2016 has been shit. Decipher the why’s for yourselves, but there are plenty of them. Due to this-perhaps inspite of it-more and more we have turned to entertainment to keep the demons at bay and distract our mind with television old, new and everything that falls in between. We continue to coast on the wave that is Peak Television and due to it we here at TYF had an alarmingly tough time trying to narrow this list down to simply 30 episodes. By forcing our hand to not include everything we loved, it meant series such as Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Bob’s Burgers, Veep and The Last Man on Earth – among others – were left off the final list. Take a peak below at the 30 episodes we named the very best of the year and let us know in the comments what you agree with and what ones you might’ve added to your own list.

The SyFy series The Magicians returns this Wednesday for its much anticipated season two and there’s a lot of rumblings that it’s even better than its impressive debut season. We were already won over but we’re even more excited to see our favorite characters return for more adventures in the dark and twisted Fillory, a place that is much different in real life than the fictional version that Quentin grew up reading about. Before the premier myself and fellow writers Leaf and Katie ranked the characters from our least favorite to the number one stand out. We did this by a point system and while yes, unfortunately someone had to be in last place, we’re hard pressed to name any one character who is actually our least favorite. Take a look below at our rankings and let us know in the comments below who would be in your number one position!

And beware-spoilers for season one lie ahead.

After what was an uneven but ultimately satisfying first season, SyFy’s The Magicians is back and it’s already seemingly has gotten its footing quicker and with more energy. After the catastrophic events of the season one finale, the episode does quick work in rewinding things so that Alice, Penny, Elliot and Margo don’t die and the four of them plus Quentin are forced to go searching for Julia who has teamed up with the Beast to kill the trickster God who assaulted her and killed her friends last year.

However, rather than simply being a course correction tactic, something that might’ve lessened the impact of the events that transpired, it instead sets our characters up for their season two narratives as all are reeling from what they’ve just witnessed.

Julia’s storyline is still separated from the other characters but with the Beast-aka Martin Chatwin-now accompanying her it at least feels as if her story is still more woven in to the overall storyline. While it seems like tricky business to have two possible antagonists be also two victims of sexual assault, the show so far has taken pains to demonstrate the differences between Martin and Julia and the paths their choosing to take, especially when Julia doesn’t part with her shade. While I’m still not convinced the writing will do Julia justice in the episodes to come regarding her trauma, I’m optimistic that they’ll at least be respectful to her emotions.

Elsewhere the characters are dealing with a similar fallout but in Filory, as many of them realize the true ramifications of their actions. Penny is shell shocked by the loss of his hands and when he manages to get them magically resown, learns the hard way not to piss off the locals whose knowledge of magic far surpasses his own. Alice meanwhile is dealing with a different type of loss as she grapples with her hesitation when it came to confronting the Beast. Alice, while hardly the most interesting character of the bunch, has the potential for one of the more riveting storylines because she is so clearly the most powerful magician of the series, despite the show focusing its attention on Quentin. As Quentin comes to realize this, in one of the more understated moments of the episode, Alice starts to embrace her true potential.

Quentin as a character can be a difficult one to love but only because the show and Jason Ralph refuse to shy away from the grating side of his personality, the part that assumes he’s destined to be the “chosen one” and has to come to the harsh, reality check that sometimes we aren’t the chosen ones of our story, that sometimes our roles are to bolster those around us or to offer a listening ear or compassionate heart. His slow realization that Alice is likely the hero of their story (or certainly the powerful entity to best fight the Beast) and that Eliot is the true High King of Filory, a fantastical land he’s dreamed about since he was a child, are some remarkable character beats and ones that do a lot in terms of endearing viewers to the character. On the whole Quentin is a character whose best used as a counter to other, more polarizing personalities such as Margo and Eliot.

Hale Appleman as Eliot-now High King of Filory- spent much of season one being the MVP, managing to make the smallest of lines sing with wonderfully, off beat comic timing and a vulnerability he wore on his perfectly cuffed sleeves. It was only natural to take the biggest breakout character from the debut season and give him a larger, meatier role and if Appleman is going to continue to be as effortlessly strong as he was in “Night of Crowns” throughout he remainder of season two we’re in for a treat. It’s Eliot who, beyond Julia, is facing the harshest realities of their situation as he’s stuck in Filory, never to return to earth, and married to one woman for the rest of his life. His is an enforced loneliness, which he expresses in the episodes best scene to Quentin, how because time moves differently on earth Eliot could be waiting out the rest of his days in a strange land for his friends to return and never knowing if they actually will.

It’s a scene that’s then given a comic flavor as Eliot asks Quentin to squeeze his ass, but that in a nutshell is everything we’ve come to love about Eliot, a contradiction of a character who can be so guarded and so open in one go.

The show is at its very best when all of these eclectic personality types are working off of one another so hopefully they don’t stay splintered too long. The Magicians was fun science fiction in it’s first season, but it has the oppertunity and realistic chance to become something greater than just escapism in season two as darker themes are introduced, but never at the expense of the humor or the characters.

Rating: 9/10

There a moment in “Divine Elimination” where despite creepy crawly, tattoo demons and Julia’s continued quest to capture the trickster god that raped her, it felt as if the episode was going to lean itself heavily on the lighter, rompish elements of the series. There was Margo, Eliot, Quentin and Alice all trying to kill on another due to a curse left for them in their thrones and Penny’s exasperation at trying to deal with them. There’s Margo’s truly delightful delivery of “you just shot me, you cock” and Eliot’s overall boredom and laissez faire attitude to ruling, despite how regal he looks in his royal attire. The stakes were there but man, it felt fun and, from a technical standpoint, it was the third episode of the season and it’s not often in television series where the big moments fall so soon in the season’s narrative.

