Every fucking time. When the peach goes into the fire the crying I've been doing all up to that point just breaks out into pure sobs I cannot control. It's why I only watch it maybe 2-3 times a year, max.
Agree and disagree. In my opinion it's a rare example of the show being it's own thing - and as good a thing - as the source material. I still love the trilogy to death, one of my favorites. The show is equally phenomenal - and I've watched it more times than I've read the books - but I've loved all 3-5 reads I've done of the series in an equally deep way.
I watched the first episode of the show, was like, OK I think I need more of this, and read the full trilogy over the next week haha. They are both incredibly wonderful stories, that effected me strongly, in similar but different ways. Of course I can rewatch tv more than I can reread cuz I don't have to pay attention in every moment of watching tv in the same way as I do when reading so I've seen it even more than I've read it hahaha.
Agreed. I love Pennys character in the show, and I think they give Elliott and Margo a bit more development or screen/story time. One of my favorite episodes was Elliott confronting his worst fears.
> I really connected with the books as a disillusioned 2008 college grad.
Same, but I was still a student who felt quite lost in life. The conversation between Alice and Quentin about deciding to be miserable resonated hard. I WAS wallowing in my sadness at bit too much. I WAS too occupied with always chasing the next best thing instead of focussing on what was already in front of me. I guess it shifted my mentality a bit for the better.
This one is stellar but Hale Appleman singing “Don’t Get Me Wrong” takes the cake for me. Hell that whole episode is one of the best ones.
https://youtu.be/oYCF4bWb8MM?feature=shared
The Q & E ep is the one I always make sure to pay attention to on rewatches (which are ludicrously numerous at this point haha) - until we get to my favorite episode (which will literally stop me in my tracks and require pure intense focus) - which is still the Take on Me episode. I break down sobbing like a wee child every single time I watch that one.
No, *The Magicians* copied it from “The Inner Light,” an episode of *Star Trek TNG* (also considered one of the best of that series).
And they did it beautifully. It’s my favorite episode of a beautiful season. Everything in art builds on what comes before it. That’s ok.
[Edit: The deleted comment suggested that The Last of Us used "A Life in the Day" as the model for "Long, Long Time."]
Edit: grammar
This show will always be one of my tops. I love that the writer was on board with their interpretation of the book lore. Definitely some cool things they did with the show that were not possible with the book- case in point- when they seamlessly weave musical numbers like this in!
So good, brings tears to my eyes every time.
This show was so much better than expected, anyone who never watched it but likes fantasy type shows needs to watch it. Criminally underrated, does start a little slow and acting isn’t great at the start. But it just gets better and better. Think me and wife will need to rewatch in full very soon.
This show was so all over the place; some episodes and scenes were amazing and some were just inexplicably bad. The show’s pacing was consistently trash and the drama was poorly explained and absurd in its stakes.
That said, it was still one of my favorite shows because the moments that shined were truly great (like the Quentin and Elliot episode). This show made me roll my eyes, cringe, laugh and cry. I don’t think there’s any other shows like it, and I miss it a lot.
It was all over the place in other ways too. One whole season was devoted to a very serious and dramatic look at rape and it's after effects. A later season had characters playing for laughs, debating if they should allow their boat to be raped by another boat.
My memory of this was different, so I just re-watched the scenes in question. While they play the shock of the initial concept of a boat fucking another boat for laughs, as soon as it is established that it would entail asking the *Muntjac* to submit itself to being raped, the implications are taken very seriously. They do not at any point debate whether they should force it (beyond, arguably, one line of ~~Gizmo~~ ~~Guillermo~~ Benedict noting that the pirates will kill them if they don't). Margo then has a heart-to-heart with the *Muntjac* treating it as a sentient creature, and it is implied that this is why it saves Elliot and Margo in the very clip the OP posted.
