The Magicians: Homecoming   Books Included 
March 22, 2016 5:52 AM - Season 1, Episode 10 - Subscribe

Janet meets FTB. Penny needs a library card. Margo has feet of clay. Quentin & Alice listen to Red Hot Chili Peppers.
posted by leotrotsky (18 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Camel Toes, Margolem, Bechdel Test, "That was cool when it came out!"

This show is so fun.
posted by leotrotsky at 5:59 AM on March 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


Thanks for posting this, I haven't seen this episode yet.

Is this a Show Only or Books Included post?
posted by filthy light thief at 9:23 AM on March 22, 2016


I thought this was a fun one...and at first I was wondering what was up with the "content" warning at the beginning but yeah made sense in context.

I know I didn't miss an episode but the Free Trader Beowulf stuff seemed to just come out of nowhere. No mentions of the group or Julia being interested in it/them and then suddenly there they are. (I guess from what Quentin said Penny had been missing for 6 weeks from when we last saw them so I guess SOME time had past...still...)

Speaking of Penny in the netherlands was super fun. Given the librarians semi cryptic remarks about having seen/dealt with him before and the FTB people messing with time spells I am guessing time/time travel may be a major point sooner than later.
posted by Captain_Science at 9:39 AM on March 22, 2016 [2 favorites]


Is this a Show Only or Books Included post?

Crap. Call it Books Included, and I'll need to ask a mod.
posted by leotrotsky at 9:55 AM on March 22, 2016


Mod note: Added label, carry on
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 9:57 AM on March 22, 2016


I thought this was a great episode.

Oh, Quentin. Daenerys Alice and Slave Leia Julia, while dressed as Indiana Jones? I'm with Penny, I don't know whether to slap you or give you some sort of award.

I'm sure the whole summoning thing will go great and nothing bad will happen to anyone.
posted by Justinian at 11:08 AM on March 22, 2016 [10 favorites]


This show is so much better when it's not trying to cram multiple chapter spanning events from the book into single episodes. The last three episodes or so have been so much better. The cast is great. JULIA HAS THINGS TO DO THAT DON'T INVOLVE SKULKING DOWN DARK ALLEYWAYS.

And this episode had some genuinely funny moments.
posted by eyeballkid at 3:03 PM on March 22, 2016


So, is Santa Claus real or was the lady in the garden just messing with Penny? That's the answer I really want to know.

I enjoyed the episode and I swear this episode was supposed to have Alice making a comment about, "What did you expect, the Weasleys?" which has been heavily used in the show's promotion, but was completely absent.

It was interesting, too, as it's an episode that featured references to sex, but really used it simply as a context for trust and openness. In the Neitherlands, Penny faced the problems of who to trust, while in the real world it's all about trusting Quentin/Alice to speak honestly and directly. Even her parents found a solution to their problems by being honest and forthright. Lots of themes going on in this ep.
posted by Atreides at 3:04 PM on March 22, 2016 [2 favorites]


I appreciated that the Q/A sack dysfunction wasn't a simplistic reduction to "Quentin is so baaad in bed LOLOL" but more nuanced. Quentin needs to learn to be more attentive to his partner's needs and Alice needs to learn to be more open about what she wants. Like, I dunno, adults!

Although there were humorous bits to it I thought it was actually a better view of sex than you usually get on television.
posted by Justinian at 6:07 PM on March 22, 2016 [2 favorites]


I really don't like how easy it was to get to FTB. It kind of eliminates the feeling that these are cool, special, smart people when it's open access rather than puzzling to get in. You don't quite get why it's important at all.
posted by corb at 7:46 PM on March 22, 2016 [1 favorite]


Agreed - FTB were a self-selecting bunch, who bring in newbies with magical tests (somewhat in line with the books), instead of really complicated puzzles to keep the (non-magical) club exclusive. I get that it's a truncated and modified timeline in the show, but it was too sudden.

