S01.E03: Consequences Of Advanced Spellcasting

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Alice risks everything to find out the truth behind her brother's disappearance; Quentin and Julia have an unexpected and volatile reunion.

[blugirlami21]

What a frustrating episode. Everyone was on my last damn nerve.

Shut up Jules, I agreed with everything Quentin said. I'm not going to feel sorry for you because you failed at something for the first time ever. Your woe is me attitude and depressed demeanor makes you even more annoying.

I never thought I would witness books going at it.

And shut up Alice. Your first spell almost killed the dean. Your second spell almost killed two other people. Your "brother" didn't seem confused about what he was doing either time and yet you want to keep trying spells. I wish that Quentin had let her get killed if that's what she wanted. Ungrateful wench, bye Felicia.

Penny is starting to grow on me. I'm excited to see him develop his powers.

[benteen]

What an unbearable nutjob Alice is.  She’s a dangerous fool in every way.

 

Julia AKA Not Chloe Bennett isn’t exactly much better with her “me me me!” rant at Quentin at Shitty Hogwarts.

 

I liked parts of this episode and will watch again but I hope for an upswing soon.

Edited February 2, 2016 by benteen

[kat165]

The books going at it was hilarious.

 

It wasn't the characters that drove me crazy this ep, it was all
the damn commercials. Five minutes or less of show, 6 min of
commercials. It was annoying and frustrating. Just as I was getting
interested in a scene they broke off to sell crap.

[wayne67]

I'm interested in the mythos but the characters are boring me with their headlong rush to suicidal uses of magic over and over again.

Edited February 2, 2016 by wayne67

[GaT]

Is it just me, or does anyone else have trouble understanding what people are saying? There is way too much mumbling going on. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

For the most part I can understand what everyone is saying, but Quentin's stuttering drives me crazy. I know that people stutter in real life, but I hate seeing an actor fake a stutter.

 

While part of me thinks that Quentin is a hypocrite for not supporting Julia's pursuit of magic (because he was clearly upset about the prospect of losing magic when he was about to be expelled), for the most part I agree that Julia is being really stubborn about this because she is just not used to failing at anything. Before they were tested at Shitty Hogwarts (TM Benteen), she seemed to have no interest in it at all and was telling Quentin to grow up and let go of the fantasy that magic could be real, so it seems hypocritical of her to now tell him that it's part of who she is and blah blah blah.

 

Ha, I totally loved the two books humping though. I was surprised that Julia and the other hedge witches just let Quentin and Eliot walk out with the books without any sort of fight. I like Eliot, but I hate his snotty attitude about being a classically trained magician from Shitty Hogwarts.

 

Every time I see and hear Alice, all I can think is Poor Man's Reese Witherspoon circa Election with a touch of Britta Perry's self-righteousness. She is totally in denial. She didn't even try to help Quentin when Charlie (or whatever it was that looked like Charlie) was trying to kill him. But even before that, when she told Quentin that she wanted to try doing the spell again, Quentin pointed out that someone almost died the last time and she didn't even blink. Obviously other human lives mean nothing compared to Charlie.

 

I don't understand why Quentin has to wait an entire year for the sorting hat to figure out which house he belongs to. Can't they try again in a week? A month? Anything less than a year?

 

I totally loved how annoyed Penny was at being put in a house with a bunch of hippies. I also loved when he barged up to Quentin and told him to learn how to close his mind because he didn't want to hear him singing Taylor Swift songs.

 

It wasn't the characters that drove me crazy this ep, it was all
the damn commercials. Five minutes or less of show, 6 min of
commercials. It was annoying and frustrating. Just as I was getting
interested in a scene they broke off to sell crap.

In the show's defense, this episode was 42 minutes long which is pretty standard for an hourlong drama, so there weren't more commercials for this episode than there are for other hour long shows.

[patchwork]

I find the hedge witches and Jules the more interesting storyline, Hogwarts The College Edition just isn't working for me, but despite that I still think that neither Jules nor Quentin were completely in the wrong or right. 

 

Quetin gets to be the special one and win something that the girl who wins everything (and dared to ignore his crush on her) doesn't and Jules is jealous as hell that he gets to learn magic in the fancy school that turned her HER! down and she now has to learn in back rooms while lying to her boyfriend. They've been in each other's lives for a long time but there doesn't seem to be a friendship there to save. 

 

And Alice is just annoying, I know better than to hope she's not coming back but I really wish she wouldn't. 

[Trisan]

Yeah, Alice is batshit crazy and delusional as hell, but I really enjoy the character, she really cracks me up quite often. Something in the way the actress portrays her perhaps, or intrigued to see in what directions she will evolve.

[racked]

It seems like I'm in the minority in really liking Julia and feeling for her. Maybe it's just the actress who I find very compelling (and reminds me a lot of Troian Bessario from Pretty Little Liars). They didn't give us that much of her backstory but there was a time she was as into Fillory as Quentin, she just forced herself to let it go in order to function in the world she's in. It must be awful to know all of that is real and not get to be part of it. It's not like she was even told "hey magic is real!" before her test. Quentin was given that info because he was transported from NYC to upstate through a garden and got to meet and talk to Eliot before his test. Anyway I like her and the secret magic club. So far they seem better at the whole not dying thing than kids at Shitty Hogwarts. And Quentin was once again the shittiest friend ever this episode. Sorry she didn't return your feelings Nice Guy, but from what we saw she was a caring friend.

