The Penny Dreadful spinoff set in 1938 Los Angeles has a big-name cast that's mostly white, despite immersing itself in Mexican-American folklore, as Princess Weekes points out. "Natalie Dormer is great and has been a sought-after actress for many projects, but I think that if you are doing a show about Mexican folklore then your Mexican characters should be the face of the series," she says. "Tiago Vega and the Vega family fill that role, but the ties they allegedly have to Santa Muerte are already, according to my Mexican friend familiar with that figure, straight-up wrong—so that’s not a great start. I’m not saying that the show has to be perfect, but understanding the deities and centering the marginalized people in your work should be the absolute bare minimum."
TOPICS: Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, Showtime, Natalie Dormer