Not all Magic Schools are Hogwarts!

Expecto Patronum. Imperio. Crucio. Avada Kedavra. Lumos. Every kid and adult on this planet who has assiduously and unflaggingly followed Harry Potter since 1997 would know better that the world of magic is synonymous to the Potter world. Such is the strong brand name and brand equity that the entire Harry Potter series had created that you find anything even remotely related and concerned to magic would be definitely Harry Potter and nothing else. A complete generation and its successors have grown up to create such an intense and indestructible bond with the lightning scarred and spectacled boy who had by then grown up and evolved to kill You-Know-Who with his bunch of chums in the 7th and final installment of this revered series. So, when you hear that Brakebills is also a magic school, the instant reaction which you will have is 'Hey..I have read the Potter series more than my Bible or The Bhagawad Gita. There is no such school by that name in The Potter Universe'. You are absolutely right. Brakebills does not feature in the HP series at all. It is actually a school, a magic school, created by Lev Grossman in The Magicians trilogy.

"I can't just go to Yale if I know this place exists" Julia exclaims after she is rejected by the university professors during her preliminary magic examination. On the other hand, Quentin Coldwater, her best friend, is selected and given admission in the magic school which is situated in upstate New York. No more big spoilers other than this will be revealed but the tone was set for the pilot of The Magicians. The pilot's plot moved at a slow yet steady pace thus covering all the characters one by one in a wide and shallow manner. Though you can see semblances of Narnia-esque and Potter-esque scenes in the pilot, The Magicians set the bar very high towards the concluding part especially in the final scenes where it is more than gripping and intriguing. 

The small quick dance accompanied by a hair-raising BGM did surely give an eerie sense of foreboding that something nasty and evil was just imperative and impending on the horizon. Just like the awesome and eye-popping magic scenes like the cards flying, stopping and swirling in mid-air to form a castle on the table to a crystal melting and transforming itself into a horse, the ending was simply mind-blowing thus creating the desired anticipation for the actual episodes that is to be aired from Jan 25. Even though I have not read the books, I can very well say with categorical confidence that as ever the books trump and triumph over movies and serials. This is very evident from the simple fact that all the characters are so hurriedly introduced and frisked away thus leaving the newer entrants to the series with very less time to register and digest the mindset of the characters on board. However, the final act was more than sufficient to make up for the lack of proper character introduction in the Magicians. So, its an unquestionable and clear-cut thumbs up for The Magicians as of now but only the future should let know whether this brand of magic should be discarded or not.