'The Magicians' Season 5 Trailer: All Magic Comes At A Cost

The Magicians "centers around Brakebills University, a secret institution specializing in magic. There, amidst an unorthodox education of spellcasting, a group of twenty-something friends soon discover that a magical fantasy world they read about as children is all too real— and poses grave danger to humanity." The show is based on the three novels by Lev Grossman, but the series has made a lot of changes from the source material. For one thing, Quentin Coldwater, the main character of the three books, has been killed off on the show – something that doesn't happen in the books.

But change isn't always a bad thing. Writing for /Film, Meredith Borders stated that The Magicians was the "rare adaptation that's better than the book", going on to add:

Like Game of Thrones before it, The Magicians became more interesting when it diverged from the path that created it. While some of the currently airing fourth season is recognizable from the books, we're on a new path now, a bold new quest where anything can happen and all bets are off. There's one notable quality The Magicians shares with The Good Place (one of the other best shows on television), in that every season resets itself, wipes the slate clean and puts our characters in brand new scenarios that are shockingly disconnected from where they just were – but without ever losing the import of previous seasons. Everything has weight on The Magicians, even the stuff our characters can't remember anymore, because we remember it, and the story remembers it.

The Magicians season 5 debuts on Syfy January 15, 2020.