Magicians -- Giving Up

I did make it two seasons in. In an earlier post, I expressed my doubts -- that it looked like "a cross between Hogwarts for grownups and Alphas." But after one episode, it was clear that it was something bigger than that.

Brakebills is a college for magicians -- so you get the whole college scene mixed with something really bad going on -- well -- several really bad things going on.

All of the characters are interesting. A new freshman appears to have one of the strongest natural talent, but he has no idea how to use it and control it. His girlfriend is rejected from the college, even though she wanted it more than he did. Some of the older students are mean, manipulative, and vindictive, but somehow all these people become friends.

Overall, I loved the first season even though the writers seemed to have an overt obsession with sex. In fact - they wasted an entire episode on that -- something about sex bringing strength to magic -- some crazy nonsense. That episode was so bad, I think it could be skipped entirely without missing too much plot -- well, some big things do happen somewhere in the middle.

But other than that distraction, the first season seemed tight with good plot and strong direction. The season finale left me hanging -- making me have to wait till the next year to continue.

However, then -- the second season came out weaker. There were still some good parts in each episode ... but there was still that obsession with sex, and the tendency to convolute the plot to get the strangest people together and set up all kinds of love triangles, squares, and pentagons. That got boring with the exception of watching one of the characters get exactly what they wanted in that area.

That season explores the magical land of Fillory, which was kind of interesting ... but ... didn't seem to work. Almost like making stuff up as they went along to fill in the holes instead of first setting the rules, building the world, and letting it flow organically.

At the end of the second season -- I just lost interest. I could tell the show still had potential and could possibly redeem itself, but evidently I found other shows to keep me busy.

You can check out the show if you wish -- I read that it comes to a satisfying conclusion after five seasons. I gave up -- but you just might enjoy it.