MovieChat Forums > The Magicians (2015) Discussion > Bad writing, bad coherence, bad pacing, ...

Bad writing, bad coherence, bad pacing, no good characters.

posted 9 years ago by entropicchaos
9 replies | jump to latest

I have to complain, need to vent. I just finished ep.11, and it ended with an ad to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Sort of funny, because this show is so *beep* that it have probably lead to suicides before the first season finished.

I wonder if the books are better? Are they more coherent? This shows just jumps everywhere, and even though I have watched every episode, it feels like I've missed half the episodes. Does anyone get what I mean by this?

Things aren't very well explained. Peoples motivations aren't explained very well. The silly hand-sign-language they use to do magic isn't explained. All, and I mean absolutely all, the characters are unsympathetic bitches. And not like GoT where even the *beep* are interesting. These characters are not interesting, and there's not much character development either. Even the really climatic stuff (no, not talking about all the silly sex-scenes) seems anti-climatic. Perhaps except for the first encounter with "the beast".

I have the feeling that this show is a really poor transition from the books, unless the books are equally bad.

Still, I'm gonna watch the two last episodes, hoping that they will be better.

[–] laballatician 9 years ago

The books are better.

[–] warren-87235 8 years ago

We've just finished episode 12, and to be honest, so far we've really enjoyed the show (though not perfect) but felt it just lost it with the last couple of episodes. Especially what episode 11 and 12 did with the characters. It's just made them utterly unsympathetic idiots.

In short,

Quentin - Gone from being a semi-reasonable geeky/nerdy/insecure character finding himself, into an idiot who effectively cheats on his girlfriend just from being drunk (yes, I know they had the whole 'emotional' magic issues, but character-wise it's no different). So I just have no sympathy or care for him now.

Margo - Completely disposable character. Don't care one way or the other (haven't from the beginning)

Elliot - Started as fun light-relief, but has just become such an a-hole that you just want the bad guys to kill, so you don't have to watch yet another scene of "Oh, I'm feeling so sorry for myself! I'll get drunk, do drugs and do something stupid."

Alice - Probably still the most likeable character, but sleeping with Penny felt completely out of character, given her personal issues because of her parents. It just felt like an excuse to turn the last two episodes into "Everyone's sleeping with everyone" stupidity (see Julia and Richard below).

Penny - Never liked the character initially. He's improved, but still not great. It's not a good sign if you're indifferent to whether a character lives or dies.

Julia - Oddly enough, from starting out as the most annoying and unsympathetic character, has become the best / most interesting.

What annoys me, is that in the last couple of episodes it's gone from good to just everyone sleeping with everyone else for the sake of out-of-character added 'drama' that's just stupid. Case in point, Julia suddenly sleeping with Richard as well for absolutely no reason with no build up. Presumably the script writers were told "You can't leave any main characters not having sex this week".

It's a shame, because it's been a good series, I felt, up till now. Also, from a straight forward story perspective, we've had all of this back and forth for the last few episodes, trying to find a way to Fillery, which is now suddenly rendered pointless, because they could've just done the time travel thing that Quentin and Julia are now doing. Yes, yes, I know they didn't know about that as a possibility till now, but it still renders all of that previous effort a bit pointless and eye-rolling.

[–] Al_and_Smithy 8 years ago

"even though I have watched every episode, it feels like I've missed half the episodes. Does anyone get what I mean by this?"

Perfect comment. I was wondering if it was just me. I am up to like ep 11, and have almost no idea what the show is about, except young adults (?) are finding out they know magic, or are learning same. They could be talking like Charlie Brown's parents and I think it would make the same amount of sense.

I've made it this far, I guess I will finish the whole season.

[–] jjsocrates 8 years ago

They took a pretty good book and absolutely butchered it by dumbing it down and sexing it up. Any complex plot points and complex character development was removed - in order to dumb it down for a younger (and dumber) audience.

[–] a_crow_quilled_threnody 8 years ago

I'm binge watching it on Netflix. Something about the show is incredibly off, and I think you summed it up. There's a couple episodes that just start in the middle of nowhere it seems. It seemed like Quentin stopped talking to Julia after the first episode for no reason. Didn't make sense since they were best friends.

The pacing is really weird. It feels like nothing exciting happens most the time except a lot of talking, but it mostly seems like pointless filler. I think the show needs a bigger budget so they can add some more exciting scenes.

[–] Etaoin03 8 years ago

This shows just jumps everywhere, and even though I have watched every episode, it feels like I've missed half the episodes. Does anyone get what I mean by this?

This is the absolute best way to put it.

I think the first season really could've used a few extra episodes to flush out some of the storylines. For example, Penny gets the tattoo that keeps his body grounded, and then in the next episode, he cuts into it to so that he can travel again. Just like that. The writers didn't even let it sink in or give the decision any weight.

And later, Penny brags about being trained by the Russian guy. When? Because I didn't see it happen.

The first season covered too long of a span of time and didn't give the audience of any good way of gauging it.

[–] Mr_fizzlepop 8 years ago

And later, Penny brags about being trained by the Russian guy. When? Because I didn't see it happen.

The scene starts on Professor Mayakovsky pouring absinthe over a cube of sugar and then Penny popping into the room. Penny even teleports into a volcano and comes back.

How long did that scene have to go on for it to sink in that he was being trained?

I suppose they could have had dialog like "Picture someplace you've been before in your mind." Penny does this and then opens his eyes. "Again, and focus on how it feels when you think about the place, whether it's the place, what happened when you were there, etc." "Again", etc, Then he removes the Tattoo. "Now, again, picture someplace you've been." Poof he's gone, and then he's back. "Now, focus on that feeling and how it's different from when you thought of a place but had the tattoo."

"Oh, and I'd go easy on the drugs and alcohol till you've got it down when you aren't f'd up."

Personally, I didn't need that dialog, but I hope that helps.

If You're Failing to Plan,
You're Planning to Fail.

[–] Ms_Q 8 years ago

The books are far and away better. The story is linear and coherent, and takes time to develop. Everything that isn't explained in this series is explained in the books. They've cut out all of the "boring" details about magic and replaced them with sex, sex, and more sex. And smoking.

That means they've also cut out the character development, as well as the snark.

Someone mentions the hand movements. What's lost here is that, in the books, hand movements and positions are part of creating magic. It's something like fingering in playing a musical instrument -- the proper fingering creates a smoother, more complex, more professional sound. It's possible to play the instrument with awkward fingering, but it won't be as polished or accurate.

[–] 8 years ago

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