And yet by the end of the hour, the Beast may be dead but so is Alice and Quentin had to kill her, Julia has lost the dagger to Raynard and Marina has been killed after having been taunted and tortured. And Penny? Who the hell knows where Penny has ended up. Things are, to put it simply, looking dire and despite the absolute devastation the episode leaves the audience in with Quentin laying bleeding on the ground, sobbing as Eliot cradles him in front of Alice’s lifeless body, and Julia stands above Marina’s broken and bleeding one, it also adds an added spark to the series as it finally lands home that what they’ve been saying all this time has been true-this isn’t the fairy-tales of our youth, for both good and bad.

Julia’s storyline has always been darker than the rest (not just in storyline either-her apartment seemingly has no light whatsoever) and it only continues to grow worse as any hope she seemingly had to get revenge has been extinguished. If there’s any problem I’m having with the season so far it’s the utter dismal and lack of empathy the other characters are demonstrating towards Julia and the trauma she endured. While these characters are notoriously cliquey and are known ass holes, the further they press with their apathy towards her and then, even aggression, the more it telegraphs as the show dismissing her rape and not just the characters. Luckily, Julia is written with such an assertive agency regardless that she is compelling and hardly defined by her assault or the lack of empathy she’s given from those around her. It would simply elevate the story to do so.

The Braikbill’s side of things has always adopted a lighter touch than to Julia’s real life magical parables, but despite the pointed comic touches there is no doubt that the end of this episode is the most tragic the show has ever been as, for the first time, the core characters have lost one of their own. Even as a viewer who never grew to Alice in the same manner as others I was still saddened to see her go even if the manner in which she went was hugely satisfying. It’s been known for quite a while that despite Quentin being the written protagonist, it’s Alice who’s been the hero of the story, further demonstrated as she’s the one to kill the Beast in the end. Her power, as has been mentioned before, far surpasses her peers and the full extent of it even frightened her. We finally see just where her power can take her as her magic consumes her in her overtaking of the Beast, leading to her eventual death herself as Quentin is forced to kill her to protect Eliot and Margo as her humanity was replaced with something more sinister.

It’s a bold and visually beautiful episode, one that allows the natural and surreal beauty of Filory to contrast with the horror and violence taking place in it. Like Julia’s world of saturation and grays, the colors and vibrancy of Filory too plays and important narrative role, showing that despite the appearance of a magical real, despite the visage of grace and wonder, there are horrors lying underneath. Alice burned blue and screamed in agony as magic consumed her, and Quentin’s demon scorched the earth when in attacked Alice, as Eliot’s silver suit shined bright amongst the carnage. There’s a purpose to every visual decision, demonstrating that no matter the larger than life appearances, deaths or aftermaths, what lies underneath the magic is something very human and therefore, often very tragic.

And we’re only three episodes in!

So, do we think Alice is really dead? Will it cheapen the storyline if she isn’t? What about Marina? Or poor Marina’s cat? Let us know in the comments below.

Welcome back to my weekly coverage of The Magicians. To read past coverage, go here. 

While I’ll take a wild guess that real Eliot won’t actually die despite his host body meeting its end at the end of “Plan B” having saved Quentin from a similar death, even the hint of that happening was enough to shake this fan. Eliot has often been the highlight of the series and Hale Appleman is too crucial to the series to kill off so lackadaisically.

Regardless of this moment of narrative anxiety, “Plan B” continues the strong run The Magicians has been on all season but especially since “Cheat Day” by taking a break from the requisite grief and pain that Quentin and Julia are experiencing, respectively, and allowing the whole gang to get back together for a good ol’ bank heist in order to pay for Julia’s expensive abortion and Filory’s war. Playing with classic heist scenarios but placing them on a magical edge means there is extra fun to be had with the episode. Margo gets to be the over eager ring leader, Kady gets to be the muscle and Penny the action hero surrogate as he must levitate in the floor holding all of the gold or else the oxygen will shut down. Throughout all of this the characters are met with impossible decisions-such as leaving Julia behind so she isn’t attacked by an invisible assaliant or Quentin letting niffin Alice to help save Penny at the cost of letting her control his body for an hour a day- and it gives the episode, energetic and silly at moments, a sense of real gravitas.

Here are some thoughts on the episode as a whole.

How much suffering is too much suffering?

“There were complications”.

Of fucking course there were, because it wouldn’t be a Julia storyline if her already boatload of trauma wasn’t puncture with another hole of bad news. Characters suffering, particularly female characters and especially female characters in science fiction series isn’t a new concept, hell, it in and of itself is a trope at this point about how women’s bodies are used to their disadvantage, but Julia’s onslaught of pain and misery isn’t just hard to watch these days, it’s also grown monotonous. The only thing that keeps her storyline from become unbearable is her sense of agency throughout all of it and her refusal to deal with any level of bullshit and her friendship with Kady which was granted her a sense of intimacy with another character so she doesn’t feel like she’s the lone wolf character of the series.

She’s a wonderful character regardless of the hardships she’s forced to contend with, but if we don’t get a moment of complete power or control soon it’s just going to end up seeming like tragedy for the sake of tragedy rather than well developed character suffering.

