Combining books and show only threads for The Magicians Season 3?

December 24, 2017 3:15 PM

The show has deviated pretty dramatically from the books, to the point where I'm not sure we even need a Books Included thread. Season 3 may stick closer to the books but I'm not sure how? Would a Books Included thread for the entire season would be good? Then we could have a master thread to discuss everything that's different or similar (whatever that might be). Any opinions yay or nay?
posted by fiercekitten (4 comments total)

Co-signed for One Unified Thread Per Episode, because even if book-ish stuff comes up, it'll pretty much be an Easter egg for book-walkers. Even last season, it was a silly division for the most part. And if it seems like they'll somehow magically (hah!) re-track to the books, we can split the episodes at that part.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:19 PM on December 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

Seconding the OUTPE. I don't read the books but someone who does might help explaining the craziness. Most characters are still interesting so will be interesting to follow the developments.
posted by arzakh at 1:40 AM on December 28, 2017

Thirding (although I'm utterly indifferent to spoilers) having read the books the series is different and generally much better. Series writing wise, plot movement is important but they really should have one episode be a "let's go wild and have fun with magic", but close enough and hope the "philosophy" elements are minimize and the sailing maximized.
posted by sammyo at 1:58 PM on January 5, 2018

I'm probably in the minority but I vote we keep them separate. I generally find book discussions distracting, and it's even more so when the show have diverged so much, as many have said, from the books; if that is the case, show threads can just focus on the show and not be inundated by discussions of vast changes with the books. At this point the show's character motivations/backgrounds and plotting don't seem to get any benefits by knowing what the books say.

It's been a frequent issue of book readers saying so and so have been changed, and/or a thing is confusing compared with the book. Only later we all find out that the changes don't really have anything to do with the books anyway, and I feel bringing that up originally didn't add anything to discussing just the show.
posted by numaner at 10:04 AM on January 8, 2018