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Trailer Park: The Magicians Coming to Syfy
So a few days ago I posted the trailer for Childhood’s End from Syfy at which time I commented that it looked like Syfy was trying to up their game. Today I saw this trailer for The Magicians over on SF Signal and it just further solidified that notion.
You have to appreciate the effort they’re displaying and I love that they’re going old school with Clarke and also very new school with Grossman at the same time. It’s like they’re actually listening to genre fans now and I, for one, am starting to feel some love for Syfy again. Who’d have thunk it?
I’ve not read the Fillory series yet, they’re in my stack somewhere, so I don’t know if this looks like a faithful adaptation but I have to say I think it looks promising. It has certainly made me want to move The Magicians closer to the top of the pile so I can read the original before the show comes out next year.
Any Grossman fans out there want to chime in? Has this show been on your radar or is this the first you’ve heard of it like me? Are you feeling any more sanguine about Syfy or are you still trying to get over Sharknado I, II, and III?
The Expanse: Coming to SyFy in 2015
I’m guessing most of you have seen this already but in case you haven’t here it is. The Expanse, based on the series of the same name by James S. A. Corey (shared pen name for authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) is coming to SyFy. See? If I had said HBO we’d all be juiced as hell! But since it’s SyFy we have to pause and consider first.
These are the people responsible for Sharknado (1,2 and 3), Sharktopus, Mansquito, Dinocroc vs. Supergator, Piranhaconda, Megapython vs. Gatoroid, Frankenfish, and oh so many more like them. I found a list of 206 SyFy movies on IMDB and never a one has ever earned more than a 5.6 out of 10 with most sitting in the 2-4 range. There’s a bit of damning evidence.
On the other hand they seem to fare a little better with their series. They made 2 Dune miniseries that were pretty decent on the whole, for the SyFy channel anyway, and there was of course Battlestar Galactica and that 12 Monkeys looks pretty decent so far and there are a number of semi-watchable shows in there like Warehouse 13 and some incarnations of Star Gate.
But always the caveat “for the SyFy channel” has to be appended to any sort of praise to set the bar low enough to be believable. Admit it. When I mentioned the Dune miniseries above you cringed a little bit but then the caveat hit and you relaxed. Your sudden burning urge to correct me dissipated.
So what can we expect from The Expanse? Well, as of now I’d say 10 episodes and hope that it will be pretty good, “for the SyFy channel”. Any more would be be nice but we’ve been down this road too many times before to hold out for too much. Still, I’ll watch because hey, sci-fi!
I’ll admit the trailer does look pretty snazzy. The ships look really cool and the interiors look to be varied and interesting. Lots of faces in there that I recognize and many that I have liked in other things – that bodes well. And the writers gave us Children of Men and Iron Man? And who doesn’t like the notion of a zero-g booty call? And the bit about paradise paved over? I like that too. Ah…. stupid hope, tempered as it is, has me by the beard again, I guess. I’d love for SyFy to prove me wrong and hit this one outta the park.
What do you think? Does the trailer do anything for you? Have you read The Expanse? Are you feeling more sanguine about the show than me?
The Wil Wheaton Project premiers tonight on SyFy – “Imagine it Doesn’t Suck”
I like Wil Wheaton’s brand of snark and so I find myself in the awkward position of promoting a show on the SyFy channel. Has Hell indeed frozen over? The Wil Wheaton Project premiers tonight at 10/9 central and he’s gonna riff on sci-fi and nerd culture and generally geek out about our favorite things. It could be a train wreck like most things SyFy but it could be fun too. I’m betting on Wil to make it work. What do you think?
