If you’re a devourer of YA on the regular, like us here at Basic Stuff Magazine, you’ve familiarized yourself with the common trends and stereotypes of the genre. Vampires, werewolves, witches, love triangles – you’ve seen it all before, and chances are you’re itching for something new.
Enter The Magicians, a television series with a healthy dose of cynicism, based on the trilogy of books by the same name. One look at the trailers – which are in themselves alight with pretty faces and convincing enough visual effects – and one might think it sounds suspiciously like something along the lines of “Harry Potter for adults.” However, it only takes one episode to realize that beyond the concept of a magic school, these stories couldn’t be more different – and it all has to do with, well, magic! Here, we’ll discuss five ways The Magicians carries a magic you haven’t seen.
The Brakebills campus (SyFy)
1. Brakebills University Is More Prestigious Than Yale
“Three-year program, graduate-level studies, program begins immediately.”
It’s no surprise that a school for studying the mystical arts would be crawling with peculiarities – but this is no Hogwarts. The campus is clean-cut and undeniably scholarly, only accessible underneath its layers of magical wards and shields by registered students and staff members. Becoming such a student is also no letter-via-owl delivery, but instead a tracking system of enchanted globes searching for teens who possess magical aptitude. When such an individual completes their required education, they’re plucked out of reality and onto the Brakebills campus to take their entrance exam. Pass, and you go on to learn the ins and outs of being a Magician. Fail, and your memory of the event is erased entirely, and you’re none the wiser.
“At the exam, each of you did magic. What was inside you was…coaxed. The question is, who can grow this magic into something more? Who can be a Magician?”
Brakebills is alight with sentient books (that may, on occasion, mate with one another), enchanted fountains, a reality-warping gymnasium, and – of course – students from every walk of life creating magic. Students are organized into disciplines based on their own innate abilities: Knowledge, Physical, Psychic, Nature, the list goes on. Whatever power you possess, Brakebills is poised to help you grow and hone that power.
At the end of their first year, each student is gifted with what is known as an Alumni Key, so that they may bypass the illusion of dense forestry surrounding the campus and return for whatever reason.
“This school exists for a single and timeless purpose: to reveal your innate abilities and hone them to the highest degree. What you choose to do with that afterwards is entirely up to you. You wanna take over the world? We don’t teach that, but give it a go.”
What Brakebills teaches most of all is freedom. Magicians may look like normal humans, but at their fingertips is a massive arsenal of possibilities, and Brakebills’ true intent is to open your eyes to such possibilities.
The makings of a spell (SyFy)
2. Magic Is More Scientific Than You’d Think (And More Universal)
At Brakebills University, doing magic isn’t so much “doing the impossible” as it is redefining what “impossible” is. Like many subjects in academia, magic can be approached methodically and logically – studying the math and science of magic is the foundation of Brakebills education. The Periodic Table of Elements itself contains magical elements only detectable by Magicians, some of whom went on to become great inventors, doctors, scientists, and even politicians (in fact, former U.S. President John F. Kennedy was a Magician).
Magical spells are not cast with a simple wave of a wand and a few Latin phrases, but rather are a set of complex hand, finger, and arm movements known simply as tuts. The complexity of these tuts, along with any ingredients, incantations, and atmospheric circumstances (e.g. the position of the moon), is decided by the intricacy and power of the magic being performed; even a slight mishap can entirely change the outcome. Performing even the smallest spell also alters the mind and body, whether the Magician wants it or not.
Magicians see the world through a different lens, developing a sense for the connection between elements and spells and understanding the world around them on an entirely different level. It is this instinct that Brakebills tracks and hones in on, to see if it can be practiced and enhanced.
Julia and Marina performing Hedge Witch magic (SyFy)
3. Knowing Changes Everything
“Magic is real and that’s the thing, and once you know that, you can’t– It’s like I know it’s there. It’s everywhere, all around me, a whole world of power and beauty. You can’t unsee it. You wake up for the first time.”
One thing that becomes abundantly clear as the story moves forward, especially in the case of deuteragonist Julia Wicker (a Brakebills reject) is that magic – due to its enigmatic and reality-altering nature – can very easily become addictive. Hedge Witches – pseudo-Magicians scraping at the bottom of the barrel for any bit of spellwork they can find – throw their entire lives away just to be able to work the smallest bit of magic. Magic redefines what had once been irrefutable, pushes the boundaries of what can and cannot be done, and goads the Magician into dangerous territory; yet another reason why an institution like Brakebills is necessary.
This world-altering change of view isn’t all metaphorical – there’s a literal aspect to it as well. When a Magician is introduced to the world of magic, a set of previously inert synapses activates and they begin to view the world through a lens in which everything carries its own energy, its own power and magic, to be shaped and harnessed by the individual.
The grisly effects of a spell gone awry (SyFy)
4. Magic Can Sometimes Really F*cking Suck
Magic, like everything in the world, doesn’t always work. Even more so, it isn’t always the better solution. Arguably one of the series’ greatest strengths is its presentation of magic as something that is wonderful, fun, dangerous, addictive – and never perfect. It creates problems more often than solves them, demands an unpredictable price from the Magician who wields it, and cannot necessarily cure things that regular methods can’t.
This level of realism grounds the story in a way that is unprecedented, allowing for an emotional honesty that would have otherwise been drowned in too much plot and info-dumps. It allows the show to shine a light on the reality that despite magic, our heroes are just a group of twentysomethings figuring out what to do with their lives – while simultaneously fighting off a dollop of mental illness (this is especially true in the case of our protagonist, Quentin Coldwater).
The Fairy Queen, played by Candis Cayne (SyFy)
5. “We Only Look Whimsical”
“You’re in Fillory, Magician. Be careful around strangers. We only look whimsical.”
Last but certainly not least, one of The Magicians’ crown jewels is its presentation of magical creatures as everything they’re supposed to be: eerie, fun, fantastical, funny, and sometimes scary. Whether they be as benevolent as unicorns or as volatile as vampires, the fantasy population of their world (and beyond) is dangerous. This is most obvious with the main villain of the first season, known only as the enigmatic Beast – a deranged, flesh-eating humanoid with an extra finger on each hand, an entourage of moths surrounding (and disguising) his face, and an arsenal of incredibly powerful magic.
This threatening presence is less obviously found in beings like the sentient flora and fauna of Fillory, amphibian-like fairies, deep-sea demons, and imperious gods who have an utter disinterest in the affairs of humans.
It is with this fearlessness for creating undesirable, sometimes chilling creatures that the backdrop of The Magicians expands into a world filled with threats beyond what most of us can conceive of. And after the chilling fallout and unsettling new threat revealed in the Season 3 finale, more is destined to come.
The Magicians returns with its fourth season January 23rd on SyFy, at 9/8c.
