The Magicians: The Balls
March 26, 2020 10:14 AM - Season 5, Episode 12 - Subscribe

Margo sees a purse she hates. Alice writes a letter. We couldn't get Prince. [It's Heist Episode: The Musical!]

The Magicians Season 5 Episode 12 Review: The Balls -- The annual musical episode of The Magicians brings much of the show’s cast together to sing and obtain the world seed to save Fillory. (Michael Ahr for Den of Geek)
The Magicians should be applauded for its commitment to including a musical episode each season, and the fact that “The Balls” comes just before the end of the series makes this one particularly poignant. In that sense, centering the songs around emotions, bottled or otherwise, was an appropriate choice. However, combining the musical elements with a heist, another tried and true narrative in this show, may have had a diluting effect on both fan favorite formats rather than doubling the enhancement. Nevertheless, with the world seed in hand (or in… you know), the finale is bound to be legitimately world changing.
‘The Magicians’ Lays the Groundwork for the Series Finale With a Musical Heist Episode (Vanessa Armstrong for SlashFilm)
If you ever wanted to watch a musical version of an Oceans movies set in a hotel not unlike The Continental from John Wick: Chapter 2, then look no further than this episode of The Magicians. We start “The Balls” in the gang’s New York City apartment, where Marina walks everyone else through the intricate plan they must enact in order to steal the World Seed from The Couple’s stronghold in the Nave Hotel.

I won’t go into many of the delightful details of the heist here (suffice it to say it involves a knock-off purse with magical incubator properties, a bottle of Two-Buck Chuck, and overcoming golems who can sense microaggressions), except to note that the gang will all be able to communicate during their elaborate robbery through a Conductor Spell that Zelda knows.
List of songs on Tunefind.
posted by filthy light thief (3 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
that was so fun. I can't believe this show is almost over.

I forgot that santa is real. <3
posted by numaner at 10:35 AM on March 28, 2020 [1 favorite]


I'm on the fence as to who is the best singer of the cast. Jade Tailor (Kady) has got incredible range but Hale Appleman (Eliot) just has so much swagger. Olivia Taylor Dudly (Alice) is not far behind.

Oh, and damn that was so fun.
posted by Ber at 8:35 PM on March 28, 2020 [1 favorite]


This was so much fun <3 I loooved the link back to the emotion bottles, and how they were used in combination with musical magic as a reason for making it a musical episode. The empath golems were pretty perfect as antagonists. Brittany Curren did so well sliding between serious/subtle and over-the-top physical comedy here.

I loved seeing Alice and Eliot continue to take care of each other, and that Josh and Margo have reconciled. <3

I didn't actually realize that Sir Effingham and Rupert are both played by Sean Maguire until I heard him singing. He is a CHAMP for doing all that work in the pig costume.

I like that The Couple are just two cruel humans who want to have a baby, rather than ancient all-powerful monsters.

I'm sad there will be no more musical episodes. Or episodes at all ;_____; I'm going to re-watch this one before the finale.

I'm trying not to get my expectations too high for the finale to wrap up the show satisfactorily. There is a lot going on in this season and some of it has felt pretty disconnected to me since the middle of the season. (Whatever happened to Plum, OG Fogg, and Bax? Why are they always charging forward without much planning?) I think the thread about grief and reconciliation has been very strong this season, though.
posted by esker at 3:46 PM on April 1, 2020 [1 favorite]


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