She’s essentially dead but they finally learned what to do with Alice

I’ve mentioned before that Alice was always my least favorite character on the series, much to my own disappointment. Typically such a strong willed, intelligent and powerful female character would be a favorite of mine but compared to others on the show she just came off as thinly drawn and was performed by an actress that never seemed comfortable with the bumbling and shy character she was given.

It’s wonderful then to see how much Olivia Taylor Dudley thrives as the niffin version of Alice who is power hungry, obnoxious and desperately trying to manipulate Quentin into releasing her from the trap that is his body. I was worried they were going to come up with some sort of hackneyed manner to bring Alice back from death but if we instead just get this version of the character for the rest of the season, that’s something that could open up some wonderful story opportunities.

One of the best parts of season two is….its lead?

I know. What a ridiculous assessment. However, like Alice, in season one Quentin was never a “favorite” character to most fans who watched the show, not when there was Margo, Eliot and Penny to steal the spotlight. While there was charm in how he recognized that he’d never be the real hero of the story he was living, there were far too many colorful characters that were able to douse whatever intrigue he held.

However in season two he has become an absolute highlight and in large part that’s due to Jason Ralph’s performance. I’ve missed a few weeks of coverage so I wanted to make sure I pointed out that his work in “Cheat Day” was phenomenal as he dealt with the powerful grief that was nearly able to take over him. Similarly all of his work done with Alice’s parents gave Quentin extra shades of maturity and now, dealing with the evil version of a girl he loved in his conscious, he’s playing up the easily distracted part of the character with ease. While there was character growth last season with Quentin realizing that Filory was far from the fairy-tale he thought it would be growing up, season two has gone one step further by presenting a version of the character whose grown cynical.

An excellent episode of an excellent season, The Magicians has become an absolute must watch and not simply an energetic source of escapism.

Welcome back to my weekly coverage of The Magicians. To read past coverage, go here. 

Somewhere in between the back half of season one of The Magicians and now it’s become one of the most consistently entertaining series on television. With an innate understanding of their characters, what makes them tick and all of the interweaving relationships between the core six along with grandiose spectacle and absurdist humor, the show has managed a genre cocktail like few others on television. This can be demonstrated just with Quentin’s character alone and the stark and poingant relationships he shares with the characters from the old familiarity with Julia, the odd intimacy with Eliot, the out of character sweetness he brings out of Margo and the bursts of hostility from Penny. We as the audience have learned to overlook some of the wonkier narratives or bizarre special effects because of how invested we are in the characters and their trajectories.

Here are some things that stood out to be in this weeks episode, yet another strong installment in a long string of them.

I but Alice and Quentin’s relationship more now than I did when she was alive 

I was never a huge supporter of the relationship mainly because it was hard to buy the chemistry (or lack thereof) between Jason Ralph and Olivia Taylor Dudley especially when Alice shared more with Penny and Quentin with literally everyone else. However, since her death and especially since her reappearance as Niffin Alice there’s been a resurgence of energy between the two characters, greatly aided by Dudley and Ralph’s committed performances. This comes to a peak tonight when trying to learn about shades Quentin is forced to speak with an Alice from a different timeline, one who was the sole survivor of the Beast and left to spend her days trying to salvage Quentin’s lost soul. It’s a painful scene for the two characters who can’t even touch one another, as they get to say real goodbyes, a first for both in their respective universe.

It helps that this is a beautifully shot scene from the lighting to the music. The shows ability from going to near slapstick humor to something as poignant as a final goodbye between lovers is immensely impressive.

Margo, Fen and this fairy business 

Despite Summer Bishil’s immeasurable charms it seems that sometimes Margo is used more as a plot device than as a well fleshed out character herself. We see hints of who she really is especially when she’s paired with Eliot or Quentin but otherwise her motives seem fairly plot based, doing and behaving in any manner that is convenient is moving the story along. This has been the most apparent in her deal with the fairies to give them Fen and Eliot’s child in return for the magic being returned to Filory and it all comes to a head when the former is seemingly whisked away by the fairies at the end of the episode to who knows what fate.

Margo has been proven to be a more apt ruler this season than Eliot who’s too apathetic and concerned with people liking him and following a storyline where she’s putting in more effort without holding as much power would be an interesting thread to follow, especially between the two best friends. With only two episodes left in season two it will be interesting to see just how the writers manage to write this character out of this corner without her coming off nearly villainous.

Bring the group back together

The heist from a few episodes ago was so delightful because it got all of the core characters in the same room and storyline again. Right now they’be become so splintered with Quentin spending half his time in Filory and half back at Brakebills and Penny about to sequester himself off to the library for god knows how long and with such an eclectic group it’s a shame not to utilize the full energy of them more often. Surely in the remaining to episodes the series will bring the group together to bring back Julia’s shade/trap Reynard/find Fen as it’s what the season has been building towards but regardless of how wonderful the world building is the show would be smart to not compromise the strongest element of the series for bigger storytelling-the characters.

Regardless it was yet another strong episode and this week we got the added benefit of some sweet melancholy and hope being injected into the show for the first time in a while. Things may look dire for Fen but Julia is on the cusp of finding her shade and logically knowing that she needs it, even reaching out to Quentin at the end as a mark of friendship and while his and Alice’s goodbye was bittersweet it also offered the character much needed closure.

