whalecum 2 my twisted minde

My english teacher always tells us that if we’re in an exam and we’ve written a few amazing paragraphs on an essay, if there’s only 10 minutes left in the exam then you’re better off just ending your essay there rather than add on a shitty rushed paragraph because it’ll bring down your mark rather than raise it because you wrote more. This is exactly how I feel with tma, especially season 5. 

I got into magnus around this time last year, it definitely took me a while to fully enjoy it though. After listening to the first 10 episodes, I hopped onto the tma subreddit and basically asked “is every episode statements?” because I wasn’t interested in them in the slightest. I’d heard about the podcast from jonmartin fanart so I expected a lot more character interaction. I fought through the first two seasons, loved the third season, adored the fourth season just for the angst and got a start on season 5 (I was fully caught up by the time 171 came out) I thought to myself “oh hey, one episode per. domain that’s cool, whatever, kinda boring but at least we’re getting to know this apocalyptic world.” What poor little me didn’t know was that the majority of season 5 would just be worldbuilding. over and over and over again. The fact they repeated fears for domains had me more horrified than any of the other statements. I obviously stopped listening a while afterwards because I genuinely found it so boring. 

I read the transcripts, if I even bothered looking at the episode at all. And I think this is where season 5 absolutely fails and kind of fucks up the entire show. We’re used to one base setting, the archives, and we’ve never really been told much about it’s appearance because it looks like a normal ass archive. Before or after each statement we’re used to having SOME sort of character interaction, jon and tim fighting or melanie going fuckin ham, thats the shit I actually listened for. In season 5 it’s all just walking and talking with jon and martin and while that doesnt sound bad, NOTHING ACTUALLY HAPPENS BETWEEN EPISODES. they just talk about the same things, have bad communication and maybe have a few cute moments so that it isnt all doom and gloom, but besides that there’s not actual substance. tma was a show where it kind of caters to two groups, the lot who just want short horror stories read by a random ass british dude and the lot who want plot and character interaction. Seasons 1-4 had both but season 5 was majority just horror anthology. That’s not a bad thing in concept, but it’s a bad thing if you suddenly get rid of most characters and decimate anything actually interesting for the remaining characters to talk about other than “what do you think will happen,” “where do you think this person is,” and random exposition, exposition which is so constantly repeated that characters within the show bring up how it’s said so often.

What frustrated me so much about the finale was that there was literally no need for it. We’ve spent nearly 30 episodes being told everything, more than everything, about this apocalyptic world, yet when it comes to the finale it’s ALL up to interpretation? I’ve listened to so much shit about this world that really failed to interest me all, telling myself itll be worth it for the ending, just for it to end with “i dont know, you decide.” It really feels like a fuckin punch in the gut. It was predictable (which isn’t always a bad thing, but this was VERY predictable) and unsatisfying. I know I’m not alone on this either, I’ve spoken to friends who have thought the exact same thing. It was altogether just a very disappointing end to such a fantastic show.

Personally, I feel like it could have ended pretty nicely at season 3 or 4, maybe jon could have died at the end of season 3, leaving martin behind to deal with elias plans, thats pretty tragic. Or at the end of season 4 maybe jon could have actually killed jonah himself and then run away with martin to safe house, maybe they decide to start a new life there and they never hear from Basira, Melanie or Georgie again, neither of them know what Dasies fate was. Obviously this is just off the top of my head, and I’m pretty sure Jonny had this planned out from the start. I think he still made an incredible piece of media, it get me out of a really bad case of art block and basically carried me through the first lockdown, but I think it’s the execution that let it down in the end.