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

[dar_vidder]

I've been stewing about the finale for days. What's interesting to me is that I actually think they killed off Q because he wasn't the conventional white straight male hero.

I think it's all subconscious though. Like, I think the showrunners have fooled themselves into believing Q ticks all the boxes of privilege and that therefore killing him really was this revolutionary twist. But at the core of it, I can't help but feel as Q ventured further and further away from the conventional hero mold, they became increasingly uncomfortable with him as well as apathetic (how else could they possibly say that after 3 seasons they honestly couldn't think of another storyline to write for him?).

I remember arguing with another fan when they were hating on Julia during the first 1.5 seasons then Alice for the next 1.5, and I'd said that I thought it was rather subversive that the show allowed for the two main female characters to have opinions/goals that were at odds with Quentin's.

In most other shows the female characters just naturally align with their male counterparts...and it's done in such a slick way that the audience is never really meant to notice how even the 'strongest' of female characters has to have male validation and support to prevail.

Anyway, this same fan loved Margo (and I obviously did and still do, too), but I said that it was easy to love Margo because the writers don't really take risks with her character. She's always a natural ally to Eliot/Quentin. Her goals are never diametrically opposed to theirs, or at least not in a way that will put them at odds for very long.

So yeah, I always appreciated that Julia and Alice (and Kady to a lesser extent) got to have POVs that didn't always jive with the males and that they had their own agendas that were separate from the group's mission.

All of this is to say that now though seeing what they did to Quentin, I can't help but feel that the showrunners (again subconsciously) considered Q expendable because he wasn't dominating the narrative as any 'strong hero' should. Deep down I think they became resentful of him and thought he needed to be punished for that 'weakness' of allowing the female characters to buck his authority repeatedly.

Obviously the showrunners were the ones making all the decisions for how Q was written and what he would do in any given situation, so it seems crazy to think they could write their lead a certain way and then end up despising him for the decisions they themselves made for him. But I can see how early on the writers thought they were being daring and bold when they de-centered Q, but cumulatively over time, they lost interest in him BECAUSE THEY'D DE-CENTERED HIM.

As an aside, I don't dislike Josh, but I do feel like he's risen in prominence on the show because he is more of the classic fanboy insert who's white and hetero and doesn't struggle with depression/anxiety. I have a feeling he'll still be alive and kicking when the final frames of the series finale roll.

[nyctanthes]

Dropping in via network, and several days late, but just wanted to +1 this brilliant comment, esp. what you have to say to about Alice and Julia vs Margo.