Alexx Aplin May 1, 2019
Alexx Aplin May 1, 2019

As you are no doubt aware, The Magicians Season 4 Finale left many fans feeling highly upset. The backlash came for a variety of reasons including, but not limited to, the message it sent to those at risk or suffering from Suicidal Ideation and Depression. In the aftermath of the finale which aired on April 18th, 2019, a lot has happened and Syfy’s role in everything has been somewhat odd.

Warning, This article contains spoilers for Season 4 of The Magicians, Please proceed at your own discretion.

In order to parse this out in a digestible manner, let’s go back to the “beginning,” as early February 2019. On the 20th of February, Episode 5 of Season 4 released. This episode was significant because it canonized the “Queliot” relationship between Quentin and Eliot. No longer was it merely subtext or just a sexual thing like previous episodes had been treated. Quentin and Eliot’s relationship in Fillory was discussed and celebrated on screen.

That same day, and in the days that followed, various outlets praised The Magicians and Syfy for reinforcing the idea that Quentin Coldwater is bisexual. The episode continued the journey of fans seeing Quentin as more than just a straight, white protagonist and led him into the Queer space, even more than he had been before. Granted, people rallied around Quentin’s journey before but this was, in a lot of ways, a big win for representation in mainstream (and genre) media.

In the days and weeks afterward, Hale Appleman participated in a few interviews, as did the showrunners, and the representation and the story of Quentin and Eliot’s romance were highly praised. Summer Bishil’s work as Margo was also praised, as was the general “Empowering Stories” that The Magicians had been telling.

Syfy has been integrating LGBT stories into their content, but have seen backlash as well; such as during the aftermath of Julia’s rape during Season 1, followed by her team-up with a murderer in Season 2, which some felt was poorly handled on both accounts. It should also be mentioned that back in 2014, Lev Grossman (creator of the books the series is based on) participated in an article discussing his struggle with depression that led to the creation of the series. He has also been very vocal about the fact that Quentin himself was a mirror for his own struggle, stating that his journey of finding a way out of depression happened alongside Quentin’s.

This is a subject he expanded on during a podcast discussing the aftermath of the finale airing, stating “Well, he means everything to me. […] I go back a long way with Quentin. I started writing The Magicians in 2004 – so 15 years ago – at a time when I was struggling really hard with depression. Quentin was me. I mean, we were both trying to find our way out of it, and for me, it was happening with writing and for Quentin, it was happening with magic. So, we kind of went through it all together. And, you know, in the books we both survived. Kind of a punch in the gut that he didn’t make it in the show.”

Also for context, when Syfy rebranded in the past few years, they began to advertise using #ItsAFanThing which celebrates fandom (fan works and fanfiction) as well as celebrating the people that consume all of Syfy’s content. It should be noted that this support of fans, cosplay, and fan works is very important in the context of what comes next, as they seem to backpedal a bit on their own message later.

To get back on track, the showrunners hinted at the death of Quentin Coldwater at the end of Season 4 but had not shared the information with the cast, writing and shooting a dummy scene in order to keep the secret before the episode aired. Keep in mind that filming wrapped in November of 2018, and many of these interviews and responses to “great representation” and proper “queer stories” all happened after the final episode was shot and written. The showrunners (and Syfy I would assume) knew what was going to happen, and yet they basked in the positive press anyway.

After the finale aired, the response was not at all what the showrunners expected. From their interviews prior to (and after) the finale, it was clear that they thought they had done something groundbreaking and surprising. Never mind the fact that genre television has been killing off main characters since the ’90s, and they killed off a lead that represented both mental health and queer audiences. The showrunners then went silent on social media, despite tweets saying that they would tweet responses after the episode aired on April 17th.

Social Media was not consumed by teens mad that their favorite character had died. No, instead it was adults, young adults, and people who use media as an escape from our chaotic world and political climate, who were upset. Stories were told about how the show had been an escape for so many, only to upset people by giving an ending that reinforced multiple negative ideas, especially in our current social climate.

The backlash was multifaceted and covered a broad range of topics. If you went on Twitter you might see people discussing the Bury Your Gays trope, or you might see mental health discussions, and discussions of choice and personal agency. All of these discussions involved various aspects of The Magicians Finale, from Julia losing her divinity without being able to choose, to the fact that many of the character threads and storylines were dropped in favor of a “heroic,” “ambiguous suicide” of the main character.

