The Magicians (2016)

"Harry Potter" meets "Gossip Girl" in "The Magicians," Syfy's new adaptation of a Lev Grossman trilogy, and it's a good match.... The Magicians holds its own by making the students a bit older and complicated.

Overall, this seems as though it will be one of Syfy’s most engaging new series as the channel continues to get back into the hardcore sci-fi and fantasy genres.

The Magicians may not have perfected every incantation in its spellbook, but it’s worth a look for viewers intrigued by the idea of a Harry Potter-esque weekly fantasy series.

Monday’s busy pilot (crammed with setting reveals and visual effects) leads to a sluggish second hour trading the thrill of discovery for downbeat foreboding. Yet the purpose-seeking characters emerge so starkly--Jason Ralph’s disturbed new student, Hale Appleman as his sardonic guide, Arjun Gupta as his itchy roommate, Stella Maeve as his left-behind soul mate. They feel worth following.

The book’s fans may not be completely satisfied--dialogue often doesn’t do justice to Grossman’s withering prose--but the spirit of this dark-natured series is intact.

The pilot is an effective introductory chapter to a story that speaks to a moment cluttered with both escapist fantasy and neo-gothic gloominess. It’s Harry Potter, distressed with a Heavy Metal acid bath.... The world and perspective of The Magicians is more immediately interesting than the characters.

It promises to be a wild ride. [1-14 Feb 2016, p.19]

Like its protagonist, The Magicians demonstrates lots of clear potential to both follow and subvert that storytelling device, as well of flashes of poetic beauty, buried beneath a grim, world-weary exterior. You could call it an anti-escapist fantasy.

The students of Brakebills have never fit in and aren’t part of a hierarchy, and, like a lot of young people, can be their own worst enemy. So far The Magicians played off those reverse expectations fairly well, and has a more hip Gothic atmosphere to it. It will be interesting to see if it can keep all the balls flying in the air.

The series works well enough as a straightforward coming-of-age tale that the stock scenes of magic--a windblown sheet of paper leading Quentin to the proper doorway, a deck of cards forming castles in the air--can feel like cheesy intrusions.