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Post by nowimnothing on Dec 17, 2015 8:55:41 GMT -5
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Post-Lupin
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Post by Post-Lupin on Dec 18, 2015 5:45:49 GMT -5
It hasn't grabbed me as hard as I thought it would yet... but I will give it time. I actually like the casting on Quentin & Julia. The end scene of the episode is a great rendition of a key scene in the book. Lev Grossman wrote a thing about the difference between book and show, which is here.
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Post by ComradeQuestions on Jan 26, 2016 14:09:49 GMT -5
(X-posted from the AVC review. Forgive me!)
While I loved the 2nd and 3rd books, I thought the first was only okay. So it's odd that I feel so defensive about how it's adapted, and not yet really on board with the things they've changed.
- It's all very well-cast, except maybe for Penny, who is really just a different character. Also, I lol'ed at the way they tried to reverse-She's-All-That Alice, who's definitely too hot.
- I understand why they wanted to follow Julia, but I feel like it seriously undercuts Quentin's story and the sense of discovery we should get by following him. They should have saved the Julia stuff as a revelation for later in the season, with maybe a Julia-centric "what's she been up to?" episode.
- I'd like to just see more learning-at-Brakebills. Like the reviewer, I didn't really understand how Quentin's magic is developing, or really how much time had passed.
- I really liked the Dean, but I don't like how they're making it out like there's a big conspiracy the adults are in on which everything's building to.
- I'm not sure what to make of all the Chosen One hints. In the books, the whole point was that Quentin was no one special, just a guy who really loved Fillory. But here everyone seems to be keeping an eye on him, and The Beast goes right for him. Though it's lampshaded a bit by Ros-from-GoT telling him he's not special, and wondering about the Beast thing. So may it's building toward the resolution that "no, you weren't anyone special".
- The Beast looked pretty damn awesome.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Jan 26, 2016 14:52:39 GMT -5
- I'd like to just see more learning-at-Brakebills. Like the reviewer, I didn't really understand how Quentin's magic is developing, or really how much time had passed. I'm halfway through the first book and have not watched the show yet, though I intend to. Would you not levy this same complaint against the first book, which soared through five years of magical education in about 200 pages, describing very little of what life was like along the way. Perhaps in its hurry, the show is even worse about this?
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Post by songstarliner on Jan 26, 2016 16:07:49 GMT -5
- I'd like to just see more learning-at-Brakebills. Like the reviewer, I didn't really understand how Quentin's magic is developing, or really how much time had passed. I'm halfway through the first book and have not watched the show yet, though I intend to. Would you not levy this same complaint against the first book, which soared through five years of magical education in about 200 pages, describing very little of what life was like along the way. Perhaps in its hurry, the show is even worse about this? The show is worse about this, because everything has to be abridged for TV. But yeah, even in the books I felt a little cheated: I wanted so much more Brakebills. Took me a while to get that the series wasn't about attending an insanely beautiful, exclusive, private college of magic.
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Post by songstarliner on Jan 26, 2016 16:43:07 GMT -5
- It's all very well-cast, except maybe for Penny, who is really just a different character. This is the one thing they changed that bothers me the most. Penny is supposed to be pudgy, pasty, aloof, nerdy, lonely, abrasive - definitely NOT this guy:
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Jan 26, 2016 17:03:57 GMT -5
The show is worse about this, because everything has to be abridged for TV. But yeah, even in the books I felt a little cheated: I wanted so much more Brakebills. Took me a while to get that the series wasn't about attending an insanely beautiful, exclusive, private college of magic. Yeah, the common elevator pitch that The Magicians is "Harry Potter for adults" is so far off base. Fortunately, this fact is almost as common, so I haven't been surprised or anything. I didn't expect it to proceed so briskly - and that is disappointing - but I don't feel deceived by what it is (yet). More of an adult Lewis than Rowling, that's for damn sure.
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Post-Lupin
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Post by Post-Lupin on Feb 11, 2016 17:50:59 GMT -5
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Post by MrsLangdonAlger on Feb 11, 2016 20:58:33 GMT -5
Kacey Rohl is ridiculously pretty, ain't she?
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Post by ComradeQuestions on Feb 19, 2016 12:09:56 GMT -5
Kacey Rohl is ridiculously pretty, ain't she? Both this and Agent Carter are in competition for the most ridiculously beautiful cast on TV.
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Post-Lupin
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Post by Post-Lupin on Mar 22, 2016 12:46:07 GMT -5
I am disappointed that not only did TOC not use this image for this week's episode, but that I actually had to make the screengrab myself... Bechdel Test: PASSED
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Apr 6, 2016 8:37:57 GMT -5
Has anybody been watching this all along and do you care to comment on the quality? Over on TOC the consensus seems to be that it starts super shitty but gets considerably better. I've only read the first book. Is it telling that story at all?
In particular I refer to the back third of the book. You know, the good part.
I do know that Julia is introduced as a magic character in the series, when that doesn't really happen until the second book (or very, very end of the first).
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Post-Lupin
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Post by Post-Lupin on Apr 6, 2016 9:10:24 GMT -5
Has anybody been watching this all along and do you care to comment on the quality? Over on TOC the consensus seems to be that it starts super shitty but gets considerably better. I've only read the first book. Is it telling that story at all? In particular I refer to the back third of the book. You know, the good part. I do know that Julia is introduced as a magic character in the series, when that doesn't really happen until the second book (or very, very end of the first). It's OK but oddly paced: like the finger-tutting for spellcasting gestures; cast are mostly good (though Penny is way off-book); not much resemblance to the actual story, but the liberties taken make a kind of internal sense so far; there's a scene involving Taylor Swift which isn't from the book but works like gangbusters; Julia's story specifically altered and expanded here.
