15 Reasons You Should Be Watching ‘The Magicians’
15 Reasons You Should Be Watching ‘The Magicians’ (continued):
11. Platonic Relationships are as Important as Romantic Ones
One of the very best things about The Magicians is its equal focus on both the platonic and the romantic relationships. Season 4’s plotline is the perfect example of this. Eliot is trapped inside his own mind by a Monster who is possessing his body.
The two people who are most affected by this, and therefore the most focused on getting him back, are Quentin and Margo. Quentin and Eliot are romantic soulmates while Margo and Eliot are platonic soulmates. The narrative makes it so that both relationships hold equal weight in regards to Eliot.
Eliot and Margo’s relationship is one of the most important in the show. Summer Bishil and Hale Appleman do wonders when they are on-screen together. It’s in The Magicians, Season 4, Episode 10, “All that Hard, Glossy Armor” that their dynamic truly shines.
Margo goes through the hardest of trials just to get a weapon that may get Eliot back. The journey is heart-wrenching and beautiful, with impeccable acting by both Appleman and Bishil. It makes all of us wish we had a friendship like Margo and Eliot’s.
12. Mental Health
Mental Health is an important theme in The Magicians, and not only because the main character has diagnosed depression. This show tackles mental health in a way that not many do, especially in the fantasy genre.
The Magicians focuses on a lot of topics related to mental health, including addictions, substance abuse, parental abuse, depression, anxiety, and sexual assault. All of the characters are dealing with some pretty heavy issues. Maybe in another show, magic would be the fix-all, but not here.
The series even makes a point of showing that magic comes from pain. Magic didn’t stop Julia from being assaulted, falling in love and having magic doesn’t cure Quentin’s depression, and Eliot still has suicidal tendencies and pain from his childhood that manifests in substance abuse.
This season has been specifically good in portraying those aspects especially in regards to Quentin. Jason Ralph has done a phenomenal job in Season 4 at portraying a character who is clearly on a downward emotional spiral and has very little hope left.
13. Peaches and Plums
We’ve come a long way in terms of LGBTQ relationships on television, but we still have a long way to go. While TV shows today are doing a better job at portraying certain sexualities, there are still some that fall by the wayside. This is especially true when it comes to portraying bisexual characters.
The Magicians gives us Quentin Coldwater, a “depressed super-nerd” who just happens to be bisexual. In the course of the show, Quentin falls in love with both a woman (Alice) and a man (Eliot). Both relationships are seen as equally valid and critical to his character development.
The Queliot (Quentin/Eliot) relationship is very important to fans. It’s one of the few times where a relationship between two people of the same sex is given the same treatment as relationships between two heterosexual characters.
Quentin and Eliot have a connection from the first moment they meet. It’s a deep friendship and a meaningful relationship. The relationship could have been left as subtext, as these kinds of relationships usually are. Instead, the writers focused an episode on them growing old together.
They didn’t just leave it there. They made it canon in a way that is impossible to ignore.
The plot of Season 4 hinges on Quentin trying to save Eliot. In a television landscape where queer couples are normally relegated to side-character status, it’s great to see one being placed front and center.
14. Everyone is Important
Saying “everyone is important” sounds like it’s just talk, but The Magicians follows through on it. Yes, the show is introduced to the audience by the eyes of Quentin Coldwater, who is a white man. But Quentin is not the only character who matters.
The Magicians puts weight on decentralizing the white male hero. The show even has Penny (played by Arjun Gupta, who is of Indian descent), tell another character, “you have a case of white male protagonist syndrome.”
Quentin is the heart of the group, but he’s not the Chosen One. He is not the most powerful or the smartest.
Julia is the most powerful, Alice is the smartest, Fen is the kindest, Margo is the strongest, Kady is a leader, and Penny is always there to help.
All of the characters have their strengths and weaknesses. They all contribute to the main plot of the story. No one is a side character, and everyone is important.
15. “I am a King, not a Princess”
This is the moment that cements the show as not just my current favorite, but my all-time favorite TV show—yes, even more than Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Summer Bishil’s cathartic speech was everything to me.
The last time I felt so connected to a speech was during Once Upon A Time’s Emma Swan’s, “I’m not nothing, I was never nothing!” At this moment, we are all Margo.
This is a catharsis not only for Margo Hanson but for all women. When we’re little girls, we are told we can do anything we set our minds too. Then we grow up, and we realize nothing scares people more than a woman who knows what she wants.
The same people who told us to reach for the stars are the ones trying to push us down. As women, we’re constantly told you can’t do this, or you can’t do that.
We’re either madonnas or virgins. We’re too smart or too dumb. A woman can be referred to as a liar, a doormat or a bitch, a prude or a slut. She could be seen as too soft or too angry, too girly or too manly.
But the truth is that women can be all of those things or none at all, and that’s okay. Women contain multitudes. We’re warm, we’re selfish, we’re cold, we’re creative. We are whoever we want to be.
It’s a scene I’m sure I’ll keep coming back to and one I’ll use to recommend the show to others. It’s poignant and incredible, and luckily, it’s already been renewed for a fifth season.
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Have you watched The Magicians? Do you feel the same way? If you haven’t seen it yet, why don’t you just join us at Brakebills so we can escape to Fillory together?
The Magicians airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on Syfy.
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The Magicians Season 4: Jason Ralph on Queliot and Tackling a New Role [Video]
The Magicians Season 4: Summer Bishil on How Janet is Similar to Margo [Video]
Maii Trueba de Buen
Maii is a 28-year-old writer who can be slightly invested in characters and their stories. She tries to give credit where credit is due but isn’t afraid to be honest in her writing. It's probably best not to ask about Lucifer or A Song of Ice and Fire, because you'll never hear the end of it. She graduated in film and has a certificate/minor in Art History. She brings that into her writing because, well, she’s a nerd. The only thing that beats her love of writing is her love of Pandas.