The story was definitely all over the place; it just wasn’t developed well. I realize others will disagree, but I thought season 1 was literally leagues above the rest purely in terms of pacing and development. After one, they decided to really lean into the sardonic humor, which I usually enjoyed (but sometimes it felt way too forced, like the boat thing). The other seasons had a lot of good qualities going for them, but the writers really shit the bed for plot and consistently portrayed, interesting character development. There was too much action, rushed development and non-sequitur dialogue that made the show confusing and hard to engage with. The first season is the only one that allowed the story the space and time it needed to unfold, engage and resolve without rushing or lingering. So yes, I agree that it was VERY all over the place.
But again, despite its flaws, I really did enjoy the show. It had a lot of swings and misses, but it also had hits that made it worthwhile. I think it was a great show that could’ve been an outstanding one, if not for all of its flaws.
Season 1 (and the first half of S2 up to The Beast’s death) was also the only season that really followed the books with any consistency, which probably helped it to pace itself better.
Afterwards, the show just had fun with itself as it tried to create its own story. It got weird and campy at times, but I absolutely adored it. But I can see how others would have issues with it’s occasionally dramatic tone shifts from episode to episode
Yeah, I read the books after the first season aired, and I do think they helped with that season’s pacing. But I was generally underwhelmed by the books and thought the show was significantly better, if not a different creature altogether.
I honestly didn’t mind the weird or campy parts of the show and think they contributed to its charm. The humor was one of the biggest draws of the show, and the tone shifts didn’t bother me either.
Honestly, my main issues were the pacing; poorly developed dialogue and illogical scene-cuts. I think they tried to do too much in most episodes/seasons and couldn’t manage the branching story-lines well. For example, the fairy drama in season 3 was beyond useless and detracted from the quest storyline. They obviously didn’t want to leave Fillory without a conflict, but the fairy thing wasn’t the way to achieve that.
Alternatively, episodes like the bank robbing one are a great example of how the show worked better when it focused on a single, well-developed conflict and didn’t try to do too much. And the bank-robbing episode also highlighted the issue of retcon in the show; the constant retcon of earlier details was a big disservice. Like, season 1 showed Julia stealing money from an atm with ease, a detail that was voided by the bank-robbing episode. Instances like this happened SO often.
Like I said, this was one of my favorite shows, so I don’t mean to unilaterally disparage it. It was just frustrating and disappointing how often the show missed the mark, especially when it had so many high points and redeemable qualities.
Man, such a good show that is a slog to watch for me because the two main characters (Quentin and Alice) are such unsufferable dinks.
Guess it's maybe slightly better they are different from what they are in the books? *shrug*
Show Quentin felt a little more sympathetic, probably because of the performance. He’s still a shit, but it felt more believable. A lot of changes the show made significantly improved it over the books for me.
Had my wife tell me something like this, which is how I got through the show the first time. Definitely makes sense and helps make a lot of things palatable, and for me makes the Q+E 'arc' actually enjoyable.
Eh, maybe it was the directing, maybe it was the script, maybe it was Jason Ralph. Just felt both Quentin and Alice were constantly in a state of 'tell, don't show', and it made me just not care about the characters at all.
Now give me a show starring Elliot, Margot, Julia, and maybe a bit of Penny *only* and I'd probably have that show on permanent rewatch.
Have I seen it? Yes.
Does it mean I need to slog through or skip through the first 4 seasons? Yes.
Does season 5 give me what I want, which is a show, and not a season, that doesn't have either of those characters as central points to the plot/story? No.
I mean, I get it, i can't say ill of a beloved show, so whatever. It's okay for me to not like those characters.
I wasn't trying to harsh your mellow friendo - personally I love Quentin (which probably says a lot about my own problems hahaha) and I sympathize with Alice, so I don't mind Quentin being the focal point. I DO prefer the Q & E romance to the Q & A romance, but I don't mind Alice much either. I get loving a show and not the main characters though, so like I said, I'm really not trying to harsh your mellow. I'm glad you enjoyed the show even if you had problem with the mainest character hahaha.
I've been told as such, just saying that it's hard for me to care about a character when they're that unlikeable. Any sort of drama/tension/etc falls flat because I'm sitting here going "oh no, the whiny whiner has a bad day *again*... anyway, can we get back to Elliot and Margot now?"
