ohhhhh my god. The Magnus Archives. oooooohhhhhhhhhhhhh my goddddd. i fucking love this series SO MUCH
I first listened to it in 2019, just the first season, and I was curious but honestly not the type of things I tended to like, so it was quickly forgotten. Relistened again in 2020 when a friend of mine loved it, but only got to season 2. Everytime I'd relisten I'd get a liiitttle bit further, but for the first time, I finished it. this year, the beautiful year of 2024. and oh my god!!!!!!!!!!! i had known a bunch of details of what happened in seasons 4 and 5, but actually listening to it My God. this series has fascinated me time and time again and im so glad i finally finished it.
This is a rare case where I don't have many writing criticisms (I am a very critical person.. and media literacy is important to me), this is like the most perfect series to me. There are things I wanted more from it, but its stuff that was made in moderation for a reason. For example, there are characters I wished had showed up a few more times, but when I think about it, we really got what we needed from them. Like, Michael before he was the spiral, we see for 1 single minute. I am fond of him, and wish we got more, but theres not really a reason to get more of him pre-spiral. That 1 minute helped Jon realize things about avatars, gertrude, and the nature of the institute, and he simply didn't need to appear any more than that.
I am so fond of everything in this series... The statements are beautifully written, and a great balance of how people actually speak/write and also of cool imagery and concepts. I enjoy the inbetween moments of statements, small glimpses into the life of the archives workers, that lead you wanting to hear more and more. The way the statements play into eachother is so fucking cool. I remember on my first 2 listens, before I had really reached plot developments, the statements all felt so disjointed and random. Then, on subsequent relistens I caught onto so many more details- like WHAT? This character/concept/event was introduced This early on and I didn't even realize how important it'd be?? Its such a good escalation of events...
The characterization in this series is so strong. Characters besides the Archivist get very little screentime, so in those moments they appear, they have to be Really well established. And by god they are. You'll find yourself wanting to know more about characters that appear for singular episodes. Or, sometimes they appear in a few statements before actually speaking - My favourite are statements with avatars who haven't turned yet. Meeting Helen before she actually becomes the spiral is one of my favourite things in those whole series - Similar with Oliver Banks' statement before he becomes a full-fledged avatar,
There is currently a sequel of sorts running, the Magnus Protocol, which is only planned to be 90 episodes as opposed to the original series 200, and I'm sooooo curious about how it'll go.. I've quite enjoyed it so far, but I also have no fucking clue where its going. At the time of writing this, theres 26 episodes, and in the OG Archives, you couldnt even BEGIN to guess what was going to happen by the 26th episode! Protocol's pace is a bit faster, and we're definitely slightly more clued in than the original, but I just?? Can't even begin to comprehend where it'll end up, I'm quite excited to listen to it as it comes out :)