Fans also criticized the showrunners for saying that Quentin’s death (and the lack of closure with his friends) was realistic when they had an entire episode involving dragon sex and jokes about dragon pornography. Many viewers wondered why they needed to reinforce a plotline that seemed rushed and served to only torture Quentin’s friends, in the sake of realism.

This also led to discussions about the concept of the “Audience Contract,” which is a concept that is hard to explain in academic terms, so I will give you a practical example. In the first season of Game of Thrones, the series let the audience know that no character was safe from death. As a viewer watching the series, you know that to be the case and are prepared for it.

A confusion of the “Audience Contract” would be if you were watching Will and Grace, only for Daenerys Targaryen to show up and put Grace’s head on a spike. It wouldn’t make sense and confuses the themes you have been exposed to up to this point. A less “fantastical” example with Will and Grace would be if Will suddenly renounced his homosexuality and confessed his love for Grace. It just wouldn’t make sense narratively or visually.

In the context of The Magicians, many fans felt as though the “Audience Contract” was confused, because the character of Quentin Coldwater had fought against his mental illness the entire series, and had not been interested in succumbing to such things. Furthermore, they discussed other aspects of his death in the context of the story and quickly began to point out things that did not make sense.

To many, The Magicians was a show that had dark themes, but always carried with them a message of hope and redemption. They (myself included) felt that the message wasn’t handled effectively, and instead sent the message that “eventually, you too will succumb to your inner demons. Your desire to die will win one way or the other. Your story will end at 25, and your friends will grow beyond you, marked by your sacrifice.”

This isn’t the end of the timeline, however. There is quite a bit more to cover that has developed in the two weeks since the finale aired on April 17th. It took the showrunners five days after the finale aired to respond to fan outcry, which did not sit well, considering the cast had all reached out with shows of support and love. On top of that, Arjun Gupta (who plays Penny on the show) donated to a Trevor Project fundraiser in response to the finale. Fans rallied together, helping each other, and working together so that they could raise money for LGBT Youth, whose suicide rates are higher than most other demographics.

The fact that it took the showrunners so long to respond led fans to think that they did not care about the pain and outrage they caused. The fact that Arjun donated also made fans wonder why the showrunners could not at least acknowledge the message it sent to LGBT Youth when they could have easily donated as well, in a sign of goodwill. Don’t get me wrong, I am not suggesting that they are required to do so, or that people are entitled to that.

What I am suggesting, is that when a cast member participates in this fundraiser and the showrunners (who wrote the episode in question) cannot acknowledge how their actions could be perceived as harmful, it sends a message of apathy to those affected. I should also mention that the intent of the showrunners in writing this episode, is nigh on irrelevant.

To put it in layman terms, using “we didn’t intend for this to hurt people” is the same as if you talk bad about someone behind their back, and they find out. You can say all day long that you didn’t say it to their face because you did not want to hurt them, but they are still hurt because of your actions, and you should be mindful of that.

The showrunners did not and have not shown any kind of remorse for the public outcry. In fact, what Sera Gamble and Henry Alonso Myers released, was a typical PR statement. The above Twitter thread is an example. Fans weren’t happy with that statement, but it was co-showrunner John McNamara who really angered fans with his response.

John seemingly did not take the PR angle, and instead fanned the flames by saying, “I echo @serathegamble and @alonsomyers. To those who found the season finale cathartic, thanks for letting us know. To anyone for whom it brought pain, we hear you. I’m profoundly grateful for the whimsical, dark places #TheMagicians takes us. Peace to all.”

Fans particularly took offense to the way John used the term “Whimsical,” which by definition is characterized as “playfully quaint or fanciful, especially in an appealing and amusing way.” They began to fire back, asking if mental health struggles or the lives of LGBT at-risk youth were really “whimsical,” and called him out on an inappropriate way of phrasing his statement.

The fanbase also began a few other fan campaigns, such as the #PeopleLikeMe letter-writing campaign, which seeks to send a message to the Syfy execs about what Quentin represented not just to queer people, but also those suffering from mental illness. Other fan campaigns include a petition to bring Quentin back to the show and a candlelit vigil for people who resonated with Quentin’s character.