Is there a reason they dress Alice like a Spice Girl? The teeny short skirts and clunky 90's heels, she looks ridiculous.

[Lemur]

This is where I think the pacing of the show is starting to bite it in the ass.  There is so little backstory on the characters that's actual story and not just observation that it's beginning to make motives look weak or selfish or stupid.  

 

And Quentin was once again the shittiest friend ever this episode. Sorry she didn't return your feelings Nice Guy, but from what we saw she was a caring friend.

 

I think, again, you have to look to the books for this,

as it's explained that early on she, James and Quentin are the uber-smart nerdy kids who have been continually tossed together in speaking competitions and math competitions since they were in the third grade.  They've been friends kind of by default since then.  Plus, Quentin has always had a horrible, terrible crush on Jules.  The fact that he not only can't have her because she's with James but also, he's far more socially inept than both she and James plays a big part into his flat-out rejection of her pleas to help her learn magic.  Also, there's a bit of protectiveness there, in that he's already seen The Beast eat the Dean's hands and tear his eyes out as well as kill another professor.

 

Is there a reason they dress Alice like a Spice Girl? The teeny short skirts and clunky 90's heels, she looks ridiculous.

 

I was thinking Cher Horowitz, but the clothes are far too bland.  

 

Every time I see and hear Alice, all I can think is Poor Man's Reese Witherspoon circa Election with a touch of Britta Perry's self-righteousness. She is totally in denial. She didn't even try to help Quentin when Charlie (or whatever it was that looked like Charlie) was trying to kill him. But even before that, when she told Quentin that she wanted to try doing the spell again, Quentin pointed out that someone almost died the last time and she didn't even blink. Obviously other human lives mean nothing compared to Charlie.

 

Again, I think lack of exposition is hurting Alice too.  And I really also dislike how she's almost sociopathic in her pursuit of bringing her brother back.  Also, points for the Britta references.  Alice is always Britta-ing shit.

 

I don't understand why Quentin has to wait an entire year for the sorting hat to figure out which house he belongs to. Can't they try again in a week? A month? Anything less than a year?

 

More poorly explained book stuff.  

It's only done once a year and it's a highly involved process.  It serves very little practical purpose (apparently other than housing).

 

That said, I'm continually surprised that the character I like the most is Penny.  His transition from page to screen was the one I'd found most troublesome, but I think they're actually doing quite well with him.  That, and the actor is very good.

Edited February 8, 2016 by GenL
book spoilers

[Terrafamilia]

Julia, unless you were withdrawing money from your own account at the ATM, you're not special, you're just a common criminal.

[Primetimer]

While pretentiousness and Taylor Swift tear them apart again.

Read the story

[Lion]

Episode three is usually the magical episode where one figures out whether or not they like a show.  I still feel undecided.  I start to get drawn in and then become distracted by silly things.  Last week it was Quentin's changing hair lengths.  This week it's all the smoking and partying.  Who smokes these days?  Even if it's true to the character in the book, there really is no reason that tv should be showing so much smoking, especially if it's not a depiction of obviously terribly people, such as the biker gangster in Sons of Anarchy.  And the drinking/partying.  Aren't these supposed to be grad students?  I might expect that sort of drunken stumbling partying with characters meant to be undergrads, but it's hard to accept these characters as a certain age when they are acting like children.  Plus, it's just distracting.  

[iMonrey]

There's something a bit "off" about this show and I can't quite put my finger on it. For one thing it feels vaguely foreign, even though most of the actors seem to be American or Canadian. But maybe the bigger problem is that is that it seems kind of unfocused - almost as if it was a much longer show that got edited down into a shorter story. I feel like I'm missing big chunks of backstory and character beats. If it turned out that each episode was originally 2 hours long and were all edited down to 42 minutes it wouldn't surprise me in the least.

 

There really doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the school and how it functions, it feels like an arbitrary mish-mash of elements plagiarized from Harry Potter and other similar works. It's easier to grasp what the hedge witches are doing but Pete and Marina are sort of cartoonishly sinister and it makes Julia look like a dope.

 

So, The Beast tore out the Dean's eyes and set them down on one of the student's desks - did the doctors put them back into his eye sockets or did he get new eyes that still can't see?

[benteen]

Sometimes I think the smoking is there for the sake of it.  Hey look, we're edgy!  I remember another Syfy show, Battlestar Galactica, where despite having food and water shortages, the fleet had a seemingly unlimited supply of booze, cigarettes and pills.  It felt like a crush for the dramatic, angsty moments.

 

Although the smoking on BSG is due to the fact that the showrunner Ron Moore was a smoker and wanted to show it in as many scenes as possible.

 

I really liked the first episode although the second and third one kind of sapped my enthusiasm already.  I do want to give this another week or so though.  I've grown to like The Expanse, also on Syfy, and that took several episodes to get going.

 

Having not read the books, I still agree that backstory on the characters is getting lost.  What little we see of Quentin and Julia before they go to Not Hogwarts, Quentin seems never to have outgrown magic while Julia is telling him to grow up.  Now all of a sudden she's wanted to do magic all of her life and tells Quentin that it was given to him, despite the fact that he's the one who never gave up the whole magic though.