Perhaps this year we’ll get something close to a happy ending for the characters?

What did everyone else think of this weeks episode?

When The Magicians first began to air the intrigue was natural for those who hadn’t read the books the series was loosely based on; it was an attractive cast in a fantasy setting described as “sexy Harry Potter”. Who on earth wouldn’t be attracted to such a descriptor? As the debut season progressed there were bumps along the way as the writers dealt with how to make Quentin a likable protagonist even if he was also, often, a gigantic tool, how to keep the narrative from slipping entirely out of their grasp as storylines dragged, and how to get Eliot into more screen time to work off of Hale Appleman’s obvious charm.

For the most part however, the show was enjoyable, if rocky, ride that won points based on the natural chemistry in the cast and that no matter how contrived a plot development could be, we had grown to care immensely for these characters and the adventures they went on. This was so much so that by the end of the season one finale when nearly all of the characters were left for dead, we worried about their fates.

Early on in season two we were given a reprieve from that worry as they were all brought back from the brink of death and with that the show was given a greater, more confident sense of light. Every aspect of the show from the performances to the set design to the ability to hold onto a single narrative of recovery for the entirety of the season was stronger than it had been and all of the worries that lingered from season one were squashed. Far unlike any fantasy television show you’ve seen, it was able to create something beautiful out of mangled emotions, surreal musical numbers and 20 somethings who are realizing that life is sometimes unbearable tough. The Magicians in its sophomore efforts became one of the best and most entertaining series on television and what made it even more thrilling was that the tonal balancing act was so tremendous that it was always a surprise when something didn’t manage to break apart.

One of the best things the show was able to do for itself was to bring Eliot’s character further into focus as he had to push his addictions and death wishes (somewhat) into the background in order to rule Filory as High King along with his bambi, High Queen Margo. Appleman for his part was seemingly born to don the elegant costumes he wore as King and his journey is fully one of becoming an adult with consequences to his actions and rules that define his leadership, for better or worse. Every tic, every sardonic line is given a sense of off beat charisma due to his understated performance and if the show is smart they’ll keep him in the focus in season three as well.

Stella Maeve as Julia was always one of the most intriguing aspects of the show, starting back from day one where we couldn’t quite get over the sense that she, not Quentin, was supposed to be the real hero of the show. Instead, due to some tricky time magic, she was instead rejected from Brakebills and found herself on the fringes of the magical society, playing out some of the heaviest themes on the show such as addiction and recovery and revenge following a sexual assault. She gives us our over arching narrative in season two as she actively tries to avoid becoming like the Beast, so wrapped up in his need to defend himself as a child that he in turn becomes something corrupt and loathsome. Her story was trying at times due to the difficult nature but Maeve imbued Julia with just the right amount of steely resolve and vulnerability to make her a character worth rooting for.

However, despite the wonderful characters on the show who are naturally more intriguing, it was the development of the lead that made all the difference in the world. Quentin’s slow and often times painful realization that just because magic exists doesn’t mean that magic is able to save the day and that this place of magical escapism that he so often wandered as a anxiety ridden child was in fact soiled was some of the best storytelling the show has done.

You can’t have a great show if you don’t have an engaging leading character, no matter how much leg work the supporting characters provide. Jason Ralph was excellent this year in portraying Quentin’s grief over loosing Alice as he wears that loss as a (sometimes literal) physical burden. Perhaps the strongest episode the series has done to date, “Cheat Day”, an intimate and heartbreaking look at the scars the dead leave behind, was almost solely focused on Quentin and his journey. An episode just focused on him in season one might’ve been a bore where this year, in par due to Ralph’s performance but also due to how beautifully meditative the scenes were shot, it was an absolute highlight.

The nature of this show is ridiculous and that’s a significant aspect of the show. Even the characters themselves become increasingly exasperated by the scenarios they find themselves in but what makes it work is that it all at the very least feels honest; the characters and their motivations are never shoehorned in for plot convenience but because they feel like real actions these people would take. This means we can watch as Eliot complains about his betrothed turning into a rat, a foul mouthed sloth giving government council and a cursing, embittered dragon knocking Quentin and Julia out without batting an eye. The absurdist nature is key to the success of the show and its that juxtaposed with the gritty reality of the characters emotions and their personal journeys into becoming adults that makes it such a constant delight.

The Magicians, despite it’s naysayers, rose in the ranks in season two to become one of the most addicting shows on air and with the magic cut off for our characters entering next season, all of whom are splintered off in separate realms, there’s so much more we’re ready to explore.

Season Grade: 9/10

Finale Grade: 9/10

Best Episode: “Cheat Day”

[To read my entire season two coverage of The Magicians, go here.]

What does a show which follows 20 something magicians going to a secret school for magical learning do when the big plot development of the season is the loss – or rather – removal, of magic? It launches itself headfirst into doubling down on the fantastical. More so than ever before, SyFy’s The Magicians  feels strictly fantasy and that’s the best decision the show could’ve made for this season. It’s always been a show that has deserved more love than it has received, and the excellent premiere that spans both earth and Fillory, bridging characters plot points without ever actually bringing the characters all together.

