Signal Boost: The Magicians S4 Finale Aired Five Days Ago And I'm Still Mad As Hell

cleolinda posted: The Magicians S4 Finale Aired Five Days Ago And I'm Still Mad As Hell

There is still so much I want to say about all of it, but my thoughts won't organize themselves sufficiently. Read cleolinda; lots of commentary and links.

I do, however, want to comment eventually on the less-loaded topic of bad storytelling, which was also a factor here.

But there's also this: any hack on earth can write tragedy. Devastating your audience is the easiest thing in the world.

You know what's hard? Blowing their minds with sheer joy. Shock them by giving them what they didn't even know they could want. I think I can count the times on one hand where a show managed that. To get it, you have to work for it.

I don't get--I'll never get--why anyone on earth would do the second--would manage the fucking impossible--but in the end, only care about, only take pride in, only value doing the first.

Comments

[vicki_rae]

Never watched Magicians but reading the WTF dumpster fire posts all over my DWlist has been mindboggling. It's massively reinforced my decision (after BtVS) to never again watch a show until after the canon closes.

Not a fan of showrunners who tend to think of characters as furniture for Whut Really Matters IS Just The Plot.

Some writers get that characters matter to viewers. Other writers live by "hey wouldn't it be cool if we ...". Plot driven instead of character driven. And this time, at best, it's really sloppy plotting since they had to make this death different from any other death because Reasons.

And unbelievably, it seems this time "what would be cool" was suicide solves all of a characters problems and everyone is all, well that was sad but it all worked out for the best. And he gets a chance to see everyone is fine without him so yes, indeed, (insert glyph of showrunners dislocating joints while patting themselves on the back) they're really quite sure it really was the right thing to do.

We have to kill characters because who does or doesn't die is all that keeps viewers watching! Or something. And those stupid fans just aren't getting it because death isn't final in this universe so we'll rewrite the rules to make it a permanent death.

And lying to the entire rest of the cast for an entire season. And rubbing their hands together in glee as the cast talked to fans all season long. Isolating one actor who can't discuss any of this with cast mates because they don't know.

There's a really good reblog chain on tumblr with multiple contributors discussing the premise that fanfic as a whole is a distinct genre.

https://earlgreytea68.tumblr.com/post/159093823061/on-fanfic-emotional-continuity

The Magicians clusterfuck is a perfect example of why I don't watch genre TV anymore, and why fanfic is more than 95% of the fiction I read nowadays.

Sorry, rant over.