 

I've said this before but the actress playing Julia reminds me so much of Chloe Bennett from Agents of Shield in terms of book look and voice that it's distracting the crap out of me.

 

 

There's something a bit "off" about this show and I can't quite put my finger on it. For one thing it feels vaguely foreign, even though most of the actors seem to be American or Canadian.

 

Yes!  A couple of these characters feel like they're struggling to contain a European accent in New York.

Edited February 2, 2016 by benteen

[zxy556575]

I'm interested in the mythos but the characters are boring me with their headlong rush to suicidal uses of magic over and over again.

 

I want to give Alice a hearty kick in the shins. She's hell-bent (perhaps literally) on doing her thing no matter who gets hurt, killed, or expelled. Wouldn't the faculty include a couple of psychics who would have figured her out by now, or at least be keeping a close eye on her and Quentin after their first round of disobedience/transgressions? Annoying all around.

 

Quentin's willingness to unthinkingly accept Eliot's gossipy disdain of the hedge witches reflects poorly on him. But then, he is a follower and a doofus.

[peppergal]

So, The Beast tore out the Dean's eyes and set them down on one of the student's desks - did the doctors put them back into his eye sockets or did he get new eyes that still can't see?

They looked like fake eyes to me.  Probably intended to be painted glass, but they looked almost wooden to me. 

[Linderhill]

I'm just happy that Ric Worthy survived and is back.

[iMonrey]

 

Quentin's willingness to unthinkingly accept Eliot's gossipy disdain of the hedge witches reflects poorly on him. But then, he is a follower and a doofus.

 

I also don't get why if this book was so important it's left lying around unguarded in what is essentially a frat house run by party animals.

[smlait]

And the drinking/partying.  Aren't these supposed to be grad students?  I might expect that sort of drunken stumbling partying with characters meant to be undergrads, but it's hard to accept these characters as a certain age when they are acting like children.  Plus, it's just distracting.  

When I was in grad school, there were plenty who drank and partied on Friday/Saturday nights.  And that included grad students in their late twenties/early thirties.

[Lemur]

When I was in grad school, there were plenty who drank and partied on Friday/Saturday nights.  And that included grad students in their late twenties/early thirties.

 

I did some of my best/worst debauchery after my undergrad days.  Usually in a corporate setting, but yeah.

 

They looked like fake eyes to me.  Probably intended to be painted glass, but they looked almost wooden to me. 

 

They're *magic* fake eyes.  Consider the Dean was trying on a bunch of different glasses when Alice came in to determine her discipline.

[mjc570]

 

Jason Ralph puts in a particularly effective performance as the jilted loser who can't help dangling his privilege and magical know-how over the girl who didn’t "appreciate" him -

 

But did he ever tell Jules how he felt?  I got the impression that, because of his social awkwardness, he did not  That makes him a total passive-aggressive a*hole if he's punishing her for something he didn't communicate.  He also is just jealous of her past success, which was due to her own hard work.  He seems to be enjoying her "failure."  I realize part of that is due to his unquestioning acceptance of Eliot's characterization of the hedge witches, which goes to show his a*holeness yet some more.  You've known Julia your entire life, Q, but you can't accept this aspect of her?  Be supportive, as she always was to you (yes, she wanted you to grow up and forget the Fillory stuff, but that is good advice from a person who doesn't know that magic is "real"). 

 

I didn't read the book(s), so maybe I'm missing stuff here, but Quentin is just awful to me.  Not just how he treated Julia (who wasn't spoon fed the existence of magic as he was - so I can totally understand why she didn't realize how important it is to her), but how he takes over from Alice.  He seems to think he knows best for everyone.  Why is everyone treating him as such a special snowflake, when he's the one really can only do party tricks?  

 

Alice - another source of annoyance, maybe because her character makes no sense to me.  She's so desperate to find out about her brother, but can't even wait 10 minutes by the pool to see what happens?  Before engaging in obviously dangerous spells, maybe talk to someone who was at the school when her brother was?  That didn't even occur to her.  Also, just because I think the character is poorly written (show-wise), what's with her ridiculous outfits?  She wears those unflattering glasses, clutches her books to her chest and keeps her eyes on the ground - but she wears those impractical, short skirts? 

 

I think the acting is fine, but the writing is just awful  I don't know if that is due to the source material or what, but I'm pretty close to giving up.  That's a shame, because this is exactly the kind of show I normally like.

[Lion]

When I was in grad school, there were plenty who drank and partied on Friday/Saturday nights.  And that included grad students in their late twenties/early thirties.

I've heard this from a co worker today.  I must have chosen the perfect program for me because we definitely weren't partying  and drinking in grad school.  There was one person who did in my program, and he was pretty well shunned due to showing up intoxicated all the time.  

[wayne67]

I didn't read the book(s), so maybe I'm missing stuff here, but Quentin is just awful to me.  Not just how he treated Julia (who wasn't spoon fed the existence of magic as he was - so I can totally understand why she didn't realize how important it is to her), but how he takes over from Alice.  He seems to think he knows best for everyone.  Why is everyone treating him as such a special snowflake, when he's the one really can only do party tricks?  