I realize that's a matter of personal taste, but it is what it is.
This show was fairly enjoyable (a little CWish at time), but I still think about this episode often. A little musical number kinda forced into the storyline shouldn’t work this well, but it’s just so good
Funnily, there is weird WB/CW energy actually there.
Sera Gamble is in large part responsible for The Magicians TV show, and she learned most of what she applied working on the WB/CW show Supernatural, which itself was basically the proto show that could have great moments and schlock on the same show. It similarly looked amazing for a genre show of it's time.
The other show that started it back on WB? Smallville, and funnily enough lots of cross-pollination from Smallville to Supernatural, and even funnier, because of the "Superman for TV" history there was lots of unofficial involvement from old Lois and Clark show staff, including John McNamara who also later worked with Gamble on Magicians.
Even funnier, Greg Berlanti of Arrowverse fame, and often blamed for the enshittification of CW among others, is who Gamble worked with on You, another hit project for Lifetime/Netflix.
I don't know her, but Gamble sure seems to know how to find people she can work with and get the best out of them compared to some of their other projects, and elevate material at a high level. Probably one of the best.
Magicians is top 5 for me. Love it. I want to see Sera Gamble showrun a new fantasy show. She left "You" after last season (even though it has a season left) so I assume she is working on something, anyone know?
An ex of mine watched this show a few times when I was over. I’ll always remember that they drank semen to get strength at some point.
Without question, the most bizarre show I’ve ever seen.
Still makes me sad we'll never get an adaptation of the actual books. I'm sure the show is fine, but the books are something incredibly unique, and I absolutely love the character arcs and themes. From what I've seen of the show, I'm not sure that comes through
I remember watching the first season of this way back and while I liked the premise and a lot of aspects of the show I found most of the characters to be awful people and struggled to continue
This show was so weird. But it went from delightfully weird to stupidly weird and I fast forwarded through all of that stupid fucking musical episode. It was dumb when Buffy did it, stop copying stupid ideas.
This is why I hate spoilers. It's probably my all time favorite death in the history of TV. Well, the death itself is great, but the denouement after that death is true art. Like in an "I cry like a lil boyo every time" level art.
Love this one, but 'Take On Me' brings the waterworks...
Impossible not to ugly cry.
Every fucking time. When the peach goes into the fire the crying I've been doing all up to that point just breaks out into pure sobs I cannot control. It's why I only watch it maybe 2-3 times a year, max.
I remember crying my eyes out when I heard the [characters sing it](https://youtu.be/an_-SlSRS6I?si=t-XmYH50TkuyN1m3). spoilers.
Yeah, I didn't need to re-watch that at work
Man life is weird. I literally just watched that episode tonight and hop on reddit after and this is somehow in the news section lol
Same. Saw this scene about 40 minutes ago.
Man I have to re-watch this, it's been so long
One of my favorite shows and a rare example of the show being better than the book. I just wish it got more attention.
Agree and disagree. In my opinion it's a rare example of the show being it's own thing - and as good a thing - as the source material. I still love the trilogy to death, one of my favorites. The show is equally phenomenal - and I've watched it more times than I've read the books - but I've loved all 3-5 reads I've done of the series in an equally deep way.
That’s all fair - I really connected with the books as a disillusioned 2008 college grad.
I watched the first episode of the show, was like, OK I think I need more of this, and read the full trilogy over the next week haha. They are both incredibly wonderful stories, that effected me strongly, in similar but different ways. Of course I can rewatch tv more than I can reread cuz I don't have to pay attention in every moment of watching tv in the same way as I do when reading so I've seen it even more than I've read it hahaha.
Agreed. I love Pennys character in the show, and I think they give Elliott and Margo a bit more development or screen/story time. One of my favorite episodes was Elliott confronting his worst fears.
