Guilty Pleasures

In an interview with Christopher Paolini several years ago, I asked him why he is drawn to the fantasy genre. He replied, "You get to experience and go places that would otherwise be impossible. One of the things that makes us human is that we can dream, we can dream of things that never were and never can be and fantasy allows us to tap into that." *

This year we have needed our dreams more than ever. Stuck at home, faced with countless challenges, we have craved a respite, an escape from the confines of our daily lives. For many of us, the fantasy genre provides just that, flinging open doors otherwise slammed shut.

We fantasy lovers pick up a book or turn on the TV seeking refuge in worlds that stray far from our own. We search for stories that sprinkle reality with at least a touch of magic, transport us, awaken within us a glimmer of child-like wonder, and allow us to momentarily transcend the banal.

Epic Fantasies

If you’re still reading, you’ve likely traversed every gruesome episode of Game of Thrones, rewatched Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter at least once, and perhaps reveled in the Witcher. If these are your favorites, you gravitate toward epic, second-world fantasies—stories set in imagined lands with rules and creatures sprung entirely from the minds of the creator. If so, I highly recommend the Outpost. While you have to wade through occasionally clunky writing in the first season, the characters are appealing and the story gripping enough to keep you hooked. Talon, the protagonist, is as badass as they come. She's the last “blackblood," her people having being persecuted and slaughtered. The show begins with Talon seeking revenge, but develops into a sprawling story about power, love, and deceit. I would describe it as Game of Thrones x Merlin.

You might also like The Shannara Chronicles, based on Terry Brook's popular series. If your appetite for fantasy is sufficiently voracious to overlook the cliché, you will enjoy this romp in the "Four Lands"—a post-apocalyptic, Tolkienesque world populated by elves, druids, dwarves, and all manner of magical creatures. Also check out His Dark Materials based on Philip Pulman's series. And don't forget to tune into the highly anticipated Netflix adaption of Shadow and Bone, premiering April 26th.

Reality With a Twist

While I shy away from entertainment too reflective of the ordinary, I am happy to take a dose of reality accompanied by a healthy helping of the fantastical. One of my favorite movies in this category is Stranger Than Fiction, a 2006 movie featuring Will Ferrell as a downtrodden, obsessive auditor who starts to hear a disembodied voice narrating his life and guiding his future. It is a love story at its heart, but is also about breaking free from one's personal limitations and habits. A few other favorites in this category are: Ruby Sparks , Timer, and Groundhog Day, and Discovery of Witches. For portal fantasies, check out Outlander, About Time, and Timeless.

Guilty Pleasures

These are the shows we watch hunched over our phones, far from prying eyes, ear buds firmly in our canals. We hate to admit it, but some of us love a good fantastical melodrama, even if we cringe from time-to-time at its absurdity. Vampire Diaries falls into this category, but in truth is one of the most brilliant shows I have seen. It grips you like a set of iron manacles (a fitting metaphor, given their frequent usage in this show). The plot is layered and twisty, seamlessly flipping between stories and weaving them together effortlessly. The characters are deeply flawed and yet magnetically lovable. If you can tolerate a bit of teen angst and copious quantities of blood and biting, you will fall for this show. There's mystery, love and revenge, conflict and redemption, friendship and frenemies. In other words, it has it all.

Shadowhunters may not be Golden Globe worthy, but it will certainly fulfill your burning desire for an immersive world. Shadowhunters are tasked with combatting demons that have broken through the barrier between our world and theirs. The show also features werewolves, warlocks, and a rarely depicted male-male love story. Fans of the books by Cassandra Clare may say it strays too far from its origins, but if you want a quick escape, this show just might fit the bill.

This list is, of course, far from comprehensive. It does not include superheroes, anime, and k-dramas, to name a few. Even so, there is a lot of room to grow, worlds to explore and adapt to the screen. While in recent years there has been increasing diversity and representation in the fantasy publishing world, cinema and television still have a lot to catch up on this arena.

The divide between the improbable and the factual seems to have narrowed as of late. A sweeping pandemic, unpredictable and violent weather patterns, political machinations—this could be straight out of a fantasy/scifi movie. While I have focused on fantasy as diversion, as Lord Alexandra said, "Fantasy is hardly an escape from reality. It's a way of understanding it." The genre holds up a mirror to ourselves and at the same allows us a welcome interlude from the ordinary. This intriguing dichotomy may well be why some of our oldest tales are fantastical and why the genre will likely thrive as long as we homo sapiens persist. Perhaps even beyond.

*Interview with Christopher Paolini in 2014 for dissertation titled, "The Drive to Write: Inside the Writing Lives of Five Fiction Authors." By Emily Fine."