#questofthesevenkeys

 SyFy had let me down way too many times.

 From Sliders to Farscape to that one season of Incorporated, the SyFy (used to be Sci-fi) was a channel that was littered with the ‘bodies’ of cancelled sci-fi/fantasy tv shows. Now silly B-movies and wrestling on the other hand…yay, baby!!! Allow me to roll my eyes at a channel for sci-fi that did not cater to it. Eventually…SyFy tried again to focus on what it should when it started…SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY!!!

 So it was with hesitation that I attempted to even watch any show on that channel. I had heard or seen ads for THE EXPANSE and THE MAGICIANS. However, I did not really have an interest.

 I sat at home one Wednesday night. And oh, look!! It happened to be on. Well…I guess I was curious enough to look at this ‘Harry Potter crossed over with Narnia’ tale. Anyone who knew me knew that I was an uberNarnia fan. So perhaps I might be interested.

 The idea was sound. Viewers met Quintin Coldwater as he was re-entering the real world after a tenure in a mental institution. Life was too rough for this 20something year old. Not helped by his love…some might call it obsession with a series of fantasy books about a Narniasque world called Fillory. And then he stumbled into a magic school called Brakebills…

 …and found out Fillory…was REAL.

 Mind blown. Like I said it had potential. There was even an assortment of students there…gay guy, sassy best friend girl, the required love interest, the hothead...I believed all tv show character tropes were represented. And the description of the various concentrations of magic were interesting and full of more possibilities. Still…was I sold on the show enough to come back week after week?

 And then…entered the Beast.

When a Show Loses A Good Antagonist: The Magicians Season Two

 Every tv show has to have an antagonist. Any antagonist worth his weight in gold best be an intriguing one. And the Beast…was just that. Stepping out of a mirror after freezing a whole classroom of magicians in place, the Beast was a well-dressed gentleman with six fingers with a swarm of moths where his head should be. As if the visual wasn’t freaky enough, he took down the teacher the Dean of Brakebills…and plucked out his eyes.  

And this was in the last five minutes of the pliot.

 Yeah…mind blown. So, I continued to watch. I watched Quentin have situations that were callouts to things I knew from Narnia. I watched his best friend Julia try to find her own way to magic after being rejected by Brakebills. I watched all kinds of hijinks occur over that first season as the characters were fleshed out and it looked like the students were on a collision course with the Beast who was bond and determined to kill Quentin.

 Then I lost track of the show.

☹

 Eventually I got around to watching all that I missed about THE MAGICIANS. I had heard about how Season 1 and Season 2 ended in passing. However, I had not seen it for myself. Meanwhile, Season 3 was some way off. Thanks to the library…pun unintended…I got to see it for myself.

 Season 2…was meh. I loved the fact that Season 2 introduced Greek mythology into this already complicated fantasy design. I loved that the show grew darker. Not that it was not already dark with the Julia arc…wanting revenge for her rape that got another character…a fan fave at that…killed. But speaking of antagonist…let’s talk about the rapist…Reynard the Fox, trickster god.

 On the good side, it was through him that Greek mythology was introduced into the show. Fine actor for sure playing the character. However, compared to the Beast…Reynard was a lightweight. Worse he was two dimensional versus the complexity that the Beast was over the course of Season 1 as the origin of who the Beast was revealed itself. Bonus, the story of the Beast…which was the main plot arc for Quentin…converged with Julia’s plot arc by the end of Season 1, leading to a team up between the Beast and Julia that promised that Season 2 was not going to be meh.

 Then the Beast was killed.

 Very early in Season 2, the Beast was done away with. And what followed was a very uneven show IMO. It was like the writers could not figure out the balance between what was going on in Fillory which became more centered in Season 2 and what was going on in the normal world at Brakebills. And while this was all going on Reynard was the main villain. Complexity gave way to…??

 Like I said…any antagonist worth his weight in gold for a tv show should be an intriguing one. And Reynard was anything but. Even with the introduction of Greek mythology. And by the time of the intro, it was too little, too late near the end of the Season Two. Yeahhhh…no. I thought I would be done with the show. Nothing really was interesting me.

