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What SyFy’s ‘The Magicians’ Reveals About The #MeToo Movement
The good, the bad, and the downright fantastical.
Billed initially as Harry Potter for grownups, Syfy’s The Magicians didn’t start as a “woke” show. It began as a voyeuristic fantasy for the straight, nerdy, white male. The show promised to push the envelope by deconstructing traditional fantasy tropes without really changing the underlying power structures that underpinned the genre.
Based on the Lev Grossman book of the same name, The Magicians lamented the objectification of women while narratively raping its female leads. It mocked tokenism while not giving its brown characters much to do. The concept of the heroes journey may have been called into question relentlessly throughout the first and second season, but ultimately the protagonist was a brooding, white man thrust into a quest to overcome a big bad.
The show changed in its third season, and the reason why has everything to do with the way the #metoo movement has impacted the entertainment industry as well as society at large. The show represents a living, breathing, albeit imperfect, impression of sexual and racial mores evolving before us in real time.
