The Magicians: Magic Is Addictive

Hogwarts, eat your heart out!

               Think of Harry Potter and Narnia all grown up but more emo and dark. Still hurting from the Dominion cancelation but I'm really looking forward to this show. Based on the best selling novels "The Magicians" by Lev Grossman, the series centers around Brakebills University, a secret school located in up state New York, specializing in magic. Even the production value is fantastic! In our world it's grey and drab while at Brakebills there's a flood of color, rosy and full of life enforcing the contrast on how our characters view the 2 worlds. 

Safe inside a book

           I already like Quentin Coldwater. He's a character I can relate to. In reviews I've read so far (and from watching the Pilot) I see that Quentin is not only trying to leave his childhood behind but he's also a kid who doesn't fit in anywhere. In the beginning we see Quentin talking to a psychiatrist, taking antidepressants, sitting alone at the party then just going to his room to escape it all and read a book he cherished in grade school. Quentin doesn't feel like he belongs so he's awkward and shy not wanting to rock the boat or any attention at all. Even his best friend, Julia seems to be leaving him behind, telling him to grow up until they both get invited to Brakebills University to see if they have potential in the art of magic. Quentin gets in but Julia is rejected. 

Magic is a drug & Julia's hopelessly addicted

         Interesting characters with unique personalities. Julia is an interesting case. I consider her the "Susan" (from C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia) of the cast, someone in a hurry to grow up, focused, a know-at-all but she's a perfectionist so she's very shaken when she finds she's rejected from a school of magic. She neglects her friends and wallows in misery. She even cut herself so the forgetting spell wouldn't work. That's pretty extreme! Magic is her drug and she's in withdrawal making her open to dark unsavory influences. There was that scary moment in the club bathroom where she's half naked tied to a radiator then jumps up and sparks literally start flying. Julia gets accepted into a sort of street school of magic.

Try this magical cocktail. Now where's that eye of newt...

         Quentin quickly makes new friends with the chill Eliot Waugh and feisty Margo Hanson who show him the ropes of Brakebills. But appearances may be deceiving, they could become Quentin's adversaries later on as the mystery of the school unfolds. And unfortunately Quentin may have made a few bad first impressions with his intense room mate William "Penny" Adiyodi who can read people's thoughts (though it's sometimes more of a burden). Then there's the A-Student magician legacy Alice Quinn who's bold and serious (unnerving Quentin quickly) about finding out what happened to her brother at Brakebills who died there mysteriously. I know it's too early but I'm shipping Quentin and Alice. They just seem cute together and look like they would get along very well once they penetrate each other's hard shells. 

Don't you hate magical scars?

          All the while Quentin is having visions foretelling doom. With a Hermione as your spirit guide who speaks in riddles it's hard to see what's coming. Quentin struggles with listening to his premonitions that tell him to dig deeper into Brakebills secrets while trying not to get kicked out of the only place he feels like he belongs. At the end of the Pilot some scary monster (known as The Beast) wearing a suit, who's face is obscured by many moths freezes time and starts killing professors then he turns his hungry eyes to Quentin. 

The magic's inside you...

         I'm anxious to see what happens next and how the series does next year. Quentin's already a favorite for me. He's the embodiment of every shy, antisocial in the world where there doesn't seem to be a place we quite fit in but we know there's something inside us that sets us apart from the rest. A power that we pour into art and creativity and there's nothing more creative or more of an art than magic.

The belly of the Beast... is where someone is going to end up