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The Magicians - SyFy [SHOW SPOILERS ONLY]


RedEyedGhost

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The first trailer is out. I haven't read the books, mostly because Grossman always seemed to be a bit of a knob to me, but the trailer looks kind of fun. There wasn't any conflict in the trailer though, and that kind of worries me. Without spoiling too much can someone that's read the books say what the main conflict of book one is?

 

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The first trailer is out. I haven't read the books, mostly because Grossman always seemed to be a bit of a knob to me, but the trailer looks kind of fun. There wasn't any conflict in the trailer though, and that kind of worries me. Without spoiling too much can someone that's read the books say what the main conflict of book one is?

I read 2/3rds of the first one and gave up because I was so bored.

I am aware this is an unhelpful post.

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I read the first novel. I liked it at the time, but I was a few years away from university then, if I read it again I don't know if I would enjoy it as much as I did back then. I never checked the next installments out, because they weren't translated (I like to read all the books in a series in the same language, it annoys me to switch languages halfway through).



The general feel seems okay to me. I'm quite intrigued by that, but I'm already put off by the lead actor, so that's not a good sign. And it's on the syfy channel, so it will probably be bad. I might check out the first episode though, just for old times sake :)


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I think that looks so fucking cool. They've changed the slant of the books a little, it seems, though they are hiding a lot, but I'm hyped. And I didn't even know they were doing this until now.

Without spoiling too much can someone that's read the books say what the main conflict of book one is?

Not telling, because there's a reason it's not in the trailers, but rest assured there's plenty, both internal and interpersonal (I wonder if they'll make Quentin less of a dick for mainstream TV audience) and external. This is just a teaser, after all.

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I read 2/3rds of the first one and gave up because I was so bored.

I am aware this is an unhelpful post.

More helpful than you think, because I was pondering whether I should reconsider reading the books or not ;)

I'm already put off by the lead actor, so that's not a good sign. And it's on the syfy channel, so it will probably be bad.

Because 12 Monkeys was such horrible and utter dreck, and not the first wave of SyFy renewed effort at quality television?

Not telling, because there's a reason it's not in the trailers, but rest assured there's plenty, both internal and interpersonal (I wonder if they'll make Quentin less of a dick for mainstream TV audience) and external. This is just a teaser, after all.

I wondered if that was the case. Thanks!

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The books are brilliant. Though your enjoyment will be heavily affected by your tolerance for the fact that the main character is an utter, utter knob, to begin with at least.



SyFy are really going in hard on reclaiming their territory.

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Because 12 Monkeys was such horrible and utter dreck, and not the first wave of SyFy renewed effort at quality television?

I didn't watch it. Besides one example of kind of okay TV doesn't make up for their abysmall trackrecord of the last few years. Monkeys might have been a step in the right direction, but it's only one step, compared to a whole marathon of shit coming before. I hope they prove me wrong though, more quality TV is always a great thing to look forward to.

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I love the Magicians trilogy but most of what I love about it is not something that can be filmed. I'm never too excited about favorite books being made into films or movies and half the time I don't even watch them. I can't say whether or not I will watch this when it airs on tv...I'm already slightly bothered that they are filming in New Orleans instead of somewhere in New York state. But Grossman seems pretty excited about it and seems to be somewhat involved so perhaps I will. At a minimum I'll watch and read any interview he does about the tv series.

I do wonder if they are going to include the part from the second book that overlaps timeline wise with the first book. Based on one line in the trailer, it looks like they might at least include some of it.

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The trailer looks a bit too "magic school" for me but it seems a pretty good concept for finding an audience given it seems like exactly the kind of show 10 years older harry potter kids may be interested in.


They could also try "Is Strange & Norrel not kewl enough? Check out this"



It looks like syfy are at least trying and there's lots of links on how syfy are trying to reclaim the scifi of late so fingers crossed. I still need to watch 12 monkeys but things like "the expanse" show they are picking up interesting/varied ideas. I also think it's a good sign they are leaning towards adaptations of books - hopefully relatively faithful. It would make sense for them given GOT success.



I have to admit I have a level of Veltigar's gut feeling/bias regarding syfy though. Brand means a lot eg if this were a HBO, FX or Netflix show - I'd give it a go. If it were Showtime/Starz I'd be on the fence. If it's syfy I'm probably skipping unless it's an adaptation of something I like or gets good reviews.



Hopefully in a couple of year's time syfy will have reinvigorated their brand.


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Without spoiling too much can someone that's read the books say what the main conflict of book one is?

The first half is magic college. Harry Potter a few years later, without a dark lord but with drugs and sex and the ennui resulting from having godlike powers in a mostly mortal world. The second half is mostly deconstruction of Narnia (the whole series is really), with book 1 having a greater focus on The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. A white witch and Aslan variant and everything.

All that's not to say this series will be at all similar, but based on that trailer, I'll still check it out.

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I didn't watch it. Besides one example of kind of okay TV doesn't make up for their abysmall trackrecord of the last few years. Monkeys might have been a step in the right direction, but it's only one step, compared to a whole marathon of shit coming before. I hope they prove me wrong though, more quality TV is always a great thing to look forward to.

:lol: 12 Monkeys is fucking amazing. They have The Expanse coming up, and the trailer for Childhood's End looks pretty good. Next month's Dark Matter looks like it could be a lot better than the abysmal Defiance with which it appears to be paired. Helix was far from great, but it showed the tonal shift they were taking. Ascension also wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible by any means. Bitten and Continuum are both very good - they are more bridge shows, but they still show their effort to bring better programming to the network than what they had been producing on their own. They still have shit shows too, but you can't expect a television network to have a complete turnaround overnight. It's obvious the new regime has been taking many steps in the right direction, but 12 Monkeys was a giant fucking leap (and I imagine The Expanse will be just as good).

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Hm. The trailer doesn't really do much for me. Not really liking the actor playing Quentin--although maybe that's appropriate, since Quentin sucks. I'll probably watch, at least for a little while, but I don't think the trailer would draw me in if I hadn't read the books.


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  • 1 month later...

I loved the way magic was described in the first book, but some of the character stuff did get annoying.



I'd rather have them take the setting in a new direction, rather than just rehash the books.


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I read the first book and found it quite pretentious and not as cool as it thought it was. Had no interest in reading the other books. I may give the show a look in case they do something different with it in the adaptation and improve on the book A LOT.



ETA: watched both trailers. It looks angsty, wanky and predictable. Sadface.


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I hope not, Quentin's douchieness was pretty much my favorite aspect of the book

Quentin is a huge douche. It is known. My favorite parts of the books is when other characters call him on it. I think I liked this series so much because it kind of felt like my adolescent world (full of overachievers with issues) and the takedown we got in college and the real world. I don't know what that says about me.

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  • 5 months later...

Anybody else watch the "sneak peek" first episode last night?  I like it quite a bit.  I was a little surprised that

the headmaster (?) was apparently killed at the end.  Maybe he'll use magic to survive somehow.  Being a recognizable actor I would think that he would be a permanent cast member, but maybe, between this and

The Expanse, that's SyFy's new thing, hire recognizable people and kill them off on episode one.  I also like that Kady Julia is exploring magic through other avenues, and I think that has the potential to be more interesting than Quentin's story line.  Did the four summon that moth man, or did he hijack their summoning?  Is he Alice's brother?

All in all it looks like this will be a fun series.

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Anybody else watch the "sneak peek" first episode last night?  I like it quite a bit.  I was a little surprised that

Hidden Content

All in all it looks like this will be a fun series.

I watched half of it before I fell asleep but was enjoying it. I'll finish it tonight. Seems like it can be interesting.

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