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Post by 🔪 silly buns on Apr 6, 2016 17:08:33 GMT -5
It looks like they are taking things from all three books, and putting them in the first season and adding some new things. I am interested to see what they will do for the talking animals and second season.
I have read books 1 and 2, and almost done with the third.
From what people are saying in shoutbox, the show doesn't make sense unless you have read the books. Does anyone agree?
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Post by 🔪 silly buns on Apr 6, 2016 17:10:27 GMT -5
This is the one thing they changed that bothers me the most. Penny is supposed to be pudgy, pasty, aloof, nerdy, lonely, abrasive - definitely NOT this guy: I think that Alice dresses a little sexier than she is portrayed in the book, but I will not be mad at seeing Arjun Gupta on a weekly basis.
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Post by MrsLangdonAlger on Apr 6, 2016 19:37:23 GMT -5
Am I weird for finding The Librarian super cute?
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Post-Lupin
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Post by Post-Lupin on Apr 7, 2016 17:06:32 GMT -5
Am I weird for finding The Librarian super cute? Noooooooope.
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Post by 🔪 silly buns on Mar 14, 2017 20:37:27 GMT -5
I like Margo so much.....anyone else still watching this?
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Apr 9, 2017 17:06:05 GMT -5
I'm watching this show on Netflix, uncensored. Is anyone watching this show on Syfy, and if so, what's with all the f-words? Not to sound like a little kid or anything, but are they bleeped out? Like, there are so many f-bombs that it really doesn't feel like a "syfy" show. What's up with that?
Actual thoughts about the show coming soon.
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Post by songstarliner on Apr 10, 2017 7:04:22 GMT -5
I'm watching it as it aired, and yeah the cursing/bleeping situation is really strange. Many, many 'fuck's, all barely bleeped out: they'll cut just the very end of the word, so little that it seems like a waste of energy. One episode has a completely uncensored and very emphatic 'cunt' - how does that get on the air?
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Apr 10, 2017 8:59:07 GMT -5
Seven episodes in I'm really enjoying it. I'm annoyed that Mrs. Snape refuses to watch it with me (she gave up on the first book, because she hated Quentin so much), because that means that in the evenings when we sit to watch something together, I have to pick something else when all I really want is to watch more Magicians. (Legion and Bake-Off are helping.)
I can't find a cohesive structure for my thoughts, so instead I'll just throw some out there:
- The way the show visualizes the books' magic is really perfect. The complicated hand gestures look just as they did in my mind. They managed to realize it without it looking lame in action. Though, the show is not doing a great job of explaining why magic works the way it does, they way it's affected by environmental and circumstantial factors ... but the first book didn't really do a great job of that either.
- The depictions of Brakebills South and Mayakovsky were fuckin' great! I pictured Mayakovsky as a woolier dude, but other than that it's perfect. It's my favorite episode so far. For non-readers, the fox thing must be so weird. I mean, it was already weird as hell in the book, and this had even less context.
- I'm using this word a lot, but Hale Appleman's Eliot is perfect. Him and Margo steal every scene they get. The trials, though they pissed me off for having nothing to do with the books, were worth it just for letting Eliot and Margo go full ham.
- Good gracious, this is the most beautiful cast since Lost Girl! Alice, Margo, Julia, Kady, Eliza and Marina are all, like, distractingly good-looking.
- Doubtless this is because I read the books first, but those elements that do stray from the books are the ones I like least. Up until the last 3rd, the first book's conflicts were largely internal or at most interpersonal, and here they've clearly done what they could to add more tactile threats and conflicts. Which I get. It needs to engage from episode to episode, but most of the new stuff, from the whole Marina subplot, to the dad/cancer thing, to the pretty dumb gin/djinn episode just get in my way. When it sticks closer to the core story - like the Brakebills South episode - it works for me better.
- Haven't made up my mind about Penny, yet. Arjun Gupta is great in this role (Quentin's dream episode, "You racist motherfucker!") but belligerent, stand-offish types always bother me. And the whole psychic/traveler dealy, again, is off book and just kind of irks me. But we'll see.
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Post by sarapen on Apr 10, 2017 12:36:09 GMT -5
- The way the show visualizes the books' magic is really perfect. The complicated hand gestures look just as they did in my mind. They managed to realize it without it looking lame in action. Though, the show is not doing a great job of explaining why magic works the way it does, they way it's affected by environmental and circumstantial factors ... but the first book didn't really do a great job of that either. They got an expert in tutting to design the hand gestures. No, I'd never heard of it but it's apparently a dance technique connected to the hip hop scene. Lev Grossman mentioned that the show people asked him what he'd like to see and he said that that the magic hand gestures from fantasy novels never ended up in visual adaptations.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Apr 10, 2017 13:46:27 GMT -5
They got an expert in tutting to design the hand gestures. No, I'd never heard of it but it's apparently a dance technique connected to the hip hop scene. Lev Grossman mentioned that the show people asked him what he'd like to see and he said that that the magic hand gestures from fantasy novels never ended up in visual adaptations. Oh neat! I actually do know what tutting is (thanks, America's Best Dance Crew!), and that makes perfect sense. Cool detail.
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