We pick up a few months after the season two premiere with everything essentially the same. Julia and Quentin are working on trying to find the source of the formers magic, to little avail. Quentin is pushing the fact however, because he needs the hope and the idea of magic as a lifeline. Meanwhile, Margo and Eliot are dealing with trying to rule in a land that has essentially had the power turned off.  That, with the threat of the ominous Fairy Queen looming, with her spies everywhere, makes it an increasingly hostile place to live. Penny is still battling cancer and serving his sentence in the library while Kady holds out hope and Alice runs for her life as a mysterious force hunts her, enraged by something she did while she was still a niffin.

In the premiere of season three we cover a lot of territory and no one character feels short changed. Instead, it feels like after all of this time, we understand these people more than ever, as stubborn, petty and damaged as they are. Part of that reason is how they’ve delegated time to each cast member, making sure not one is more in focus than the other, striking up pairing with lived in chemistry, even if they don’t entirely touch the chemistry of the entire group working together.

Margo and Eliot is an obvious duo, as they’ve long been established as old friends and confidants, but what is different this time around is how both are dealing with the same situation but with very different threats hovering overhead. Sure, Eliot has the weight of an entire world on his shoulders, but Margo has to deal with the Fairy Queen being able to spy on her at all times, through who own eye that was stole from her as common pencea last year, and having to be more capable than Eliot even when he is the one that acquires the most credit. He’s even the one who wins the chance to set forth on an “epic” quest.

Kady and Penny are similarly complementary to one another, the one romantic pairing yet on the show that felt earned and compatible (unlike Quentin and Alice – though I definitely thought the show was pushing towards a Kady and Julia hook up for a while there). However, their main storyline is trying to figure out a way to save Penny from his fate, one that Penny seems much more at peace at than Kady does.

It’s the team up, both expected and not, of Julia and Quentin, that wins the most points. The two have long been the two, opposing “leads” of the series, as Quentin was allowed to go on grand adventures and see wonderful things due to chance and despite his mediocrity while Julia, also due to luck of the draw, found herself addicted to magic, raped by a conniving, trickster God, separated from her soul and forced to allow the God who assaulted her to escape, free of retribution. She suffers from PTSD, he from depression, making for what could be read as a somber pair. However, they are the liveliest aspect of the episode because they’re in the position of having nothing left to lose. They have hope, and that’s enough to charge them forward and push them to meet a partying God who may be able to introduce them to another God who may be able to turn the power back on.

It helps that Jason Ralph and Stella Maeve have such an easy chemistry shared between them that it makes the more laid back scenes between the two, the ones where they’re screwing with gods and trying to piss them off all the more charming. The fact that they’re being depicted solely as friends doesn’t hurt either.

One of the most integral aspects to the shows continued success has been its purposeful switch of introducing Quentin as our “hero” before stripping that all away. Quentin, as he puts it himself, in the premier, is the sidekick. He may anchor the narratives and introduce key elements but he isn’t the smartest character or the strongest or bravest. He is our emotional tether and him being the heart to Julia’s sheer power, Alice’s brilliance, Penny’s dalliances with death and Margot and Eliot’s rulership grounds the show in a way he as the hero didn’t. He offers perspective and it’s a significant one. It’s a significant point of view that allows the premiere to elevate itself, as good as it already is.

There’s so much to love about the premier and it all boils down to how confident the series and showrunners have become. There’s some beautiful imagery here – the scene where Julia and Quentin’s faces are illuminated by neon lights a highlight – and an embrace of the more “genre” elements of the story. This is especially true when Eliot, trying to save his kingdom, comes across a creature named, ahem, “The Cock” (it will be a high point of your viewing experience I swear it). It’s a demonstration of how the show managed to meld genres so seamlessly together. It’s outrageous, shockingly funny and also moves the plot forward in one singular scene.

And it’s that last point that makes the series, and especially this episode, such a special one to follow. It understands the complexities of genre and that a story that’s engaging and interesting and constantly keeping its viewers on their toes needs to be more than just one thing and, it needs a deep well of understanding of characters: their motives, their want and their wishes. The Magicians understands this without faltering at this point and while no one thread is resolved by episode end, we’re primed and ready for a grandiose adventure which will bring with it absurdist mayhem, thrilling action, poignant drama and swooning romance. It’s as entertaining as any “prestige” show currently airing, and it seems to be having more fun.

Welcome back to our weekly coverage of The Magicians. To read prior reviews, click here.

“Heroes and Morons” may not match the wit and wonder of the season three premiere, but it’s another dedicated hour of television that highlights a series that has learned to reinvent itself season to season and has come out this year as one of the most exciting series airing. Committed to its fantastical elements without forgoing the human nature that charges each and every decision (for good or bad) that these characters make, The Magicians is hellbent on carving out it’s own genre is the current television zeitgeist.

Here were the three strongest parts of the episode.

Adventure is looming (and the world building is pretty great too)

Before setting off on his trip, Eliot is presented with the (plot) twist that his daughter is alive and well and a preteen working for the Fairy Queen. He and Margo contemplate how suspicious this all is, especially when they reference all of the pop culture they’ve consumed that has done similar things (there’s a nice Buffy the Vampire Dawn reference thrown in there). However, for the time being they allow it to happen because there’s no real changing their situation when the Fairy Queen is involved.

It does allow for him to set off on his official quest with Frey and their new daughter in tow for the keys which brings him to After Island where a cruel and power mad man rules by keeping the townspeople afraid of what amounts to a parlor trick. Eliot and Frey are both allowed moments of heroics with Eliot being presented as they king that he is. Heeding Margo’s advice on how to stay alive by relying on his survival instinct rather than playing the hero, Eliot walks away more confident in his position and with a key to aid him on his travels.