 

So you think Quentin should have left Alice to give a body to a homicidal unknown spirit with the face of Charlie who had tried to choke him to death instead of interfering so he could be more politically correct ? With the risk of her unleashing more death on the school and or killing herself in the process. 

 

Other than the specialist who said his dreams meant that he was capable of more I don't think anyone has said he was particularly special in any way. Penny is annoyed at him for not closing his mind enough. Elliot mocks him for not getting through the door fast enough. Magic teacher can't figure out what his specialty leaving him a nothing mancer and he's already been put on academic probation for unathorised spellcasting.

 

He performed supposedly advanced battle magic after seeing it performed once. He's capable of more than party tricks. It's just that he hasn't performed anything noteworthy lately.

 

As for Julia who is either robbing ATMs or just showing off with magic in the most dangerous way ever. Does she forget there are cameras built into ATMs ? 

 

I think he was more annoyed at Julia giving him a hard time for not using his total non influence to get her another testing. Which is fair enough since he's already on thin ice at that school and she has no basis for thinking she'll do better the second time around other than her ego. She has no idea what the testing criteria is for this school. Nor do we. 

 

Penny on the other hand got told he was a super rare traveler. Which sounds far more interesting than everyone else combined. 

 

ETA remove apostrophes from atms

Edited February 2, 2016 by wayne67

[slf]

I don't like how Julia's essentially held accountable for not childishly believing in magic in her late twenties despite having no reason to believe it exists. Quentin himself said in the first episode that he learned magic tricks to keep up with her, that she was the one that introduced him to Fillory, and that her decision to set it aside only happened when she became involved with James. God forbid a woman decide to grow up. And despite the other characters like Eliot not having believed in magic before their powers manifested they aren't punished for it.

I prefer Julia and the hedge witches to Brakebills and Quentin. Quentin is passive as hell, he just accepts whatever someone tells him and only puts up an argument if someone might die. He's kind of a whiny loser and I'm sure he's going to be the Harry Potter of this world, god knows why, and I don't believe people like Margo and Eliot would ever really have an interest in him. Neither would someone like Julia. Ultimately the hedge witches seem to be better at this than the Brakebills kids- they seem to have more control and are less reckless (even if some of them are assholes).

Of course, I was spoiled last night about what happens to Julia so needless to say she's the character I'm most interested in.

I'm sad they cut out her depression and stint in the mental institution and instead gave those things to Quentin. I thought that was an interesting way of showing the fallout from the Brakebills professor violating her mind with the memory wipe. They kind of skirted over that, like that was a perfectly normal and acceptable thing to do to someone.

Alice grates a lot. Her recklessness, her ego; she's like Tracy Flick crossed with Hermione Granger but with virtually no redeemable qualities.

As much as I enjoy Eliot, he and Margo are such cliches. I need them to be given more to do.

Edited February 8, 2016 by GenL
book spoilers

[Jael]

I've forced myself to accept that everyone is just way hotter than they are in the books because that's TV, but I just can't with the way they dress Alice. Just as slutty as Margo/Janet only sometimes with glasses and the occasional Peter Pan collar. I had to laugh when she awkwardly minced away on her chunky heels after she almost died failing to cast a spell when fighting her brother's spirit/niffin, which I doubt was the reaction they were going for.

Though it's still better than Penny's girlfriend (does she have a name?) who seems to own multiple colors of a top that covers the backs of her knees but exposes her navel.

[wayne67]

I don't like how Julia's essentially held accountable for not childishly believing in magic in her late twenties despite having no reason to believe it exists. Quentin himself said in the first episode that he learned magic tricks to keep up with her, that she was the one that introduced him to Fillory, and that her decision to set it aside only happened when she became involved with James. God forbid a woman decide to grow up. And despite the other characters like Eliot not having believed in magic before their powers manifested they aren't punished for it.

I prefer Julia and the hedge witches to Brakebills and Quentin. Quentin is passive as hell, he just accepts whatever someone tells him and only puts up an argument if someone might die. He's kind of a whiny loser and I'm sure he's going to be the Harry Potter of this world, god knows why, and I don't believe people like Margo and Eliot would ever really have an interest in him. Neither would someone like Julia. Ultimately the hedge witches seem to be better at this than the Brakebills kids- they seem to have more control and are less reckless (even if some of them are assholes).

 

Julia's been held accountable for her actions in dismissing Quentin's belief in magic and fillory which happened to be real. Quentin may have benefited from that belief during the exam or he may not. The tv show hasn't made it clear as to why Julia failed other than she failed. She could have failed because her natural aptitude was lower than every other applicant. 

 

Elliot displayed magic at 14... Alice was a legacy. Penny heard voices from early on and Quentin apparently sometimes manifested magic without really knowing if it was a side effect of his mental issues. 

 

Julia didn't display magic until after the test. She may be a late bloomer but she wanted a second chance at something that noone else has seemed to get expecting it as her due. 

 

As for the hedge witches. The only thing we've really seen them do is possess a corpse... Which is sort of impressive I guess. 

Brakebills has summoning, animated crystal horses, battle magic and classes. 

 

I'd say Julia using magic in the muggle world in front of ATM cameras is probably more reckless than the others risking their lives on stupid spells in private at Brakebills. 

 

Hedgewitches may get better one on one attention though... Or at least Julia seems to be getting special treatment from the New York branch leader. 

