7th Station ~TV, movies, games~

[Zunu]

I didn't want to say anything to spoil your enjoyment thus far, but yeah it was kind of surprising to me how much the loss of Quentin affected my interest in the show since he was far from my favorite character (Eliot fwiw). Predictably I couldn't finish past a few eps into S05, so I hope for your benefits it picks up. I'd still rank it an above average show, easily. Good TV fantasy is rare (and appreciated). Sticking the landing, even rarer.

--

Changing subjects, I've still been watching Skeleton Crew, and it's still very much a kids'show, and it's still something I'd recommend for light entertainment. It does however continue one of the fundamental flaws of Star Wars storytelling, at least the visual variety: An overreliance on secret maps and schematics as a driving plot device.

[Celedam]

I already knew Quentin was going to die. Not only was it spoiled for me elsewhere (my fault for looking), but also they were narratively building towards it. It was pretty obvious.

The whole show took a hard turn in the middle of Season 4. It feels like they realized they wrote themselves into a corner with several storylines and so just started doing whatever. Very much like the last few seasons of Game of Thrones. I suspect that if I look into it, I’ll find similar circumstances.

I’ll finish the series. It’s not like I’m having to wait each week for a new episode, or a year for a new season. It’s just a few more days of binging. And I’ve reached the point in my life where I can see beauty and find wisdom even in failure or disappointment, as long as the thing is completed. “Sunk cost fallacy” doesn’t mean quite the same for me now.

[Celedam]

5x05 almost broke me.

5x06 restored my faith a little.

You'd like it, and not just because it's an Eliot episode. It's a return to form.

[Celedam]

5x06 restored my faith a little. […] It's a return to form.

Well, that didn't last long. Like, at all. I'm up to 5x09 now, and… ugh.

One more day.

[Celedam]

It's done.

To anyone out there who's thinking about watching The Magicians in the future (although I don't know where it will be after it leaves Netflix in a few hours), I strongly recommend that you stop at the end of Season 4. Even though you will feel it start to turn during that season, it still has a satisfying conclusion, not just for the season but for the entire series. Simply ignore the hooks for Season 5. It's not worth the slog.

I imagine they did Season 5 in order to end the story in roughly the same way the books ended, but that by itself does not make it worthwhile. It's clear that orders came down from somewhere to shake things up, and the way they did it was very much of its time (i.e., produced in 2019 for broadcast in 2020).

What do I mean by that? Hmm. How do I say this without being crucified…

Spoiler: show

As much as The Magicians (the TV series more than the books) tries to subvert the tropes in other stories like Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia, it starts with character archetypes because archetypes are essential to good storytelling. They just are, whether postmodernists like it or not. Human beings recognize and respond to archetypes. It's difficult for us to conceptualize without archetypes.

For example, Quentin is the idealistic young Hero. The story tries to subvert that by saying his idealism makes him naive, needy, and easily traumatized, but he is The Hero nonetheless. Everyone knows it, even the other characters within the story; Margo actually calls him "our Harry" at one point, and it fits.

And those other characters have their own archetypes: Alice is The Genius (a.k.a. The Magician, but that's too on-the-nose here), Eliot is The Lover, Julia is The Explorer, Margo is The Outlaw, Penny is The Caregiver, and Kady is The Innocent. Many or even most of those are deliberately ironic, because subversion, but if you look closely, those are indeed their archetypes.

Anyhoo, as the TV series progressed through Season 4 and into Season 5, orders came down from somewhere that the characters must show some "growth" after everything they'd been through. The writers (hacks) did that by flattening the characters' archetypes and eliminating their weaknesses. They became tools in a toolbox.

Furthermore — and this is the part that might get me crucified — it's obvious that more attention and care was given to the female characters than the male characters, because that's how the sociopolitical winds were blowing at that time. Quentin was killed outright, and Eliot and Penny were neutered, while all of the women became girlbo-- err, flawless. Even Alice, who held onto her doubts the longest, just sang it all out in 5x12. Eliot sang back about how great she was, and that was it.

They even introduced the catchphrase "Ovary up!" (as opposed to "Sack up!") to drive the point home, in case you were too stupid (or too male) to get it.

Now, add in all the rest of the "throw a bunch of shit against the wall and see what sticks" that comprised Seasons 4 and 5. They did the "that wasn't the real danger, this is" schtick about a half-dozen times in that period, and I genuinely lost count of the number of times they did the "I know a person who can give us x, but they want y in return" schtick. Side quests and mini-bosses, over and over again, like a fucking video game.

Ugh.

EDIT: Revised after a night's sleep.

[Zunu]

Guess I'll continue to pass on S05 then. All this fantasy talk reminds me that I binged a 6-episode AppleTV+ series last year called "The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin" which was a lot of fun, although it was over fast. Definitely not to everyone's taste though.

[boinsie]

Noel Fielding AND Greg Davies?? I was already going to re-subscribe AppleTV+ for Severance season two, so I'll definitely add Dick Turpin to watch-while-the-service-is-turned-on list! (Slow Horses is the other contender at the moment).
If you haven't seen After Party season 1, I definitely recommend it. It's a whodunnit that hits a different genre of film each episode. There's also a season 2, but it doesn't hit the same way.

[Zunu]

I haven't. I think I got it mixed up with Search Party in my mental space. I'll check it out!

[boinsie]

I hadn't heard of Search Party--but Alia Shawkat and written by/cameo-ing Michael Showalter? Heck, I might have to try that one out, too. ^^

[Amped]

Startalk podcast with Neil deGrasse Tyson and Laurence Fishburne