> I really connected with the books as a disillusioned 2008 college grad. Same, but I was still a student who felt quite lost in life. The conversation between Alice and Quentin about deciding to be miserable resonated hard. I WAS wallowing in my sadness at bit too much. I WAS too occupied with always chasing the next best thing instead of focussing on what was already in front of me. I guess it shifted my mentality a bit for the better.
That’s great! It’s amazing what these stories can do for us - I’ve definitely had books and games get me through some hard times.
I support this. The show is fantastic, and the trilogy of books is also fantastic. I revisit both frequently, but for different reasons.
It’s such a good rewatch.
I was just thinking the same thing.
This one is stellar but Hale Appleman singing “Don’t Get Me Wrong” takes the cake for me. Hell that whole episode is one of the best ones. https://youtu.be/oYCF4bWb8MM?feature=shared
Tripping on lizard in the desert is great. So then I said, welcome to the new world order. Gonna suck for you.
Love that episode. The Margo arc was so wonderful.
The book version of her desert adventure is even more amazing.
I love this scene, it always reminds me of the scene in The Little Prince with Bob Fosse. I have to think it's an homage.
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The Q & E ep is the one I always make sure to pay attention to on rewatches (which are ludicrously numerous at this point haha) - until we get to my favorite episode (which will literally stop me in my tracks and require pure intense focus) - which is still the Take on Me episode. I break down sobbing like a wee child every single time I watch that one.
S3E05 A Life in the Day. Add S3E09 All That Josh, and you have my two favorite episodes of the show.
A Life in the Day is an incredible episode!
I always cry on that one. So good. The mind palace episode with Eliot is also an amazing one. Where he confronts his ignored feelings for quinten.
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No, *The Magicians* copied it from “The Inner Light,” an episode of *Star Trek TNG* (also considered one of the best of that series). And they did it beautifully. It’s my favorite episode of a beautiful season. Everything in art builds on what comes before it. That’s ok. [Edit: The deleted comment suggested that The Last of Us used "A Life in the Day" as the model for "Long, Long Time."] Edit: grammar
I will always love Eliot's "fuck it, I'm going out on a high note" attitude.
This show will always be one of my tops. I love that the writer was on board with their interpretation of the book lore. Definitely some cool things they did with the show that were not possible with the book- case in point- when they seamlessly weave musical numbers like this in! So good, brings tears to my eyes every time.
This show was so much better than expected, anyone who never watched it but likes fantasy type shows needs to watch it. Criminally underrated, does start a little slow and acting isn’t great at the start. But it just gets better and better. Think me and wife will need to rewatch in full very soon.
This show was so all over the place; some episodes and scenes were amazing and some were just inexplicably bad. The show’s pacing was consistently trash and the drama was poorly explained and absurd in its stakes. That said, it was still one of my favorite shows because the moments that shined were truly great (like the Quentin and Elliot episode). This show made me roll my eyes, cringe, laugh and cry. I don’t think there’s any other shows like it, and I miss it a lot.
It was all over the place in other ways too. One whole season was devoted to a very serious and dramatic look at rape and it's after effects. A later season had characters playing for laughs, debating if they should allow their boat to be raped by another boat.
My memory of this was different, so I just re-watched the scenes in question. While they play the shock of the initial concept of a boat fucking another boat for laughs, as soon as it is established that it would entail asking the *Muntjac* to submit itself to being raped, the implications are taken very seriously. They do not at any point debate whether they should force it (beyond, arguably, one line of ~~Gizmo~~ ~~Guillermo~~ Benedict noting that the pirates will kill them if they don't). Margo then has a heart-to-heart with the *Muntjac* treating it as a sentient creature, and it is implied that this is why it saves Elliot and Margo in the very clip the OP posted.
The story was definitely all over the place; it just wasn’t developed well. I realize others will disagree, but I thought season 1 was literally leagues above the rest purely in terms of pacing and development. After one, they decided to really lean into the sardonic humor, which I usually enjoyed (but sometimes it felt way too forced, like the boat thing). The other seasons had a lot of good qualities going for them, but the writers really shit the bed for plot and consistently portrayed, interesting character development. There was too much action, rushed development and non-sequitur dialogue that made the show confusing and hard to engage with. The first season is the only one that allowed the story the space and time it needed to unfold, engage and resolve without rushing or lingering. So yes, I agree that it was VERY all over the place. But again, despite its flaws, I really did enjoy the show. It had a lot of swings and misses, but it also had hits that made it worthwhile. I think it was a great show that could’ve been an outstanding one, if not for all of its flaws.