 

Also Julia for apparently being pissy about not getting into brakebills hasn't asked a single question about what it's like there. It might have added more depth to her character if she found out about the Beast that was sniffing around Quentin. She's not being a particularly good friend to him. She's not supportive of his new life, she just wants to shoehorn in there. 

Edited February 3, 2016 by wayne67

[grandemocha]

Just finished the 3rd episode. I am in for the season, I really liked last night's episode even though some of the characters were frustrating.

 

First off, I really see no use for Katie/Kady. She feels shoehorned into the Brakebills and she's incredibly annoying. I feel like Penny has enough going for him as a character and when she's in scenes with him, she doesn't really bring anything to the table. I read other posters saying she's not a book character so maybe that explains why her character is kind of pointless? She's probably going to be important later since she's being blackmailed by the top hedge witch, but for now she just bores me.

The actress playing Julia is beautiful and doing a good job, but does she look incredibly tired to anybody else? Is it specific makeup to give her that tired look (which would make sense seeing as how she's currently living a double life) or something else? It was pretty damn stupid of her to use magic to rip off an ATM right in public, and I get the feeling things are going to get worse for her unfortunately. I don't see James sticking around for too much longer.

I couldn't believe it, but I actually liked Quentin last night. He kept trying to take some sense into Alice, tried to save her, got his ass thrown back and injured while trying to help Alice with the niffin. But then again, I can sort of understand Alice's grief and her lashing out at everyone who potentially wants to help her. Her parents seem to be absent, emotionally and in every way that matters, and so she feels incredibly alone.

 

I'm so glad that Dean Fogg is okay and still around! The staff at Brakebills are all characters/actors that I want to stick around. Elliot was still fun this week, I like his character! What's the deal with Margot though? I'm hoping there's something more to her than just shallow party girl who likes to gossip and loves fashion. I feel like Julia's group of hedge witches won't make it past Season 1 though, almost like they're going to get in over their heads with magic, summon something dangerous and then some of them will be killed.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I feel like Julia's group of hedge witches won't make it past Season 1 though, almost like they're going to get in over their heads with magic, summon something dangerous and then some of them will be killed.

Heh, like a moth man who comes through a mirror and steals someone's eyes? I wonder is Katie was trained by the hedge witches first and then sent to Brakebills or if the hedge witches targeted her as someone they could turn to their side after she was already admitted.

 

So Quentin, Penny, and all the new kids were staying in dorms until they were sorted into their houses? It seems like a waste for those dorms to be empty most of the year. Or does the school magic them into something else until they get another class of students?

 

The actress playing Julia is beautiful and doing a good job, but does she look incredibly tired to anybody else? Is it specific makeup to give her that tired look (which would make sense seeing as how she's currently living a double life) or something else?

For me, it's that she always seems to have her eyelids at half mast more than anything else (and when she does that, unfortunately she kind of reminds me of Katie Cassidy who I can't stand on Arrow).

 

Lemur, I appreciate the additional book information you've given us, but it only reinforces my belief that the writers are doing a terrible job. When every scene needs an asterisk and a note that says "see book for explanation," they are not doing their jobs well enough. What makes this even more disappointing is that Lifetime was able to make 90 minute movies out of VC Andrews books (which are batshit crazy and sometimes cover a huge amount of time, like Petals in the Wind) and non-book readers were able to get 90% of why people were doing things. The Magicians was given the luxury of being made into a series (rather than a 2 hour movie) and they are still leaving out so many things that it just makes all the characters look like jerks. And not all of the things that have been brought up here need ten minutes devoted to it. For example, the history between Julia and Quentin that was explained above could have been mentioned in ONE SENTENCE either during the first episode when she was urging him to sell his Fillory books or in this episode during their fight. You shouldn't have to read the books to understand the characters on a tv show.

[slf]

Why should she be held accountable for thinking a grown man in his late twenties should probably stop reading children's books all the time and working himself up so much he has to check himself into the local nut hut? Quentin displayed no magical ability before going to Brakebills. He didn't think it existed either, he just wanted to pretend. And he pretended so much even he thought he was going insane and was being medicated. Quentin's only objection to Julia no longer pursuing magic tricks was that it was, according to him, "their thing"; not "Julia, magic is real, why would you abandon it" it was "I learned tricks to keep up with you, why'd you stop, oh yeah: boyfriend." There was no belief on his part, there was longing. Desire. He was as shocked as anyone when it turned out he could actually do magic. (His first instinct was to do a standard "is this your card" trick.)

Julia was a very supportive friend. But she saw her friend slipping, admitting himself to a psych ward, having to be medicated because he was obsessed with Narnia. She wanted him to let go and learn to embrace his life. Why does she have to be held accountable for that like she did something wrong? Especially when Quentin's made it clear in his own nice guy way that a huge part of his attitude toward her is because she didn't pick him. If she'd dated him instead of James I don't think he'd be this way with her, even if she still turned her back on magic tricks. (Magic tricks, not magic.)

Julia is a perfectionist (one of her strengths but also one of her flaws), so it doesn't surprise me that she's mad about not getting into Brakebills without even knowing what really goes on there. If she did I doubt she'd want to go (the approach isn't her style). For the audition for Eliot they had the actors say a line about Julia, that she didn't even really want Brakebills she just didn't want to fail to get into Brakebills.