Out of the season so far it’s been this introduction of After Island that its inhabitants that has further aided in building the world beyond Fillory.

That SHIP! (No really, an actual ship)

The Magicians enjoys adding details to its world that are bizarre and eccentric and completely absurd to the characters as well as the audience and the addition of a sentient ship (that’s kind of a dick) is just one of those delightful developments. It’s a small thing but it allows the show to continue to build context into the world beyond Earth. In Fillory, sloths hold council positions in court, rabbits can be used as carrier pigeons between worlds, Kings can have a husband and a wife and any and all rules are bound to be broken at some point. So of course that had to be a sentient ship as well.

(Must be noted that the production design is gorgeous with this set and the location breathtaking).

Character Context EVERYWHERE 

One of the most achingly raw moments of the episode comes in the form of an aside. Quentin, in their search to seek out Professor Lipson, to both prevent her from committing suicide and retrieve what essentially is a magical battery, brings up the likely building she’ll choose, commenting on its pretty view and vacancy. When asked just why he would know this, he remarks that he used to research this “sort of thing”, a call back (or acknowledgement) of his depression. It’s not a highlight of the episode, perse, but further reinforces just how well this show understands its characters. Not one character makes a decision that feels out of place with who they are.

Along with the return (kind of) of Mayakovsky (as a bear) and Emily who we last saw in the sobering “Cheat Day”, this episode is presenting call backs that harken more to character building than plot development, to good and bad effect. All of these characters and how they add to the plot is a reminder that no matter the fantasy world that they live in, it’s hardly a utopia where real world struggle ceases to exist. With magic gone for the time being this idea is doubled down on as that one blip of hope that kept these people going is extinguished.

We see as Mayakovsky’s battery puts Central Park into a trance of sorts with a giant orgy taking place and if this is the peak of happiness that this small battery can offer, that it isn’t quite something to chase after because it isn’t the real thing, but a substitute. It’s a distraction from the real pain and confusion they’re all feeling. It’s why Julia’s ability is being so latched onto, because she possesses the hope that these bad feelings they’re having or being reminded on may not be here for the long term. Magic, in every sense of the word in this universe, is a hell of a drug.

Elsewhere in the episode Alice is reunited with the group after running away from the mysterious entity chasing her which, in an unsettling and gory detail, can be tipped off by an exploding cat (this show hates cute and innocent animals). Trying to accomplish too many storylines at once and not delivering on some of the more exciting moments as the group moves onward on their quest, the episode is far from a let down but just can’t manage to sustain the enthusiastic energy of its premiere.

Apologies for missing out on recounting the misadventures the characters went on in last weeks episode “The Losses of Magic”, for it was a delightful installment of the series. The big takeaway however, was Penny’s believed (pretty real) death that left in the inbetween world after he’s as astral projected his soul from his body.

As the rare episode that focuses on Arjun Gupta’s traveler Penny, “Be the Penny” is a remarkably clever hour of television with a last minute sucker punch that is unfathomably satisfying. Not a show that has relied heavily on shock value and flipping the script of what we’ve come expect from fantasy series, this is a highly intelligent series because it understands when to give and take.

Finding himself in an in between world with his only company being that of a Brakebills pervert who died while trying to peep on girls in the showers, he’s caught in an astronomically tricky position, being able to watch his friends grieve (or not) over his death while being unable to do anything to get their attention. He can’t even die properly as he’s been separated from his body. It’s a demonstration of The Magicians playing on both its strengths as a series in its ability to shake up its own basic structure while also adding refreshingly new elements with a confidence that can only be found in a series that truly understands what it is trying to accomplish and elicit from its audience.

Here are three reasons why “Be The Penny” succeeded to such a degree. ,

The unusual reliance on the titular character 

Penny has always behaved as a foil to the rest of the characters, a true blue support system to a lot of different leads and as such, the show hasn’t always known what to do with him. In most cases that opposites attract basic nature of the character works marvelously against the likes of Quentin, Kady or Eliot since despite the fact that he is quite literally the most untethered from reality, he is the ground presence. He brings a sense of nonchalant humanity and humor to proceedings to make the characters as a whole feel enriching and relateable, no matter how otherworldly the hijinks. In “Be The Penny” he finally gets the chance to take center stage with a storyline deserving of Gupta’s considerable amount of charisma. There are a lot of winning lines here, from his dissatisfaction regarding his friends lack of response to his “same girl, same” to Margo’s teary eyed response to his death being that she thought one day they’d “bang” (and what a ship that would be) but his undercurrent of melancholy is what sells the humor. He’s determined to reach his friends, to end Kady’s spiralling of self-destruction and his increasing level of frustration makes his desperation feel real while also being hilarious.

That cut to him being in the actual penny was pure joy.

There are real stakes 

We spend the entirety of the episode thinking that no matter the situation he’s found himself in he no doubt will end the episode safe and returned to his body but the characters odds continue to worsen as the hour goes on. And rather than feeling as if we’re simply being toyed with before optimism kicks back in, we actually buy into the hopelessness of the situation. And it pays off. By the end of the episode, Penny isn’t saved, his soul hasn’t even been condemned to the library for an eternity – instead, he’s as aimless as ever, stuck in a hellish purgatory of his own making where he can’t interact with anyone he cares about ever again, no matter his determination.

