... having been breathed out

Yeah, the escapism thing totally makes sense. I really think the only reason all this stuff pinged me, with The Magicians, is that they (seemingly intentionally) set themselves up to really engage with these issues, making certain decisions that I don't understand making unless they were planning to engage, and then they just... don't. But, as another commenter said, probably I'm reading more forward-thinking into the show-writers' decisions than they really merit. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

And thanks for adding to the bank of recs! People are being so awesome & generous; I'm really digging it. :-D