I'm not sure how she's supposed to be supportive of his life when he didn't even communicate with her after getting in. She can't just call him there or pop over. James said in the first ep, I think, that Quentin hadn't called or come by once (since getting in), didn't seem to remember it was her birthday, and didn't seem particularly bothered by the shell she had become or the fact that she'd had her mind wiped (which I'd see as a huge violation). He just liked having something she didn't. From the beginning of the first episode we saw Julia encourage and try to include him. Waving him over to join the conversation, finding him when he secluded himself and talking to him/encouraging him to go for the unicorn girl, walking him to his interview, giving him a pep talk. For once, instead of being the one trying to keep up, being the one feeling left out, he's the chosen one. And he's repeatedly lorded that over her head, which is very different from "you're so devoted to Hogwarts you had to be hospitalized and I'm worried." Frankly, given his attitude, I wouldn't want to be very supportive.

As far as Julia's ability and the hedge witches...it's frustrating because I know how this is going to go but the show isn't there yet so I can't talk about it.

[Terrafamilia]

Though it's still better than Penny's girlfriend (does she have a name?) who seems to own multiple colors of a top that covers the backs of her knees but exposes her navel.

Speaking of Penny, does he even own a proper shirt?

[wayne67]

Julia was a very supportive friend. But she saw her friend slipping, admitting himself to a psych ward, having to be medicated because he was obsessed with Narnia. She wanted him to let go and learn to embrace his life. Why does she have to be held accountable for that like she did something wrong? Especially when Quentin's made it clear in his own nice guy way that a huge part of his attitude toward her is because she didn't pick him. If she'd dated him instead of James I don't think he'd be this way with her, even if she still turned her back on magic tricks. (Magic tricks, not magic.)

Julia is a perfectionist (one of her strengths but also one of her flaws), so it doesn't surprise me that she's mad about not getting into Brakebills without even knowing what really goes on there. If she did I doubt she'd want to go (the approach isn't her style). For the audition for Eliot they had the actors say a line about Julia, that she didn't even really want Brakebills she just didn't want to fail to get into Brakebills.

I'm not sure how she's supposed to be supportive of his life when he didn't even communicate with her after getting in. She can't just call him there or pop over. James said in the first ep, I think, that Quentin hadn't called or come by once (since getting in), didn't seem to remember it was her birthday, and didn't seem particularly bothered by the shell she had become or the fact that she'd had her mind wiped (which I'd see as a huge violation). He just liked having something she didn't. From the beginning of the first episode we saw Julia encourage and try to include him. Waving him over to join the conversation, finding him when he secluded himself and talking to him/encouraging him to go for the unicorn girl, walking him to his interview, giving him a pep talk. For once, instead of being the one trying to keep up, being the one feeling left out, he's the chosen one. And he's repeatedly lorded that over her head, which is very different from "you're so devoted to Hogwarts you had to be hospitalized and I'm worried." Frankly, given his attitude, I wouldn't want to be very supportive.

 

Well that sounds like she was acting like his girlfriend or mother. Nagging him into being something she expected him to be instead of just letting him be like a friend or being there when he needed to talk or nudging him into coming out of his shell. She was basically trying to bully him into behaving the way she wanted him to be. 

 

Julia has never asked how he's coping in the new school or dealing with the new pressures even though she knew he went to a mental institute before finding out magic was real any of the times they've interacted since the test. He's been concerned about the way she was behaving at her birthday and by hanging out with the dubious hedge witches. Who she and we know nothing about.

 

Not that I have any idea what the Brakebills end goal is, other than to hone magicians for unspecified reasons. 

 

I guess you've read the books and formed an opinion based on their characterisations there. I'm seeing this for the first time and so far both Quentin and Julia come off as whiney. At least Quentin has chronic social problems to account for his oddity. Julia seems to have no motivations to risk her life and love life to pursue magic other than cause "it's in me".

 

I'm far more interested in the secondary characters. Except Penny's 'friend'. I still can't remember her name. 

[grandemocha]

 

I'm far more interested in the secondary characters. Except Penny's 'friend'. I still can't remember her name.

Katie or Kady.

[wayne67]

Katie or Kady.

 

Was she the 4th in their summoning spell ? What's her major ? specialty? Did she say ? 

 

She's left basically no impression in my brain. 

[slf]

Yeah, we're just going to have to agree to disagree because Quentin, imo, is such a weak protagonist and doesn't really deserve the friends he has.

When it comes to Julia I do think they made a mistake in speeding up her progression into magic and with the hedge witches. In the books

it took a while for that to happen, she suffered mentally from the mind wipe, she journeyed all over the place, etc. She pursued it. Some guy didn't corner her in the bathroom and basically invite her into his club. But they've kept her personality and her perspective (both of which were influenced and informed by that pursuit) so she has all this angst about learning magic that doesn't fit with the pacing.

Quentin and Alice still don't have chemistry so it makes their scenes a little weird to me, but his friendship with Eliot is really lovely (despite making zero sense to me from Eliot's side).

Edited February 8, 2016 by GenL
book spoiler

[wayne67]

Quentin and Alice still don't have chemistry so it makes their scenes a little weird to me, but his friendship with Eliot is really lovely (despite making zero sense to me from Eliot's side).

