The Magicians: The Girl Who Told Time   Show Only 
March 30, 2017 7:31 AM - Season 2, Episode 10 - Subscribe

The Royal Court of Fillory prepares for Eliot's nuptials as he endeavors to win over the Fillorians with the extravagant event. Penny begins his contractual obligations to the Neitherlands Library as Kady searches for any information about god killing. Quentin experiences a mind-bending vision while on a drug-laced trip that sends him and Julia on a mysterious quest.

“Those grapes died for nothing now.”

“There's this earth magician, Nate Silver, I adapted one of his polling spells.”

“Half the clickbate out there is encoded knowledge for Magicians.”
posted by filthy light thief (9 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
The (mostly throwaway) references to real-life people being magicians never cease to delight me.
posted by purpleclover at 3:57 PM on March 30, 2017 [3 favorites]


I thought this was the most poorly written, haphazard episode to date.
posted by dmd at 10:39 AM on March 31, 2017 [1 favorite]


A.V. Club agrees --
The particulars of whether or not that universe continues to exist in any real way are a little baffling—time travel and alternate universe travel tend to be the sorts of plotlines that don’t totally hold together once you think about them too carefully. Also, speaking of plot oddities, why in the world did the Dean not tell Julia about Alice’s shade research himself? We’ve now learned that they were quite close in the alternate realities where she got to go to Brakebills, so much so that he feels bound to release her in this one, but it doesn’t occur to him to mention that he knew someone who was obsessively researching the topic?

Moreover, what was the point of sending Quentin to Fillory only to send him off on a new quest? While this episode shows a nice sense of the show expanding its scope as it heads into the final stretch of the season, there are some odd workarounds to setting everyone on the right path.
But I also agree that overall, it has a lot of good potential. To be honest, being a SyFy show, I give it a hefty dose of slack, and my brain often turns off critical thoughts and enjoys the spectacle and pop references.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:26 PM on March 31, 2017


That there looks more like a sea-serpent than a regular dragon. Maybe we will get to see Quentin make his sea-voyage after all
posted by Fuchsoid at 6:27 PM on March 31, 2017


Fred Fluxion.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:54 PM on March 31, 2017 [6 favorites]


A mess of an episode but I love the set for the scene with Q and Alice.

To be honest, being a SyFy show, I give it a hefty dose of slack, and my brain often turns off critical thoughts and enjoys the spectacle and pop references.

Yeah, I'm a little tired of the ads SyFy runs with all the hyperbole. It's a decent show but it is not anywhere near the level of the series that comes on directly after it. Still, I have significant emotional investment in these characters and continue to be entertained. There is some emotional heft to this show, some gravitas that elevates it above the standard SyFy series. But it is not as great as the channel's hyperbole ads claim it is.
posted by Ber at 10:29 AM on April 1, 2017 [1 favorite]


That there looks more like a sea-serpent than a regular dragon.
I know this is the show-only thread, but: in Grossman's universe, dragons are all aquatic, and live in rivers.
posted by uberchet at 6:19 AM on April 3, 2017


Ber: It's a decent show but it is not anywhere near the level of the series that comes on directly after it.

Hmm, looks like I have some reading and watching to do - I've seen the FanFare posts for The Expanse, but the reviews for last season are very strong (Best Science-Fiction Show In A Decade, NPR; The Expanse is the best new science fiction series in years, Ars Technica; The Expanse Isn’t Just Awesome TV—It’s Transforming TV, Wired).
posted by filthy light thief at 7:07 AM on April 3, 2017


@ber: My understanding is that the folks who are James S. A. Corey are actively involved in the TV adaptation of their work, which means when The Expanse goes off-book, it's turning out to be more structurally sound.

That said, their books are also pretty straight-ahead plot-driven hard-SF space opera. Grossman's 2nd two volumes are way more internal, and way less driven by plot alone, than his first book, so I get why they're basically inventing threads now. They're just not very good at it.
posted by uberchet at 9:46 AM on April 3, 2017


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