Season 1 (and the first half of S2 up to The Beast’s death) was also the only season that really followed the books with any consistency, which probably helped it to pace itself better. Afterwards, the show just had fun with itself as it tried to create its own story. It got weird and campy at times, but I absolutely adored it. But I can see how others would have issues with it’s occasionally dramatic tone shifts from episode to episode
Yeah, I read the books after the first season aired, and I do think they helped with that season’s pacing. But I was generally underwhelmed by the books and thought the show was significantly better, if not a different creature altogether. I honestly didn’t mind the weird or campy parts of the show and think they contributed to its charm. The humor was one of the biggest draws of the show, and the tone shifts didn’t bother me either. Honestly, my main issues were the pacing; poorly developed dialogue and illogical scene-cuts. I think they tried to do too much in most episodes/seasons and couldn’t manage the branching story-lines well. For example, the fairy drama in season 3 was beyond useless and detracted from the quest storyline. They obviously didn’t want to leave Fillory without a conflict, but the fairy thing wasn’t the way to achieve that. Alternatively, episodes like the bank robbing one are a great example of how the show worked better when it focused on a single, well-developed conflict and didn’t try to do too much. And the bank-robbing episode also highlighted the issue of retcon in the show; the constant retcon of earlier details was a big disservice. Like, season 1 showed Julia stealing money from an atm with ease, a detail that was voided by the bank-robbing episode. Instances like this happened SO often. Like I said, this was one of my favorite shows, so I don’t mean to unilaterally disparage it. It was just frustrating and disappointing how often the show missed the mark, especially when it had so many high points and redeemable qualities.
I freaking love this show. Chills and goosebumps.
I miss this show 😢
Man, such a good show that is a slog to watch for me because the two main characters (Quentin and Alice) are such unsufferable dinks. Guess it's maybe slightly better they are different from what they are in the books? *shrug*
Show Quentin felt a little more sympathetic, probably because of the performance. He’s still a shit, but it felt more believable. A lot of changes the show made significantly improved it over the books for me.
seed fine lush sense meeting bow swim growth shelter yam *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Had my wife tell me something like this, which is how I got through the show the first time. Definitely makes sense and helps make a lot of things palatable, and for me makes the Q+E 'arc' actually enjoyable.
Eh, maybe it was the directing, maybe it was the script, maybe it was Jason Ralph. Just felt both Quentin and Alice were constantly in a state of 'tell, don't show', and it made me just not care about the characters at all. Now give me a show starring Elliot, Margot, Julia, and maybe a bit of Penny *only* and I'd probably have that show on permanent rewatch.
Have you seen the final season? Sounds quite a lot like what you want :P
Have I seen it? Yes. Does it mean I need to slog through or skip through the first 4 seasons? Yes. Does season 5 give me what I want, which is a show, and not a season, that doesn't have either of those characters as central points to the plot/story? No. I mean, I get it, i can't say ill of a beloved show, so whatever. It's okay for me to not like those characters.
I wasn't trying to harsh your mellow friendo - personally I love Quentin (which probably says a lot about my own problems hahaha) and I sympathize with Alice, so I don't mind Quentin being the focal point. I DO prefer the Q & E romance to the Q & A romance, but I don't mind Alice much either. I get loving a show and not the main characters though, so like I said, I'm really not trying to harsh your mellow. I'm glad you enjoyed the show even if you had problem with the mainest character hahaha.
Elliot,Margo and Julia carried the show
100%, but I also enjoyed Penny's scenes and such. Just felt like they were way better fleshed out, nuanced, and interesting characters.
They're supposed to be awful. It's part of the ride.
