I will fight you RIGHT NOW.

I mean, I'm watching it. It's not a complete disaster. More than anything, it has potential. They've managed to find an appealing enough actor to play Quentin, which is, to say the least, a challenging part. And they're finding some creative ways to adapt things here and there: the butterflies covering The Beast's…

Yeah, the exam is so cool in the book and Grossman goes into such detail about it, and they breezed through it in, like, 30 seconds. Plus, Quentin's whole reaction was, like, "Oh, an exam that moves around and changes its questions, all of which are esoteric and often unanwerable… Well, Ok, I've got this!"

And of course the sequel is helmed by Ziggy Sobotka himself. Which… isn't always the stamp of quality you're hoping for.

What's really frustrating is that SyFy does, occasionally, have decent shows. 12 Monkeys hasn't been genre-defining, but it's been solid. And, unlike The Magicians, it takes its time a little more. Sure, it's an explosion/expansion of the movie, and designed to be a lot more meandering.

Magic = sex/drugs is a much easier sell than magic = hard work and ancient languages! Magic = hand contortionism and lots of math and meteorology! I'd like to see that on a billboard, somewhere.

Well, he appeared as a talking head in the first episode, so they've got his support, probably, if not his collaboration. I mean, when they back the truck of money (even SyFy money) up to your house and start shoveling it out onto the lawn, it's hard to say no to whatever weird caveats it comes along with.

I just feel like they're going for the lowest common denominator across the board. The ad campaign pushes the concept that magic is sexy! and magic is a drug! super hard, when neither of those things are particularly germane to the book. If anything, Grossman works his ass off to go the other direction; magic isn't…

Yeah, I figured Brakebills would be cake, and the first problem would be the whole Brakebills South section. But yeah, I've been thinking ahead a lot. I feel really protective of the books, and there's a lot of stuff that I'm fairly convinced they're just not going to be able to do.

I hope they don't just have one of the Chatwins stand there and rattle off the history of Fillory. That's the least cinematic way they could possibly go. I feel like pretty much anything's on the table to be cut, though, Ember and Umber included. Maybe they'll have real rams that just have voice-over, or something?…

I'm just concerned in all directions.

I don't know if it necessarily means that they're going to invent stuff for Fillory, and I really hope they don't. I can see them cutting a lot of it, though; it depends how deep a dive they want to do into the mythology. It's really easy to have Quentin explain who Ember and Umber are in the book, cause we're in his…

Yeah, I have to agree with this assessment. Sinister, in particular, could have been ridiculous without a grounding presence that made the whole thing feel real. I'm pretty sure I read that Hawke watched the home movies cold so that his reaction could be genuine, and when he jumps out of his chair, it's hard not to…

13.

I agree. But let's see if they allow him to have any sex. Having him be infatuated with Quentin makes me think we're going to have to settle for unrequited longing.

Just the idea of that hypothetical episode makes me more excited than actually watching the show. There's just no innovation or creativity at work.

The world-building is just so poor. It's shows like this that bring out the armchair showrunner in me. I can't help but come up with all the ways I would fix it.

Mayakovsky comes to Brakebills, everybody talks about him in hushed tones, they probably don't turn into geese, Mayakovsky says a bunch of random stuff that sort of references Fillory/transdimensional travel, "I once knew a girl named Emily Greenstreet who played with magic she didn't understand. Don't make that same…

Yeah, it's like they thought we wouldn't be interested in seeing the nuts and bolts of magic school, so they had to graft on a mystery. And we couldn't be trusted to follow subtly interwoven references to FIllory, so every time someone makes reference to Fillory it's immediately followed-up by "Is Fillory real?" or…

I'm really trying to separate the books from the show at this point. The showrunners seem really confused as to what parts to keep and what parts to jettison. Quentin and Alice busting down the door to the Physical Kid's cottage? Not super important (especially since they've already _been_ there). All the actual…