 

I didn't get the impression they needed to have chemistry. I thought she just needed him for whatever spell she was casting because she needed to share the load of the spell or whatever. I really hope they don't go romance angle with them. They're both wet blankets. 

 

As for Elliot's interest in Quentin I just assumed he liked the cute new boy that would come to him for advice so he could feel smarter in comparison. Also he was assigned to look after him so I just guessed he felt some residual responsibility to show him around/ keep him from making him look bad. 

[grandemocha]

 

 

Was she the 4th in their summoning spell ? What's her major ? specialty? Did she say ?

She's left basically no impression in my brain.

I think she was 4th in their summoning spell..otherwise she was just tagging along with Penny and yet again had no purpose. Her specialty is with the physical kids, right? Near the end of the episode she had a scene where she gets into the cottage and Q and Elliot are there talking. That's my problem too, she brings nothing unique and we don't know much about her, which leads to people not caring.

 

 

Quentin and Alice still don't have chemistry so it makes their scenes a little weird to me, but his friendship with Eliot is really lovely (despite making zero sense to me from Eliot's side).

Yeah, I'm kind of having this same problem too. I don't see any real sparks between Quentin and Alice currently and that concerns me. Right now Alice is just 120% focused on what happened to Charlie and Quentin is adjusting to his new life and making friends, but I don't feel anything romantic between them currently. It's fairly easy to deduce that she's supposed to be his love interest since there's too much bad blood with Julia and there's really no other options, so I'm wondering if the romance angle is just gradually being introduced or if it's going to be rushed near the end of the season. How many episodes are in Season 1 anyway?

[slf]

13 episodes.

 

It's fairly easy to deduce that she's supposed to be his love interest since there's too much bad blood with Julia and there's really no other options, so I'm wondering if the romance angle is just gradually being introduced or if it's going to be rushed near the end of the season.

 

Yeah, it feels right now like it's going to be a rush job. Because there has to be a romance and they've been pairing those two from the beginning. Perhaps they'll go a different route, which would be different and much appreciated, but I'm not holding out any hope.

Edited February 3, 2016 by slf

[WildPlum]

I don't think Quentin and Alice have romantic chemistry but I also don't think they have to. They are the ultimate in non-cool kids sticking together mainly for that reason. I actually LIKED Quentin this episode, for all of his "confused follower" thing, he actually had the initiative to grab the box and take it with him. That's more thinking than I have seen from him anywhere else in the episodes and I chose to interpret it as character growth, just as his "researching" Alice's problem to try and help her is.

 

What their arc in the books is, I neither know nor care.

 

As far as the hedge witches, I am not sure that any of them, except their leader, is actually all that powerful, but I think Julia is, which is why she is getting the 1-on-1 instruction (and so very helpful the cut-to-exposition scenes with the dean explaining why magic is dangerous). 

 

The Julia and Quentin confrontation is what I'd expect from two people (particularly Quentin) not used to verbalizing things and lashing out because he/she is hurt and wants to inflict that hurt back. Quentin, Julia and Alice all seem about 15 years old to me, based on how they act.

Edited February 3, 2016 by WildPlum

[slf]

The Julia and Quentin confrontation is what I'd expect from two people (particularly Quentin) not used to verbalizing things and lashing out because he/she is hurt and wants to inflict that hurt back. Quentin, Julia and Alice all seem about 15 years old to me, based on how they act.

 

Yeah, see they kept a lot of the interactions from the books, a lot of the fighting, but they aged the characters by ten years. It's jarring at times.

 

As far as the hedge witches, I am not sure that any of them, except their leader, is actually all that powerful, but I think Julia is, which is why she is getting the 1-on-1 instruction (and so very helpful the cut-to-exposition scenes with the dean explaining why magic is dangerous).

 

That would explain why she was pursued and then singled out. Also why the show is also tracking her progress. Though I'm not sure how wild I am about the magic=drug thing because it's bringing up unfortunate memories of Willow's descent into gothdom.

[grandemocha]

 

Yeah, it feels right now like it's going to be a rush job. Because there has to be a romance and they've been pairing those two from the beginning. Perhaps they'll go a different route, which would be different and much appreciated, but I'm not holding out any hope.

Just 13 episodes? Darn! I don't know, I am still holding out hope that an episode or two from now Alice and Quentin will have a bit more chemistry together which would help me root for them. I admittedly have only read the first book and I know we're supposed to enjoy the show without having to have read the books, but I think Quentin matures throughout the series and maybe a big part of that could come from letting go of any residual feelings toward Julia, any petty jealousy or bitterness that she didn't pick him or whatever, and doing something selfless. I liked what the woman from the last episode told him, that he wasn't a genius, wasn't particularly remarkable and it didn't make much sense that The Beast came to him. I understand Quentin is supposed to be depressed (I think?) but I also think he needed to hear someone say that to him.

 

 

I actually LIKED Quentin this episode, for all of his "confused follower" thing, he actually had the initiative to grab the box and take it with him.

Yeah, me too. I mean Alice's emotions were clouding her judgment (understandably so) but Quentin realized that it was going bad very quickly and used the box.

 

 

Yeah, see they kept a lot of the interactions from the books, a lot of the fighting, but they aged the characters by ten years. It's jarring at times.