It surprises you

Of course, all seems lost until just the last second, that final kicker that is the perfect ending and lead into next week’s episode. Eliot, having been on his own journey for the majority of the episode, facing down cannibals with his wife and daughter and then feeding an apparition of his father to said cannibals (Hale Appleman’s delivery of it being a cathartic moment is one of the best one liners of the series), he finally makes it back to Brakebills intact. After a lovely reunion he grabs ahold of the truth key, believes it doesn’t work, turns, see’s Penny and off handedly acknowledges him. In a delayed response Penny realizes what has happened and leaps to his feet, shouting for Eliot to wait before putting the key down, and the episode ends just like that. It’s a miracle of a punchline, one that had been built upon since the very few moments as every character and every decision is purposefully and effortlessly brought to this point. It is the perfect ending to one of the best episodes the series has done to date.

Few genres and themes have been left unturned on The Magicians. From broad humor to tragic romance, musical numbers, bloody murder and epic duels and a general sense of ennui, we’ve seemingly seen it all within the confines of this little show that could. That being said, have we ever seen them languish so completely in melancholy as we did in tonight’s beautifully peculiar and achingly earnest “A Life in The Day”?

Picking up where we last left off, the series once again subverts expectations by refusing to let us linger on last week’s massive cliffhanger. Instead, we make a small jump in time where Alice has decided to bring the truth key to Kady (who’s in a psychiatric ward following her overdose) so that she can find some relief that her boyfriend isn’t totally dead. Instead, having been so wracked with guilt over losing him and blaming herself for not at least condemning his soul to the underworld, she lashes out and in doing so convinces her doctors that she’s more ill than they once believed after seeing video footage of her shouting at thin air. Easily the least developed character despite some heavy subject matter to deal with, this both gives Kady a reason to be separated from the group while also giving her a storyline that is directly her own.

What is so great though is how it takes away the normal beat for beat ask of forgiveness storyline from Penny and the suspected joy we’d see from Kady. Instead she’s pissed and scare – terribly human- all playing well into the shows determination in showcasing these characters as wrecked with trauma and relatable fallible.

The same can be said for the Julia and Alice portion of the episode. Alice finally is given a character to play off of who brings out the best in her (sorry Alice) with Julia who, while going through her own continued PTSD, is convinced that she is needed to help Alice with her own. What they learn over a drink is startling, as Julia, with the help of the truth key learns that there’s more of Reynard left on her than she might’ve imagined, much to her horror. She learns that his power is now hers and it’s a way to double down on Julians righteous sense of agency that she’s developed and pairing the two female characters who have been so stripped of it and inhabited by other beings is an inspired choice. This is especially true when you remember both, at certain times, were fated to be the main romantic interest to who we believed would be our main hero in Quentin. 

The female characters on the show have always been more than the sum of their parts , moving quickly from romantic interests and walking one liners into fully developed and three dimensional characters who arguably (definitely) are the most powerful on the series. Margo (a standout this year) is doing everything in her might to keep her kingdom together and poison the fairy queen (what a sentence). This is, yet again, derailed, as the fairy queen orders Margo be married to another clan who possess a large army. Upon meeting her betrothed she’s delighted until the weasel of a younger brother kills the eldest, at the wedding no less, all in order to enact the lands tradition of the younger familial member picking up the torch in such proceedings. Watching as Margo grapples with these piling catastrophes while simultaneously dealing with the later realization of the mess Eliot and Quentin have gotten themselves into is reminder of how strong of a presence Summer Bishil is, convincing us of both of the characters stubborn nature and near impenetrable force of will while also hinting at the vulnerability just barely being contained underneath.

The true crux of the hour however lies at the heels of Eliot and Quentin. Having been reunites they’re barely given a moments peace before the next chapter in their epic quest is upon them and they must travel back to Fillory to create the mosaic, a beacon of the utmost beauty reflected on them. Upon their return they are momentarily caught up in euphoria at the magic in the air before realizing they’ve traveled deep into the past. Believing they’ll have a decade to solve the puzzle to lead them to the next key, Eliot and Quentin instead go through a lifetime of happy moments together before they’re able to complete their task.

It’s this thread of a storyline, a mere blip on the narrative thread we’ve crossed thus far, that  resonates with the viewer so above and beyond the inherent absurdity of it all and leads to the tremendously moving payoff in the final moments if the episode. It’s the build up to that sun soaked climatic moment which allows it to soar with such a clear, devastating note. We watch Q and El in the early days of their seemingly fruitless task as they grow both increasingly consumed and frustrated with their riddle. We see their highs and lows as they learn to deal with just one another. All of this is backdropped by “Evolve” by Phoria in an inspired musical choice. 

In a quietly lovely moment, on their one year anniversary working on the mosaic where they sleep together again (if you’ve forgotten their threesome with Margo in season one). The Magicians has always treated sexuality with a reassuring fluidity and Quentin and Eliot having sex is hardly a blip on on another’s radar though it does compliment the electrifying chemistry that Jason Ralph and Hale Appleman share. 

As the montage continues, we watch as further developments take place. Quentin is married to a local village girl and they, along with Eliot, form a family and raise a son (until the wife passes away) and they’re content with their lives. Their son eventually leaves, promising to return, and the proceed with their task, working tirelessly work tirelessly until they’re old men who can only recall their friends in dreams.

