SyFy's New Fantasy 'The Magicians' Is Terrifyingly Magical!

Magic has always been something that fascinated me. I remember growing up and watching all the David Copperfield specials that had me confounded and inspired. I scoured the Internet for how-to tricks, after trying to learn them I gave up, because honestly, I sucked. Still the same, I was filled with bewilderment whenever I watched a magician perform. Over the years, magic had its ebb and flow, popping up in several feature films and now it's appeared in a new SyFy original series, The Magicians.

The Magicians is adapted from the best-selling trilogy of novels written by Lev Grossman. The Magicians has SyFy pulling out all the stops, as it is one of the most ambitious and highly anticipated shows of the year for the network. The Magicians proves to be completely spellbinding as I was drawn into the pilot immediately.

Following a much darker vein in the fantasy realm, The Magicians draws comparisons to Harry Potter and Chronicles of Narnia, but only in the sense that they are all set in a fantastical world where magic exists. The show follows the escapades of Quentin Coldwater and the collection of students at Brakebills College for Magical Pedagogy - an elite university in upstate New York. As Quentin begins to understand the truth that magic is genuinely real and that the stories he thought once to be nothing more than fiction, are actually more dangerous than he could have imagined.

We all signed a waiver, hope you read yours, it said 'spellwork is not unlikely to murder you, and if so, oh well...' - Eliot Waugh

Why you need to watch 'The Magicians'

The Magicians is "Harry Potter for adults" as the New York Times called it, and that is a very accurate assessment. The show injects mature themes throughout while wrapping it all up in a fantasy story so engrossing, you can't help but want more. The Magicians is more than just a fantasy story, it's a dark tryst through the looking glass. Through the characters we see both the wish-fulfillment aspects of life and the reality of how cold and hard life can truly be.

The special effects are truly top-notch when you consider it's a television series and not a Hollywood blockbuster, and that's truly important when you consider the subject matter. The magic in the show is, at times terrifying: when a main character is moved by an unseen force while being stripped and bound to a heater in a club, or when a mysterious and dangerous stranger steps through a mirror and casually begins killing students while everyone looks on in horror. Yet there are moments where the magic is so subtly beautiful: a ball of glass slowly transformed into a prancing pony, or a deck of cards floating idly by. These are the sort of things that make The Magicians visually breath-taking.

'The Magicians' premieres on January 25 with the first two episodes, but you can watch the first episode online at SyFy now.