The Magicians | |
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Intertitle from Seasons 1–3 | |
Genre | Fantasy |
Created by | |
Based on | The Magicians by Lev Grossman |
Starring | |
Composer(s) | Will Bates |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 4 |
No. of episodes | 52 (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) |
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Producer(s) | Mitch Engel |
Production location(s) | |
Cinematography |
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Editor(s) |
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Running time | 41–52 minutes |
Production company(s) |
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Distributor | NBCUniversal Television Distribution |
Release | |
Original network | Syfy |
Original release | December 16, 2015 – present |
External links | |
Website |
The Magicians is an American fantasy television series that airs on Syfy and is based on the novel of the same name by Lev Grossman. [2] Michael London, Janice Williams, John McNamara, and Sera Gamble serve as executive producers. A 13-episode order was placed for the first season in May 2015, and the series premiered on December 16, 2015, as a special preview.
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction set in a fictional universe, often inspired by real world myth and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became literature and drama. From the twentieth century it has expanded further into various media, including film, television, graphic novels, manga and video games.
Syfy is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by the NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. The channel features science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural, paranormal, drama, and reality programming. Syfy is available to 92.4 million households in America.
The Magicians is a new adult fantasy novel by the American author Lev Grossman, published in 2009 by Viking Press. It tells the story of Quentin Coldwater, a young man who discovers and attends a secret college of magic in New York. The novel received critical acclaim, and was followed by The Magician King in 2011 and 2014's The Magician's Land. A television series adaptation of the novels premiered on Syfy in 2015.
In February 2018, the series was renewed for a fourth season of 13 episodes, which premiered on January 23, 2019. In January 2019, Syfy renewed the series for a fifth season.
Quentin Coldwater enrolls at Brakebills University for Magical Pedagogy to be trained as a magician, where he discovers that the magical world from his favorite childhood books is real and poses a danger to humanity. Meanwhile, the life of his childhood friend Julia is derailed when she is denied entry, and she searches for magic elsewhere.
Jason Ralph is an American actor best known for his roles as Peter Pan in Peter and the Starcatcher on Broadway and the lead character Quentin Coldwater in the Syfy television series The Magicians. He was born in McKinney, Texas and studied acting at SUNY Purchase.
Stella Maeve is an American film and television actress best known for her lead role of Julia Wicker in the hit Syfy fantasy drama The Magicians.
The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising sports teams from eight private universities in the Northeastern United States. The term Ivy League is typically used to refer to those eight schools as a group of elite colleges beyond the sports context. The eight members are Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Yale University. Ivy League has connotations of academic excellence, selectivity in admissions, and social elitism.
Hannah Levien is an Australian actress and writer. Her first performance in a feature film was in the award-winning Australian revenge-thriller The Horseman playing teenage runaway Jesse Forteski. She is best known for roles as Calliope in Supernatural and as Victoria in Syfy fantasy series, The Magicians and as Janine in Freeform's thriller, Siren.
David Steven Call is an American actor.
Michael Cassidy is an American film and television actor. He is best known for his role as Zach Stevens on The O.C. and as Tyler Mitchell on the TBS comedy Men at Work. He currently portrays Jonathan Walsh on comedy People of Earth.
Season | Episodes | Originally aired | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
First aired | Last aired | ||||
1 | 13 | December 16, 2015 | April 11, 2016 | ||
2 | 13 | January 25, 2017 | April 19, 2017 | ||
3 | 13 | January 10, 2018 | April 4, 2018 | ||
4 | 13 | January 23, 2019 | April 17, 2019 |
Michael London first optioned the books in 2011, [24] intending to develop the show at Fox. [25] X-Men: First Class co-writers Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz wrote the pilot, but did not get the green light. London then redeveloped the pilot with McNamara and Gamble taking over writing duties, and took the script to Syfy, which ordered a pilot. The pilot, directed by Mike Cahill, was filmed in New Orleans in late 2014 and wrapped in December. [3] [26] Syfy picked up the show for a 13-episode first season, to be aired in 2016. McNamara and Gamble became executive producers. [27]
Michael London is an American film producer and a partner, with Janice Williams, in Groundswell Productions. He has produced over 20 films including Sideways, The Visitor, Win Win, and Smart People. The film Sideways was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture in 2005. On the heels of the Academy nomination, London won "Producer of the Year" in 2006 at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. London will be the executive producer of the upcoming HBO adaptation of the novel A Visit From the Goon Squad. In 2013, Groundswell was scheduled to produce Mona for the studio New Regency, based on the novel of the same name by Swedish author Dan T. Sehlberg.
X-Men: First Class is a 2011 superhero film based on the X-Men characters appearing in Marvel Comics. The fifth installment in the X-Men film series, it was directed by Matthew Vaughn and produced by Bryan Singer. The film is set primarily in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and focuses on the relationship between Professor Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto, and the origin of their groups—the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants, respectively, as they deal with the Hellfire Club led by Sebastian Shaw, who is bent on world domination. The film co-stars Rose Byrne, January Jones, and Oliver Platt, and also introduces Nicholas Hoult and Jennifer Lawrence, who, like McAvoy and Fassbender, reimagine popular characters from the franchise already established in the original trilogy.
Ashley Edward Miller is an American screenwriter and producer best known for his work on the television series Andromeda, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Fringe. He also worked on the films Thor and X-Men: First Class. He often collaborates with fellow screenwriter Zack Stentz.
