THE MAGICIANS.

• Author: Soave, Robby
• Position: TV - Television program review - Brief article

When it first premiered on the SyFy channel in 2015, The Magicians used the tagline "magic is a drug," a signal to audiences that despite its kid-friendly premise--a group of millennials enroll in a school for spellcasters and travel to a Narnia-esque fantasy world--this was very much a show for adults. Like its source material, a popular trilogy of novels by Lev Grossman, The Magicians is filled with sex, violence, addiction, and angst. Protagonist Quentin Coldwater (think Harry Potter crossed with Holden Caulfield), who is clinically depressed, discovers that magic can't fix what's wrong with him. It may even make thing worse.

If magic is a drug, strictly regulating sorcery proves just as unwise as the drug war. The fourth season, which concluded in April, begins with a new world order: A bureaucratic organization called "the Library" has taken literal control, forcing all...