Thoughts about things I saw: The Magicians

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I like The Magicians. At its best it’s a wonderful mix of fantastical and wacky and serious and dramatic. At worst its tone shifts are abrupt and jarring. I enjoy the characters and the magic and the incorporation of the fairytale not-Narnia that is both deconstructed and played completely straight.

One of my favorite, if not my absolute favorite, scenes of the show is the coronation of season 2 episode 1. As it happens, one of the ragtag group of magic college students is destined to be the high king of this fairytale land. For him to be recognized, however, he needs a crown, as do the three co-rulers he gets to pick. The crowning isn’t supposed to be an opulent affair, instead they travel to an old man by the ocean who guards the crowns.

Quentin, who is arguably the protagonist and who lives with depression, is the one to earnestly believe in the magical world and insists that they don’t just put the crowns on but crown each other. And it’s… it’s so very good. All these people are fucked-up and broken in their own ways and they made mistakes and treated each other badly. The coronation scene is so emotional because it is so genuine and earnest, full of true emotion and honest intentions.

Alas, the show never really delivers and the four of them never rule together. (Two of them do and it’s very good, but not what was promised by that scene.) The show makes a bit of a habit on not delivering on wonderful concepts and premises and it makes me sad because, damn, the potential is there, you just have to follow through.