Yes. BB South had too much of a "summer abroad elective" feel. And the writers used the vague threat of not making the cut, yet again. That feels lazy, or contrived, as there's never any doubt that our main characters will find a way to pass. Also, aside from Julia, we never actually see any of the other students…

Yes. I loved the books, genuinely like the show, despite its flaws. It's improved as the season goes on, with signs that they're figuring out how to do it better going forward.

I imagine Grossman's reaction on seeing this scene was similar to Mayakovsky's reaction to almost everything. Scowl. Drink.

And I think Penny's line was even more on the nose than that: "I heard you guys could use some extra hands?"

For as bad as I was expecting the fox scene to be, I suppose it was OK. But it was definitely in the Unintentional Comedy zone to me. The foxes out in the snow looked like low budget National Geographic b-roll, and the attempt at editing that into the scene of the actors doing the deed was pretty weak.

You have seen photos of Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann, right?

Bravo, Doctor.

She's a magic junky now, with no way to secure her next fix. Her ability to rationally consider the consequences of her actions is sort of out the window.

Grossman has said he didn't even know Julia would be a factor until the character imposed herself on the story in book two.

Fun fact: and the great-nephew of Barry Goldwater.

I would dislike Quentin more if he wasn't almost exactly like all my friends in 1993.

I'm still praying that a third person here starts calling her Jargo.

Yes! And Plover in the show leaving the Beast out of the Fillory books mirrors Grossman leaving the beastly bits about books-Plover out of the Magicians books until later.

| Once it figured out what it was doing, it got so confident in the space of about three episodes.

It was clever but in retrospect also kind of goofy that Q fell over the wall and then the goose flew out. Wish they had a 'behind the scenes' shot of the opposite angle.

He also said, in a lecture I saw on YouTube, that he'd run out of ideas for it.

It's interesting to hear the perspective of someone coming to the show without knowing the books. I think you're exactly right about Brakebills being too vague in the show. It's a shame. It really could have been a focal point of the first season. This may be "Harry Potter for grown ups", but even so, who doesn't want…

I did like that they gave Eliot and Jargo (Jargot?) more screen time. That scene in the PK cottage could have been about five times longer, for my taste — show us more details of their life in school, more aimless drunkenness and slacking, more confusion about spell casting hand positions.

Or more likely, Jargo Maanet.

Her Star Wars name would be Jargo Manet. I'm going with that.