watch the first two season on Netflix, in the US at least.

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It's always been a great series, broaching topics a lot of shows ignore or make over dramatic, but this season has been amazing. The most recent episode, A Life in the Day I think is the best yet.

I was totally down for a Quentin and Eliot adventure at the start of the episode, but little did I know just how down for it I'd be.

Spoiler: TV series

The two of them living their life together, with the peach and plums woman (I don't remember her name) and the kid was such a beautiful life and love story and it happened in 40 minutes. We don't see relationships like that on TV very often and they handled it so well.

I was terrified they weren't going to remember it. But thankfully they did, and I'm looking forward to how it changes Q and Elliot's relationship, and I wonder when the kid will show up.

If you'd like to talk about the book, or how the book differs from the series go for it! But please put it under a spoiler tag and make it clear it's a book spoiler.

 

This week's episode wasn't as good as last week, but I still really liked it. The high points for me were:

They brought up Quentin's depression. I was just recently thinking I wanted it to come back up. So many shows add something like depression as a way to give a character depth and it might come up a time or two in early seasons and never again, which is annoying. They didn't fall into that trope and I'm so happy about it. It was especially moving because

Spoiler

Q was just so happy to be on the Muntjac, he even said it was an anti-depressant.
Then to see his depression in a physical manifestation of himself was a great visual for how depression feels. It was heartbreaking to watch, but I was happy they included it.

Last week's storyline also didn't completely disappear and I was so happy. I think what happened in A Life in a Day should change Quentin and Eliot's interactions, and it did.

Adding Felicia Day was fun, I have no idea how long she'll be around, but I look forward to hopefully seeing more of her. I don't trust her character, though.

Margo and Eliot's meta conversation about how they now have depth, as well as Margo telling Prince Fomar about women were pretty amusing.

 

I love The Magicians TV Show. But have yet to read the books because I am cheap...

 

I'm watching season 1 on netflix now. I read the first book of the trilogy then decided to check out the series. The show is taking a lot of liberty with the plot but that's ok with me. Also, it seems to be pulling from the second and third books(?), so it may have been a better idea for me to finish the books before watching the series.

 

Are there really no libraries in NY?

Seriously, some libraries even let you download audiobooks over the net - useful if you don't read much anymore because of time issues.

 

I'm sure there are. I'm just not going to go to one, because I hate Tom and Tracy.

 

Fillory

 

Looks like Marina is back. Kacey Rohl is always good, so this is definitely a plus.

 

I really like this show but I kinda gave up trying to figure out what was going on and just go with it .
Like - what happened to all the students at Breakbills ? have they disappeared ?

 

I think they left when magic was lost and the university closed down. Now magic is back, but the regulars seem to have lost their memories, so... I don't know?

I think the "just go with it" tactic is the right one when watching this.

 

That teaser is great!
Penny is dead and could only be seen with the key, Marina was also dead. So I wonder if he's the only one that can see her and vice versa?

Re; Brakebills- Yeah, I assumed that since magic was gone, they all just went back to their lives before they went there.


So I've finally read the first two books and while it took me quite awhile to get into the first one, once they got to Fillory, I went pretty quickly. I read the second one pretty fast as well. I really enjoyed them, but I think I still like the show better.

Not super spoilery (mostly about character development) but just in case spoiler cut for the first two books:

Spoiler

I had a hard time getting into it because the characters were so different. Penny being the one that was so gung ho about Fillory and not Quentin. Q and Alice kinda being mean girls. None of them were particularly likeable at the start. But by the second book, most of them were a lot more like their characters on the show, except Janet/Margot, but that makes since to me, she really is a different character.

I really like how the show takes what was written and really expands on it. The Beast almost felt like an afterthought in the first book, though I guess we did get more by the end of the second. And the keys in the show were a part of some of my favorite moments in TV ever, details we didn't get in the books.

I did like how the books did Q's POV in the first one and Julia's in the second. That was something that wouldn't have really worked on TV, but worked well in the books. I had a pretty strong hate on for Julia in the show for quite awhile, but I didn't in the books. I always found her pretty sympathetic. Of course, I was pretty sure she was so depressed because she'd lost her shade, so that might have helped.

 

I keep meaning to post in here and see if others are enjoying this season as much as I am, but I keep forgetting. Spoilers for the whole of season 4, but for episode 5 will be under a cut.

I really liked the start of the season and everyone's alternate personalities. I liked how they portrayed it, showing us some of the other people with the actors we know in reflection or some other way. But then they didn't stick with those actors for too long and gave us the ones we know. I was happy that Kady got to be a person who while clearly wasn't super happy, didn't have the crappy backstory she has in real life. Julia gets to go to Brakebills. I loved that Margo had an issue with her eye and ended up bedazzling an eye patch. Penny23 was just hilarious as the DJ (and speaking of, I still miss Penny' but Penny23 is growing on me.) The Monster is creepy as all get out because he has a face we love and he sounds so sweet but really isn't. Santa was pretty fun too.

So to keep from rambling on and on, Episode 5: Escape from the Happy Place

This was my favorite episode so far of the season!

Spoiler

And not just because we got more Q/Elliot, though that certainly didn't hurt. Queliot is endgame for me. I'm a HUGE sucker for a backstory and we got so much Elliot backstory. The chalkboard of Elliot's traumas were hilarious. I think my favorites were "Creed concert" and "Forgetting lines during Crucible show. " @dp4m actually guessed at the beginning it was going to be from when Q and Eliot lived their whole other life, though I think he said he'd regret coming back after having lived that life(?).

That whole thing was powerful, and I loved the expansion on my favorite episode of the show, but when Elliot was trying to convince Q he was Eliot and he said "Peaches and plums mother******", the look on his face slayed me.

Other things I loved:
Plover saying to Alice "I hope wherever you go is where you are supposed to be" and she says "Same to you" as she shows him into the poison world. Snap!
Q not forgiving Alice just yet. She did betray them completely.
All of the Fillory mourning rituals.
Margo's "I can't cry out all the sadness ever. Because if I start, I'll never stop, understand."