Are you sure it's supposed to be 10 years? In the books, weren't they 18-19 at the beginning? That would make the characters 29-30 right now..I thought they were supposed to be the age of graduate school students, like 23-25.

Edited February 3, 2016 by grandemocha

[xaxat]

I'm so glad Penny isn't just a psychic and has a rare (and very cool) capability. I would have had the same "Oh hell no!" reaction on entering the psychic kids house.

[wayne67]

Yeah, see they kept a lot of the interactions from the books, a lot of the fighting, but they aged the characters by ten years. It's jarring at times.

 

Well ageing up the characters a decade from the book to the tv would explain why the characters act like immature teenagers. How old are they supposed to be in this tv show ? episode ? early 20's ? Probably why I dislike most of the characters. I kept expecting them to be less aggravating and reckless. 

[slf]

I liked what the woman from the last episode told him, that he wasn't a genius, wasn't particularly remarkable and it didn't make much sense that The Beast came to him. I understand Quentin is supposed to be depressed (I think?) but I also think he needed to hear someone say that to him.

 

I liked that scene, too, because Quentin has such a boyish outlook on magic and what his role might be. I know everyone at some point wants to believe they have a special destiny that involves magic and otherworldly realms, but most people grow out of that, grow up. Quentin still has that and he's living in a world where magic is real and can be devastating. 

 

Are you sure it's supposed to be 10 years? In the books, weren't they 18-19 at the beginning? That would make the characters 29-30 right now..I thought they were supposed to be the age of graduate school students, like 23-25.

 

You're right, I was wrong, Quentin was 17 at the start of the series and in the show he's mid 20s. So they aged him about 7-8 years.

 

How old are they supposed to be in this tv show ? episode ? early 20's ? Probably why I dislike most of the characters. I kept expecting them to be less aggravating and reckless.

 

Mid 20s for Quentin and Julia. Eliot and a few of the others are supposed to be older, I think. So they kept the experimenting, etc., that teenagers who've just learned magic is real would naturally do but assigned it to mid-to-late twentysomethings. 

Edited February 3, 2016 by slf

[kat165]

I didn't notice last wk with the first 2 eps, but this week since
I have more of a handle on what's going than I did last wk I found
Pete distractingly familiar. Finally figured out what it was: he
played Nick Lane in Fringe. Nick was one of my favorite reoccuring
characters and it's great to see him again (David Call) & looking
much healthier than he did in Fringe.

 

I haven't read (or heard of until now) the books either. And we're
getting very little backstory at all. Without getting much background
info on the characters all the scenes just seem to be mix-mashed
together with no reference point.

 

I too was surprised the Hedge witches did nothing about Quentin and
Elliot taking the book. Did we even find out which one of them
took it? We're getting mostly a bunch of scenes with nothing holding
them together or connecting them. They seems like they could be shown
in almost any order.

 

I really liked the traveler aspect of Penny's magic. And I love
that Anne Dudek (sp?) is in this. I loved her since she haunted
House.

[ZoqFotPik]

 

As for Julia who is either robbing ATMs or just showing off with magic in the most dangerous way ever. Does she forget there are cameras built into ATMs ?

I'm going to guess if there is a spell that can make an ATM spit out money, there is a spell that will disable the camera.

 

 

Though it's still better than Penny's girlfriend (does she have a name?) who seems to own multiple colors of a top that covers the backs of her knees but exposes her navel.

 

Was she the 4th in their summoning spell ? What's her major ? specialty? Did she say ?

Her name, at least according to Wikipedia, is Kady. Yes she was the fourth in the summoning spell and based on her breaking down the door when Quentin and Eliot are drinking wine after his confrontation with Julia, she is a 'Physical Kid'. I'm assuming that title made more sense with the younger characters in the books.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

[Lemur]

Lemur, I appreciate the additional book information you've given us, but it only reinforces my belief that the writers are doing a terrible job. When every scene needs an asterisk and a note that says "see book for explanation," they are not doing their jobs well enough. What makes this even more disappointing is that Lifetime was able to make 90 minute movies out of VC Andrews books (which are batshit crazy and sometimes cover a huge amount of time, like Petals in the Wind) and non-book readers were able to get 90% of why people were doing things. The Magicians was given the luxury of being made into a series (rather than a 2 hour movie) and they are still leaving out so many things that it just makes all the characters look like jerks. And not all of the things that have been brought up here need ten minutes devoted to it. For example, the history between Julia and Quentin that was explained above could have been mentioned in ONE SENTENCE either during the first episode when she was urging him to sell his Fillory books or in this episode during their fight. You shouldn't have to read the books to understand the characters on a tv show.

 

And I agree with you, I've found the adaption lacking because ideally, these are two separate entities.  

 

And that said, perhaps the intent *is* to make the characters look like jerks?  

Edited February 3, 2016 by Lemur

[grandemocha]

OT: I see some dissatisfaction with how the characters are being handled on The Magicians, and I'm just curious, has there been any book series to TV adaptation in the last 10-15 years that people were generally satisfied with and enjoyed? Wayward Pines was skewered, Vampire Diaries became a hot mess and those are the only two I can think of off the top of my head. Unless The Magicians takes a sharp turn into awful village and becomes horrible, I think (maybe?) they're doing an okay job so far? JMO though!