Richard could have mentioned the group in the last episode, something like "you should check out this forum - I know it sounds geeky, but they're a select bunch, and I think you'd fit in. They're all dealing with things, too, but are more sarcastic and skeptical than I am" and he smiles to show Julia that he knows he can be a bit too positive for Julia. We could see her log in and get sucked into their initial challenges without taking up too much time in the last episode.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:17 AM on March 23, 2016 [3 favorites]


Wow, looks like we're going to get to see the entire FTB plot thread from book 2. Makes me wonder how many seasons this show is going to have, seems like the three books would only support about two seasons total at this rate.
posted by A dead Quaker at 9:54 AM on March 24, 2016 [1 favorite]


Books 1 & 2 are at least partially contemporaneous, so that's why they're both in there. You need Julia to meet up with the Brakebills crew to become a queen of Fillory. But since they're double the story, they can afford to move slower, particularly with the fun asides that they seem to be throwing in. We have only gotten as far as the Neitherlands, and haven't even gotten to proper Fillory yet.
posted by leotrotsky at 10:29 AM on March 25, 2016 [1 favorite]


The sex stuff was so bad I just wish they had left it out. The cheap punchline about climaxing at the same time? The "no, like this" crap? Just so eyeroll inducing.

Though it may have all been worth it for "On my world, all magic is sex magic."
posted by 256 at 8:38 PM on March 25, 2016


Well, it surprised me. I had assumed the Free Trader Beowulf would be either expunged from the story or renamed in order to make sure that it didn't leave the show open to possible legal action from the Traveller roleplaying game people. I'm wondering if the SyFy secured permission to use the name, or if they just figured that it wasn't substantial enough to worry about.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 8:53 PM on March 26, 2016 [1 favorite]


seems like the three books would only support about two seasons total at this rate

It doesn't have to stop when the books do. The books created the world, but the show has a full staff of writers.

Much of what they've done with the book/worldbuilding material is rearrange it to play by the rules of television and the SAG rates and contracts so, for example, they're not paying "starring" money to Arjun Gupta to have a few lines every 3rd episode until the second season and otherwise sit in the background in classroom scenes (or risk losing him to another show by only guesting or day-playing him so he's not under the 7-year contract - a risk they can afford for maybe Dean Fogg's character but not Penny or Julia). So you have to run Julia's arc concurrent to keep her in, and you have to kind of make every B arc about Elliot and Margo if they're not in the A arc and they have to be in the A arc on the weeks that Julia is the B arc etc etc.

So the book material will be used to get everyone on their path, but Brakebills and Fillory and the Neitherlands and New York City are all extremely fleshable worlds, as needed, to move the story along with original material mixed with a lot of the little slice-of-life stuff from the books about those worlds.

Like all TV shows, they'll have to guess how much time they have to complete the character journeys from the original material, and if they win the seasons lottery they'll have to have already woven in jumping off points for original character journeys when those are depleted, which many shows have fucked up in the past. Luckily this is fantasy, so you have far fewer restrictions. Honestly, I think the hardest job going right now is timing Q's maturation into a slightly less punchable human being - rush it, and you end up with Cynically Realistic Quentin two episodes into S2, but draw it out too long or too contrary to the story and viewers will get sick of it.

The second hardest job, apparently, is putting Alice in some clothes that fucking fit.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:42 AM on March 28, 2016 [7 favorites]


Okay I'm sort of delighted that FTB looks exactly like Slack.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 5:01 PM on April 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


> Okay I'm sort of delighted that FTB looks exactly like Slack.

Yeah, that it's literally a Slack re-skin/theme was entertaining enough to get me past the "Wow, they're skipping a lot of the fun of the FTB stuff" thing that folks have been discussing upthread.
posted by jdherg at 1:17 AM on April 8, 2016 [1 favorite]


« Older Lucifer: A Priest Walks into a...   |  Podcast: Alice Isn't Dead: Par... Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments

poster