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| My cup overfloweth with the Absynthe. Demons be damned! |
The first two episodes of The Magicians were an
entertaining, well-paced introduction to the world of Lev Grossman's
novels. It gave us just enough
background on Quentin Coldwater (Jason Ralph) and Julia Wicker (Stella Maeve),
and their two very different paths into the world of magic. After these fairly eventful first two
episodes--particularly the event in the first episode that will now forever
link Quentin and his talented classmate Alice (Olivia Taylor Dudley)--the third
episode does slow things down a bit while still staying remarkably faithful to
the books.
Episode three focuses primarily on Alice as she begins to
investigate a tragic but pivotal event in her magical life, eventually crossing
the line into an obsession that Quentin can only see as dangerous. Meanwhile, Julia's own obsession with the
mysterious magical world that she's become entwined with becomes an addiction
that threatens to not only collide with her personal life, but consume it. As world-shattering events go the episode is
pretty light, though it does prominently feature some important storylines from
the books.
One of the key differences so far between the books and the
series is the timeline. In the first Magicians
book Julia is a relatively minor character.
It's really not until The Magician's Land, the second novel in
the trilogy, that we learn much about what she was doing while Quentin was at
Brakebills. Though her story is told in
flashbacks in The Magician's Land, the series tells her story
concurrently with Quentin's. From a
purist's standpoint this may seem a bit like messing with the larger narrative,
but as the series is concerned this is a smart move. This opens the world of magic up to viewers
who may be unfamiliar with the books, and instead of taking the easy way out
and zeroing in on Quentin's trials and tribulations, it creates a richer, more
interesting narrative.
Readers of the novels know that the best is yet to come, and
nearly a quarter of the way through the first season it's unclear just how far
into the first book the series will get before its first hiatus. But the story is unfolding nicely and at a
fantastic pace. It will be particularly
interesting to see how the series handles another primary character, Penny,
having already revealed a major plot point about him that comes much later in
the first book. Hopefully this, like
Julia's story, will prove to be the best decision for the series overall. But as it stands The Magicians is off
to a great start, and Syfy looks to continue its streak of top notch original
programming.
-Mike Stec