Simultaneously, after the release of the episode, there was a review of the finale, written by Jessica Toomer and Alyssa Fikse. This article was posted on Syfy’s “SyfyWire” site, and it is important to note that the authors are a part of Syfy’s “Syfy Fangrrls,” which are a subset of the contributors on the site. Interestingly, Syfy has freelance contributors that submit commentary on various aspects of “geek culture” sci-fi, and fantasy media.

The article (archived here) went into detail about all the narrative inconsistencies, the fact that it seemed rushed, and the mishandling of Quentin’s arc, as well as the arc of the season as a whole. The article pulled no punches but was very well discussed and was very professional.

People on social media rallied around this review, even when they did not agree about various aspects of the discussion. It was a sensible part of the process that fell in the vacuum of people entirely baffled at what was happening. In the period of silence from the showrunners, other publications used this article as a source and even spread it across social media for how well it was put together.

This article was pulled on April 25th, a week after the article was initially published. However, it was not the only article to be pulled. On the 24th of April, an article was posted on SyfyWire by S.E. Fleenor, (another Syfy contributor) titled “Queerness and Death in The Magicians” that further expanded on the frustration fans were feeling. Fleenor’s article was emotionally charged, and for good reason. As a viewer, she understood where many people were coming from. She did not disparage Syfy, and she did not directly disparage the writers. Instead, she shined a light on every problem with the finale and explained (with a few expletives involved) why the finale could have been handled more respectfully.

Regardless of this, Fleenor’s article was pulled from the site 2 hours after it was published (but has been reposted on pajiba.com by Fleenor herself with a new title) leaving people puzzled and in some cases, angry. Many people saw it as a censorship issue because they quickly reposted a positive article about the show, (that had already been published a week or so before,) to replace the pulled one.

The very next day, people were further frustrated because the original review of the finale was pulled as well. Now, I will go out on a limb here and say this. Because Syfy has creative control over what gets posted on their site, it is not censorship if they do not want to host a critical piece on SyfyWire. However, it most definitely is manipulative and sends the message that they would rather people stop criticizing them and just praise the show, despite people being upset.

There is also the matter of how the articles were published. In Fleenor’s case, I find it interesting that the article was published at all, and here is why. To let you peek behind the curtain of what we do here at Phenixx Gaming, articles are submitted, and then editors get a hold of them, read them, edit them to be presentable, and then schedule them to post.

This is also the period of time in which editors (like myself) look at an article and see if it upholds our quality standards, as well as our content regulations. For example, some places allow profanity, but some do not. We prefer not to allow profanity because we deem it unprofessional, but also because we want parents to be able to read our articles without worrying about their kids seeing something they shouldn’t.

If we find an article that goes against our standards, we do not publish it. If there is a question of its content, our editors come to myself or Lisa (Managing Editor) if we have not already seen it, and ask for our final verdict on the matter. So, the fact that Syfy allowed Fleenor’s article to publish, only to take it down later, is perplexing for a variety of reasons.

The first main reason is a simple rule that many people forget. When you put something on the internet, it is there forever. This is exemplified by the fact that many people took screenshots of the pulled articles and posted them on social media in their original form. Syfy was at best naive, thinking that pulling the articles would make people stop talking about and agreeing with them.

The second reason is one that I don’t have hard evidence for, but that only makes sense to me. I do not know how Syfy runs their offices, of course, but why would you let an article be edited and published if you did not like the message it sent to your readers? That in itself makes no sense at all. It also leads to many people (myself included) wondering whether it was incompetence that led to it slipping through the cracks, or if an Editor saw it, agreed, and then a supervisor came back later and forced them to pull it.

I should take this moment to remind you, dear reader, that this backlash and the rallying around articles that articulated what many people were saying on social media, was not the work of teenagers or disgruntled internet trolls. No, this was by grown adults who were (and are) unhappy with the way the showrunners leaned into negative tropes and toxic messages.

It is also important to mention that while Season 4 as a whole has a favorable rating on IMDB, the finale has the lowest score of any episode to date, including Season 1’s premiere. At the time of writing, the rating was at 6.4, with the second lowest score being the second episode of Season 1 with a score of 7.8 out of 10. This is not the same situation as Captain Marvel being review bombed either.

Upon doing some research on the situation, it seems that IMDB is practically tamper-proof because they use a weighted average to calculate scores. Users who rate things often on IMDB have a higher “priority in the rating,” so seeing the score so low definitely makes a statement.

