I was convinced that this was set in the late seventies, early eighties until Otis popped out his smartphone.

Magician Corner: Interesting that Julia is evidently still a goddess, albeit a de-powered one.

Can you imagine “Colored Spade” being performed live in primetime on NBC? Nearly every lyric strikes the third rail of public discourse, and of course the song’s original context would be completely drowned out in the ensuing controversy.

Who else read this as “The Best Switch Accessory You Can Buy Is a Second Dick” at first glance?

Who else read this as “The Best Switch Accessory You Can Buy Is a Second Dick” at first glance?

It’s brutal to me that this show gets weekly reviews and “The Magicians” doesn’t.

The writers have put a whole lot on Nia’s backstory: She’s a human-alien hybrid second generation immigrant who was born biologically male and transitioned to female at a young age and inherited once in a generation superpowers.

Given all of that, and how messily the various elements have been introduced over the…

Young Ian has been a boring space filler all season, but damned if he wasn’t the one white character in this finale with a bit of honor.

Thank you!

The point was that if the episodes all get Bs and As, you wouldn’t expect the season as a whole to be graded in the C range. What amuses me is how often two different reviewers for the same site can have drastically different opinions about the same work.

Good to know. I never got into that show; the only thing that I remember about it is that it shot on green screen sound stages and utilized virtual sets instead of real ones.

The thing about this show is that the characters are so strong that they read through the cardboard cutout personas they’ve been assigned. I’m glad the show didn’t waste too much time before starting to get the gang back together.

Nobody fails upward like Madani fails upward.

I really hope Bonnet died in that explosion, but somehow I don’t think we’re that lucky.

The cold open — with Frank playing Three-card Monty with Amy, and Amy using it as an object lesson, and Frank refusing to be educated — was a terrific bit of economical storytelling. I love how this show partners Frank each season with someone who’s allowed to be as smart or smarter than he is, have their own…

Yeah, I get why it happens, but it still amuses me. One thing I find is that the pre-air reviewers tend to come in with an overarching thesis, and their impression of the season has a tendency to be skewed toward that thesis: In this case, that Marvel and Netflix can’t seem to be able to make a satisfactory second…

It always amuses me when the pre-air is in the C range and then there isn’t a single episode below a B- for the episodic reviews.

It’s not supposed to sit right with you. Wonderful character exploration isn’t just about seeing what’s decent and admirable about them, but also what’s flawed, nasty, selfish, bitter, etc. about them. We’re all a mix of things we’re proud of and things we’re ashamed of, and hopefully as we learn and grow, we…

Given that Brianna faced the prospect of being married off to a stranger who might rape her or worse with the legal protections of the matrimonial bed, and here’s a handsome honorable man in the prime of his life with no sexual interest in her, I’d say there was a lot of reason for it. It was selfish and cruel, but…

Now THAT would be interesting.

Everything with grown up Zach Morris and the little girl was magic. Everything else was... meh.