The Magicians: All That Hard, Glossy Armor Show Only

March 27, 2019 7:10 PM - Season 4, Episode 10

Margo hits her step count.

Den of Geek - The annual musical installment of The Magicians loses its way a bit but delivers some powerful character moments for Margo.

TV Fanatic review - "I would like to submit The Magicians Season 4 Episode 10 as evidence that pop anthems from the 80s cure a multitude of ills."

posted by oh yeah! (11 comments total)

This felt like the least naturally-occurring musical of the Magicians' musical episodes, but it was nice to see hallucination-Eliot and his eyeliner shimmying around, and I burst out laughing at the appearance of singing-hallucination-Dean-Fogg.
posted by oh yeah! at 8:04 PM on March 27, 2019 [3 favorites]

All I want is for Margo to be KING OF THE WORLD
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 4:03 AM on March 28, 2019 [3 favorites]

I enjoyed Elliot being himself again, but "Don't Get Me Wrong" went on a bit too long.
posted by Karmakaze at 8:00 AM on March 28, 2019

that was fun! I loved when Kady showed up just to show off her chops
posted by numaner at 10:02 AM on March 28, 2019

You mean Margo's sense of insecurity?
posted by Karmakaze at 10:05 AM on March 28, 2019 [3 favorites]

I dunno, this was a bit of a side-track, but I enjoyed it. They all looked as if they were having fun, especially with Dean Fogg's turning out to have a pretty good singing voice. I have a sort of vision of him (or his actor) saying "come on guys, I can sing too, let me have a go".

And Margo is, as ever, a Goddess. We need a new prime minister, is she perhaps free?*

*Brexit shoehorn award of the day.
posted by Fuchsoid at 9:34 PM on March 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

I am one to usually turn my nose up at musical episodes, but this one was awesome.
Goofy and pointless at times, yes. But so good.
posted by Seamus at 6:48 PM on March 29, 2019

I love the swagger that Hale and Jade bring to their musical numbers. Four octave range indeed. And while our time in the sand was side-track, it was another major step forward for Margo.
posted by Ber at 7:18 AM on March 30, 2019 [1 favorite]

This gels really well with the metanarrative episode about how everyone matters

1) misperceptions, and miscategorizing people; the red spirits, obviously, but also Margo's Hallucination People are clearly Margo's version of them

for that matter, Elliot's self-image in his Happy Place is way more clean cut than he was for seasons 2 and 3

2) narratives shaping reality; 2a) all of Margo's progress came from listening and being open to a changing narrative

3) everyone is connected to something and no one is the singular center of the world.

Like, there's episodes that are like an homage to that character, that's their episode, and they're at the center, and their actor gets to show off and do deep character work and be the center of the world for a week. Actors love that shit. And Margo is the most self-centered and go-it-alone character in the show. And in her own episode, centered on her, Elliot is the one being a diva.

Hale Appleman has also been really prominent in some promotion material and I wonder if it's because, by the numbers, he's the most popular, or if maybe it's just making up for the lack of Elliot.
posted by Rainbo Vagrant at 9:17 PM on April 2, 2019 [2 favorites]

This was a fun episode to pick up from, now the season’s on Netflix!
posted by Pronoiac at 11:17 PM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]

I guess they couldn't get the rights to any songs from Jesus Christ Superstar? Because my partner tells me that the visuals and choreography for the songs here, especially the first one with Eliot, were pretty obviously riffing on the 1973 movie version.
posted by tobascodagama at 2:51 PM on January 4, 2020 [1 favorite]