Regardless of why Syfy pulled Fleenor’s article, the fact that they also pulled a review of the finale that was respectful (if critical) of it, a week after it had gone up, is just bizarre. Why let so many people read it, or rather, why bother pulling it a week on? It doesn’t make much sense to me, and frankly, it comes off (as I previously mentioned) as manipulative.

In our current political climate, you cannot expect people to stand by you if you only allow them to see things that are favorable to you. You cannot create an echo chamber in which you only seek to garner praise, even at the cost of your audience. This is especially true for a network and a company that claims to value their fans and the content said fans produce on their behalf.

Additionally, what sort of message are you sending to your contributors, if you accept their praise but remove things in which they validly question how something is handled? From the outside looking in, it makes me wonder if the contributors affected will be contributing much longer, after the way they were treated.

Furthermore, over the weekend Syfy also shared an article on Twitter by Fleenor (written back in 2018) celebrating coming out stories in media. There are many people raising eyebrows over Syfy’s behavior because frankly, they don’t seem to be acknowledging the problem at all. At best their response is something naive, but some might speculate that perhaps they’re attempting to keep the firestorm going, in an “all press is good press” situation.

The dangerous idea behind that has been covered by Entertainment Weekly of all places, who in their latest issue detailed their “Hits and Misses,” and included The Magicians finale in the section. It seems that the Entertainment Weekly editors have no qualms with speaking their mind either stating, “The Magicians sparks fan backlash, making a compelling case for an audience vanishing act next season.”

They are not the only ones to point out that this finale could have repercussions down the line. All sorts of outlets have avoided digging into Syfy’s response (or lack thereof,) but have discussed how the Bury Your Gays trope and this finale factor into a bigger issue. During an article for Instinct Magazine written by Devin Randall, there was a really great analogy that I feel the urge to share.

“Think of it like two jars of marbles. The straight marble jar is full. As such, when you kill off a character and take away a marble, you still have a large number of marbles. Meanwhile, the LGBTQ jar is less than half full. When you kill off a large chunk of those characters and take a handful of marbles away, you’ve got a pretty empty jar.”

In any case, the sooner Syfy realizes that this discussion isn’t going away, the better. Also, they should be mindful of the fact that acknowledging the fans, and understanding their viewpoints, isn’t the same as agreeing with them. We can agree to disagree, but invalidating the concerns of people will only serve to make them angrier.

Nothing goes away on the internet, and contrary to popular belief, people won’t forget this. Why? Because this is yet another example of networks not caring about the message they send to the viewer. This is another case of viewers rallying behind a show, only to have their hearts stepped on by insensitive, tone-deaf showrunners.

I reached out to Syfy, in the hopes of getting a statement about both the pulled articles, and the fan outcry as a whole. I did not receive a response, but if they get back to me then I will make sure to update this article in the future with further details.

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Alexx Aplin

Alexx has been writing about video games for almost 10 years, and has seen most of the good, bad and ugly of the industry. After spending most of the past decade writing for other people, he decided to band together with a few others, to create a diverse place that will create content for gaming enthusiasts, by gaming enthusiasts.

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3 Comments

  • Pamela

    July 12, 2019 - 6:28 pm

    This is one of the most salient, thoughtful, careful and important deconstructions I have read of the unsettling, for wont of a better word UNCONSCIONABLE finale of my all-time favorite series. I, and other fans, continue to grapple with this choice. As a writer it seems unbelievable to me that Gamble et al, did not consider the impact of their decision, and have opted out of further comment and responsibility to their fans.

    Reply

    • Alexx Aplin

      July 13, 2019 - 3:38 am

      Thank you for your kind words! As a fan myself, i’m beyond upset by what was done. As a writer, and a fan of fantasy Media, I can’t wrap my brain around what they’re thinking or doing at this point. I’ve been following this closely, and the more I learn, the stranger it gets!

      Reply

  • Jay

    February 27, 2023 - 11:20 am

    I’m still boycotting all of the writers of the Magicians, & Syfy as a whole. I’ve found a lot of other great content elsewhere. I read books & engage with video games more than I watch TV shows–I haven’t even watched the new Star Trek shows. I just don’t trust them to be any good. This finale permanently & severely changed my spending habits.

    Reply

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