 And then came the twist.

 A Hero’s Journey in More Ways Than One: The Magicians Season Three

  What was the twist? Well, the gang killed a god. The punishment? The gods’ parents turned off magic. No magic meant end of show, right? WRONG!!!

 And so began the Quest of the Seven Keys. Seven keys that would be used at the end of the world and restore magic.

 And oh, the resulting journey to get there.

 Season 3 one could say the main villain might have been a bait and switch. Going into the season, the main villain appeared to be the Fairies and their fierce Fairy Queen as they continued to give Quentin…especially his friends Elliot and Margo (a fierce magician in her own right)…nothing, but trouble. However, as the season progressed a new villain of a different sort emerged…humans in the form of the MacAllisters family and magicians in the form of the Library. Both wanted magic, but for different reasons. By the end of the season, the Fairies and the Library revealed complexities about themselves that reveal them as excellent antagonists (see above about tv shows and antagonists) for our heroes on their journey to restore magic.

 The MacAllisters…not so much.

 Speaking of our heroes, with such complexities from the bad guys, it was great to see the progress that the main characters were experiencing as well. From Quentin growing assertive in the progress of going on the quest…not to mention exploring his sexual fluidity with Elliot to Julia making amends for past actions resulting in her ascending to goddess status to Elliot and Margo growing into strong, capable leaders of Fillory, the characters were finally growing out of the fantasy tropes they had started off as in Season 1. And the pacing was perfect, with a flow of creative ideas on the way as if the writers had found inspiration themselves in their writing, resulting in some of the best episodes so far.

 I could not believe it. THE MAGICIANS had gone from a meh season to MUST SEE TV. And oh, did I want to see how it would end. Would they truly get magic back? In the end, they did.

 With a twist. Of course. 

 Magic was back. However, the gang was in a bad place by the end. Betrayed by Quentin’s love interest Alice…not to mention the Dean of Brakebills…in a deal with the Library and those evil MacAllisters. And mindwiped into forgetting who they are.

 And did I mention anything about the Monster in the Castle at the End of the World? The Monster who can jump bodies. The Monster Who Wants…and was currently in Elliot’s body? The Monster that NO ONE (but Alice who winded up inprisoned by the Library…long story) remembers?

 Yep. Season Four was going to be a doozy.

 But What Does It Want: The Frustrating Path of THE MAGICIANS Season Four

 The fourth season of THE MAGICANS began some time ago.

 In a few words…slow burn.

 I recalled Season 3 being full of different directions and ideas that converged into a great whole that I could watch over and over again. Season 4 so far was also full of different directions and ideas. However, I had no idea yet where it was going.

 I loved that it was doing unexpected sequels to some of the best episodes from Season 3. However, that could also be seen as worrying. Had the writers peaked at Season 3?

 By the midway point of Season Three, the quest for the seven keys was halfway over. There had been answers given along the way to various character arcs. Villains had started to show layers.

 As of this writing, Season Four was at its midway point. All viewers knew of the Monster was that gods had stolen something from it, and it was piecing itself together. What the pieces meant or even why the gods had done it was still unknown. While a quest to save Elliot was emerging, there had not really been any progressive character development like Season Three had. And the Library, which had emerged as a complex villain in Season Three, was becoming somewhat one dimensional in their attempt to ration out magic. The sense of must see tv had been replaced by a lot of patience.

 Perhaps the mindwipe was resolved too quickly?

 There had been signs that this was all going to change. One of the characters had not forgotten about her life under the mindwipe. In fact, she had had an epiphany. And didn’t epiphanies mean changes would be made? Quentin knew that Elliot was still alive in the Monster…and viewers knew of a never-seen-before conversation between the two about a possible relationship. Meanwhile Julia might not be a goddess anymore…or is she? Hmmm. Not to mention a subplot with the Library involving their head Librarian just might return complexity to them as a good antagonist for our heroes.

 Did someone say revolution for sure?