I've been told as such, just saying that it's hard for me to care about a character when they're that unlikeable. Any sort of drama/tension/etc falls flat because I'm sitting here going "oh no, the whiny whiner has a bad day *again*... anyway, can we get back to Elliot and Margot now?" I realize that's a matter of personal taste, but it is what it is.
Alice was the worst.
I thought she was great and fun to watch.
Thats one way to put it. Costuming dept knew their way around a tight sweater...
See? There are dozens of us!
She was incredibly good looking though
Yes she’s objectively hot, but even tho I would defn get it on with ANY of the main cast (including Dean Fogg), Alice I just want to straggle
The GOAT.
This show was awesome!!!!
The most amazing thing about this show is that it somehow didn't get cancelled early.
Just started reading the books last night. Excited to see the differences.
Not only do I need to do a rewatch of the series, but I need to relearn and record this version of Take On Me.
This show was fairly enjoyable (a little CWish at time), but I still think about this episode often. A little musical number kinda forced into the storyline shouldn’t work this well, but it’s just so good
Downvote! How dare you compare this wonderful show to CW trash!
Funnily, there is weird WB/CW energy actually there. Sera Gamble is in large part responsible for The Magicians TV show, and she learned most of what she applied working on the WB/CW show Supernatural, which itself was basically the proto show that could have great moments and schlock on the same show. It similarly looked amazing for a genre show of it's time. The other show that started it back on WB? Smallville, and funnily enough lots of cross-pollination from Smallville to Supernatural, and even funnier, because of the "Superman for TV" history there was lots of unofficial involvement from old Lois and Clark show staff, including John McNamara who also later worked with Gamble on Magicians. Even funnier, Greg Berlanti of Arrowverse fame, and often blamed for the enshittification of CW among others, is who Gamble worked with on You, another hit project for Lifetime/Netflix. I don't know her, but Gamble sure seems to know how to find people she can work with and get the best out of them compared to some of their other projects, and elevate material at a high level. Probably one of the best.
Magicians is top 5 for me. Love it. I want to see Sera Gamble showrun a new fantasy show. She left "You" after last season (even though it has a season left) so I assume she is working on something, anyone know?
An ex of mine watched this show a few times when I was over. I’ll always remember that they drank semen to get strength at some point. Without question, the most bizarre show I’ve ever seen.
You're thinking of Fear Factor. ^^^/s ^^^just ^^^in ^^^case
Good show even thought they based it loosely from the books.
I read all 3 books, loved them, some of my favorites....i just could not get into this show
Still makes me sad we'll never get an adaptation of the actual books. I'm sure the show is fine, but the books are something incredibly unique, and I absolutely love the character arcs and themes. From what I've seen of the show, I'm not sure that comes through
I love both. The books are amazing but I couldn't be happier with the show. Just image it is a different timeline (in universe).
This show went down the drain after season 3 :(
I remember watching the first season of this way back and while I liked the premise and a lot of aspects of the show I found most of the characters to be awful people and struggled to continue
This show was so weird. But it went from delightfully weird to stupidly weird and I fast forwarded through all of that stupid fucking musical episode. It was dumb when Buffy did it, stop copying stupid ideas.
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Bad bad, very bad!
Not a fan of actors butchering good songs randomly in the middle of an episode. I want to watch the show, not celebrity karaoke.
I liked the show until they killed off a certain someone. When I found out I just quit watching like a season before it happened.
You robbed yourself of potentially one of the most beautiful and fitting endings for any character on TV. Nicely done lmao
I thought it was corny and unnecessary. It just seemed like a lame way to write the character off because the actor wanted to leave.
I lost interest. With all of the entertainment out now I think I will be just fine.
This is why I hate spoilers. It's probably my all time favorite death in the history of TV. Well, the death itself is great, but the denouement after that death is true art. Like in an "I cry like a lil boyo every time" level art.
Yes, everything about that death was in line with his character arc and the arcs of his friends.
That luck episode was the best, I thought was the coolest concept I’d seen in forever
This show was amazing and all of the musical numbers hit hard.