Magical Mondays: Appropriating Myth and Magic

Much ado has been made in the last few days about Tilda Swinton being in talks for the Doctor Strange movie, making her the second surreally-visaged actor to potentially claim a role in said film. At first blush, this could be cool; Tilda Swinton is weird and wonderful, she’d be a welcome addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Except for one thing: she’s apparently set to play Doc Strange’s mentor, the Ancient One—a traditionally Tibetan (and male) role. While on one hand, it’s nice to see that Marvel is finally thinking out of the box in regards to casting, it’s also pretty dang racist to whitewash a role that’s traditionally filled by a person of color.

If they gotta cast a white person why not cast Tilda as Strange? Get B.Cumbs out of my MCU…

This leads me to ask: when should a character not have a certain set of powers? Are there certain kinds of magic that are tied enough to specific cultures that it’s not right for someone outside that culture to have them?

Sleepy Hollow: “And the Abyss Gazes Back” Review

This week on Sleepy Hollow, the town is once again under attack by another monster, Corbin’s son shows up for the first time, Ichabod learns the difference between Spider-man and Superman before picking up online gaming, and it doesn’t look as though we will ever have a wendigo actually played by a Native American, despite it being a Native American myth. So what did I think of this episode? Meh, it was all right. And it certainly could have been better.

Teen Wolf: “Muted” Review

Another Moonday has come and gone, and that means we have a new episode of Teen Wolf to review. Some freaky stuff happened this episode, but I am so relieved that the utter grimdarkness from the end of 3B has been dialed back that I’m not even bothered. We’re mostly back to the wacky adventures of the McCall Pack and I couldn’t be happier.

Spoilers below the jump.