Series production began on August 4, 2015, in Vancouver, and it was announced that Olivia Taylor Dudley had replaced Sosie Bacon as Alice Quinn. It was also announced that Rick Worthy had been cast as Dean Fogg, Anne Dudek as Professor Sunderland, with Esmé Bianco also cast. [6] Syfy aired an advance commercial-free screening of the first episode on December 16, 2015 ahead of its January 25, 2016 premiere, when it was shown along with the second episode. [28]
Olivia Taylor Dudley is an American actress. She is known for her horror film roles such as Chernobyl Diaries (2012), The Vatican Tapes (2015) and Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015), for her television roles such as the Syfy fantasy series The Magicians and for her work in the internet sketch group 5-Second Films.
Sosie Ruth Bacon is an American actress and the daughter of actors Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick. She was largely isolated from her parents' careers during her childhood. Bacon's first role was playing the 10-year-old Emily in the movie Loverboy, which was directed by her father. James Duff, producer of The Closer, was compelled by Bacon's performance in Loverboy to suggest that she play the role of Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson's niece Charlie in the fifth season of the show. Although her parents were opposed to her being involved in acting, Bacon accepted the role and appeared in four episodes alongside her mother, who played the role of Chief Johnson. She portrayed the character of Skye Miller in the TV series 13 Reasons Why.
Richard "Rick" Worthy is an American actor, best known for appearing in a variety of science fiction and fantasy television shows. He is perhaps best known for his recurring role as Simon O'Neill cylon model number four in the reimagined Battlestar Galactica.
The show was renewed for a second season in February 2016, [9] and the second season premiered on January 25, 2017. [29] On April 12, 2017, the series was renewed for a third season of 13 episodes, which premiered on January 10, 2018. [30] [31] On February 28, 2018, the series was renewed for a fourth season of 13 episodes, which premiered on January 23, 2019. [32] [33] On January 22, 2019, Syfy renewed the series for a fifth season. [34]
The first season received mixed to positive reviews. On Metacritic, it holds a rating of 60/100, based on 24 reviews. [35] On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 74% approval rating, based on 46 reviews, with an average rating of 6.47/10. The site's critics' consensus reads: "The Magicians' impressive special effects and creative storytelling help compensate for a derivative premise and occasionally sluggish pace." [36]
Some critics and fans criticized the show for its brutal depiction of Julia being raped and that the rape gave her extra magical powers. [37] [38] [39] The incident was also criticized because, after Julia remembered the assault, she betrayed her friends by forming an alliance with, and literally embracing, a murderer – who is also a rape survivor. As Lisa Weidenfeld of the AV Club put it: "the show has now suggested that the two victims of sexual assault are its villains". [40]
The second season received positive reviews. On Metacritic, it holds a rating of 74/100, based on 5 reviews. [41] On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 91% approval rating, based on 22 reviews, with an average rating of 8.06/10. The site's consensus reads: "A clearer sense of purpose and extra helpings of cynicism and danger lead The Magicians to a higher level of engagement." [42]
The third season also received positive reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 100% approval rating, based on 11 reviews, with an average rating of 8.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Surprising and wildly entertaining, The Magicians' third season has more than enough tricks up its sleeve to keep viewers under its spell." [43]
The fourth season initially received critical acclaim. On Metacritic, it holds a rating of 81/100, based on 4 reviews. [44] On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 92% approval rating, based on 23 reviews, with an average rating of 9.04/10. The site's consensus reads: "The Magicians conjures a mind-bending fourth season that reinvigorates the ensemble with heady twists and spellbinding turns – all leavened by the series' signature glib humor." [45] While the season started with a 100% score, reception became more mixed in the second half. The finale was not well received by some fans, who mainly criticized the romanticization of suicidal ideation that was displayed but also the treatment of marginalized groups. [46] [47] [48] [49]
Season | Timeslot (ET) | Episodes | First aired | Last aired | Avg. viewers (millions) | 18–49 rating (average) | ||
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Date | Viewers (millions) | Date | Viewers (millions) | |||||
1 | Monday 9:00 pm | 13 | December 16, 2015 | 0.92 [50] | April 11, 2016 | 0.68 [51] | 0.78 [52] | 0.29 [52] |
2 | Wednesday 9:00 pm | 13 | January 25, 2017 | 1.29 [53] | April 19, 2017 | 0.67 [54] | 0.79 [55] | 0.31 [55] |
3 | 13 | January 10, 2018 | 0.78 [56] | April 4, 2018 | 0.66 [57] | 0.71 [58] | 0.27 [58] | |
4 | 13 | January 23, 2019 | 0.61 [59] | April 17, 2019 | 0.50 [60] | 0.54 [61] | 0.19 [61] |
Year | Awards | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Refs |
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2016 | Saturn Awards | Best Fantasy Television Series | The Magicians | Nominated | [62] |
2017 | Saturn Awards | Best Fantasy Television Series | The Magicians | Nominated | [63] |
2018 | Saturn Awards | Best Fantasy Television Series | The Magicians | Nominated | [64] |
The first season of The Magicians was released on DVD and Blu-Ray on July 19, 2016, in Region 1. The release included all thirteen episodes, as well as multiple special features, including deleted scenes, a gag reel, "The World of The Magicians" featurette, and UltraViolet digital copies. [65] The first season was made available to stream on Netflix on December 26, 2016. [66]
The Magician King is a new adult fantasy novel by Lev Grossman, published in 2011 by Viking Press, the sequel to The Magicians. It continues the story of Quentin Coldwater, interweaving it with the story of his high school crush, Julia, who learned magic outside of the standard school setting and joined him in Fillory.
The Magician's Land is a new adult fantasy novel by Lev Grossman, published in 2014 by Viking Adult, the second sequel to The Magicians. It continues the story of outcast magician Quentin Coldwater, interweaving it with the story of several of his friends who are questing to save the magical realm of Fillory.
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