X

Join or Sign In

Sign in to customize your TV listings

Continue with Facebook Continue with email

By joining TV Guide, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy.

The Gifted Puts a Timely Spin on Its Discrimination Storyline

Discrimination is always timely, unfortunately

instg.png
Lindsay MacDonald

A key component of any X-Mentale is the theme of discrimination and society's fear of anything different. Fox's The Gifted has moved this theme to the forefront, setting the show in a world where the X-Men have disappeared, but the Sentinel program to register (and oftentimes hunt down) mutants is still alive and well.

This anti-mutant agenda isn't anything new in the X-Men world, but it also hasn't been quite as timely as it is now with the current political climate in the United States.

"It's very contemporary and very relevant to what we're experiencing in our society today," Jamie Chung told TV Guide at the Television Critics Association summer press tour.

The X-Men Are Gone in The Gifted and We Need to Deal With That

Emma Dumont pointed out the similarities between how humans treat all mutants as the enemy in The Gifted and the way some Americans treat all Muslims.

"It's legal to be a mutant, but obviously it's frowned upon to be a mutant," Dumont says. "The same way it's legal to be Muslim, but yet there's still prejudice and there's still hate crimes and there's still violence."

The first episode of the series makes this discrimination very clear, from tense chase scenes to high school bullies. It might feel like more of the same for X-Men fans, but we challenge you to say that after you've spent an hour in this incredibly detailed world.

The Gifted premieres Monday, Oct. 2 at 9/8c on Fox.

Emma Dumont, The Gifted

Emma Dumont, The Gifted