Eliot passes away and Jane Chatwin arrives, in need of the very key Quentin has just found after a lifetime of searching in order to defeat her brother, otherwise known as the Beast. Despite his efforts, Quentin sees the need for the greater good and also notes the life he’s built for himself. He’s content and he gives it up, having grown wise enough to realize that his quest isn’t the priority in a world full of conflict. 

He passes away and we cut to Margo, on her wedding night, receiving a note from a long passed Quentin, telling her she is the one to continued on the quest and she does leading her back to Brakebills mere seconds before Quentin and Eliot were about to take their fateful journey.

Life is a beautiful, complex and sometimes even simplistic journey. It’s one where we spend so much of our time seeking magic in places it doesn’t exist or beauty in the mundane. “A Life in the Day” argues both that that beauty, that happiness, is all relative, and also, even when your life’s journey doesn’t take you where you expected it to go, the outcome can be just as fulfilling and life affirming as the adventure you thought you’d be setting forth on. There’s humor no doubt and the banter between Quentin and Eliot is as top notch as ever (even Quentin’s “it took us a while” to Jane’s request for the key is golden) but the real soul lies in the empathy it shows for its character and the earnest approach to the passage of time. Director John Scott does marvelous work throughout the episode (the moment Julia learns about Reynard is superb) but the montage is the utmost highlight, a perfect marriage of tone, visuals and expert pacing.

All of this is well and good and lovely but it’s those last moments that strike such a chord. With the music playing in the background as the sun illuminates the throne room, Eliot eats a peach and all of a sudden a wave of deja vu washes over them and they’re able to remember a life that wasn’t ever really truly theirs but another timelines. It’s beautiful, because they can commiserate on a life well spent but equally devastating as they have to deal with what they learned, who they loved and the losses they’ve endured without being able to tangibly hold onto that knowledge, grief or passion. The Magicians, by its nature, has always been a show happy to demonstrate its tongue and cheek humor, and with this weeks episode it pulled off its greatest trick yet in showing its heart.

Over the course of its three seasons, The Magicians have acquired a number of characters – both in leads and in small, yet crucial roles. As the show has evolved from knock off Harry Potter into its own, miraculously delightful and incomprehensibly absurd beast, those characters on the periphery have aided tremendously in the world building. In “Six Short Stories About Magic”, the series once again demonstrates its fearless ability to rewrite expectations, violently shoves the plot in a direction we couldn’t have seen coming, while also shining a light on those supporting players who have so long lived in the shadows of these “heroes”. Not only does it shine a light on their own plights and struggle for heroics, but also, they’re the example made of consequences in this world.

The Magicians, as I’ve gushed endlessly over, is one of the best shows currently airing in large part due to its tenacity for well earned surprises and left turns. They’re fearless in their unpredictability (much like The Good Place,one of my other favorites of the year so far) and they don’t worry about breaking convention; they embrace it for the potential it awards them. What better way to tell another heist story in a manner that introduces the magical (Alice lookalike) being who writes the books in the library than with characters we don’t get the chance to spend as much time with?

It means we get to explore Poppy’s motivations (she’s an asshole who values her life in a manner that’s destructive to others) and Penny’s singular adventure which proves to be a nice reminder of how much of a joy the character is (and how hilarious Arjun Gupta is). We see characters we don’t often view working together, a reminder that a strength in the series lies in the natural chemistry between the cast, meaning a pairing of Fen and Julia or Quentin and Kady works because every character is so meticulously built. Fen and Julia in particular are an inspired pairing, both characters who have been left behind by those they consider friends and/or loved ones, both subjected to trauma by creations made by others. Julia, due to these traumas, is increasingly empathetic while Fen has turned icy, which makes the reveal of a fairy on earth all the more fascinating. The tragedy mounts when we learn that the powder Julia inhaled last week was made out of fairy bones, a chilling revelation that spins the entire perspective on the season. This entire time we’ve grown to believe that the fairies are going to be the “big bad” of the season but, as most things are on The Magicians, it all may be more complex than we’ve imagined.

The big stand out however, is Harriet’s story, told in a manner that films from her point of view with a hearing disability. The actress who plays her, Marlee Matlin (who won an Oscar for her role in Children of a Lesser God), lives with a hearing disability as well and the way in which the show crafts an entire sequence around her grounds the impossible nature of the actions they’re taking in a real sense of reality. The showrunners’ goal was to mirror Matlin/Harriet’s experience and they mightily accomplish this with some inventive sound design.

The emotional impact is lasting as well when we realize she’s the daughter of Zelda, the head librarian of the underworld library where they’re trying to steal magical batteries from (the fairy dust mentioned above). As Harriet tries to escape, she’s stopped in a brutal sequence as she and the traveler they recruited get caught between the mirrors they were traveling through as they’re shattered, pieces of glass whipping past them in violent, soundless fury. It’s a tremendous and daring sequence, and one that more series should try and replicate.

Harriet was essentially a bystander, the traveler a product of necessity for our questers. Penny is trapped once again in the underworld, the group is further splintered and dealing with a huge blow to their journey. It’s a daunting place to be in as they scramble to pick up the pieces and a large reminder that the price for magic is high and that the people caught in the crossfire are mere casualties to a larger quest. The difference with The Magicians is that rather than treat them as just throwaway casualties (red shirts even) they’re fully defined characters who made the mistake of throwing their lot in with a group of self-destructive narcissists who are doing their best to solve an impossible problem. We feel the loss of them because they’re substantial additions to the world we’re exploring.