Feast on These Awesome Paranormal Shows With Your Turkey

By Maureen L. Bonatch

The weather is getting colder and many people are settling in for a little winter hibernation indoors. It’s the time of year when I pull out my favorite Christmas movies and watch A Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation, Scrooged and other holiday classics. But sometimes I’m in the mood for something a little more paranormal and fantasy while I’m sinking into a ‘carb coma’ or an all the ‘turkey fixings overload’. 

As the holidays roll in with a touch of the overwhelm, sometimes it’s nice to escape from the onslaught of holiday movies, holiday commercials and holiday—everything— into a world of paranormal and fantasy.

One thing many people enjoy almost as much as binging on holiday treats is binging on their favorite television show. I confess—I don’t usually spend too much time watching television. So when my friends discuss their latest favorite television show I’m often clueless. I’m usually more engrossed in writing or reading. Or I drag out my laptop and multi-task while the hubs watches television. 

But there are a few shows I make an extra effort to make time for. (I also discuss a few of these here.)

A Few of My Favorite Paranormal & Fantasy Shows Include 

• Supernatural- Because who doesn’t love Sam & Dean?
• Outcast- This show reminds me of my book, Destiny Calling
• Ash vs. Evil Dead- This takes a special (slightly warped) sense of humor like mine
• Stranger Things- Oh, to revisit the 1980’s!

If You Want To Go Old School Consider 

• Charmed- My all-time favorite! It inspired my story, That Magic Moment
• The X-Files- Love this! I believe! J
• Millennium-We all braced for all the extraordinary the millennium might bring
• Ghost Whisperer- Ghosts and a beautiful love story- I still miss this show
• Medium –I found this to be such a unique concept for it’s time

Love Feasting Your Eyes on Your Favorite Show? You're Not Alone

It seems many people binge all year long—on television. Since Outcast, one of my favorite shows, is delayed from returning until

next summer, I reached out on a Facebook post to discover some other favorite shows.  

Here are a few recommendations on my To-Be-Watched List:

• Outlander “Time-travel”
• Ozark -I did watch this show and enjoyed it
• The Deuce- a drama of New York City in the 1970’s and 1980’s
• Orville “Tongue in cheek and humorous.”
• Designated Survivor “Fantasy”
• Blindspot- A crime drama television series
• Longmire- American modern western crime drama

Is Your Favorite Show on the List? Or Can You Add to it? 

Not in the mood for television? Or you don't want to wait any longer for Outcast? Escape with my book, Destiny Calling. 

When the woman who raised Hope is murdered by something not human, Hope loses the only family she knows and discovers one she might wish she never met. With a touch that can make the desperate hopeful, Hope is the answer. 

The only question is if she can deal with sibling rivalry, accept that entities feeding off despair exist, and determine if Griffith is the man of her dreams, or not at all what he seems.  

Author Bio: Maureen Bonatch grew up in small town Pennsylvania and her love of the four seasons—hockey, biking, sweat pants and hibernation—keeps her there. While immersed in writing or reading paranormal romance and fantasy, she survives on caffeine, wine, music, and laughter. A feisty Shih Tzu keeps her in line. Find Maureen on her website, Facebook & Twitter

Which New Paranormal TV Show is Right for You? A Flow Chart

Am I the only one astonished by the number of new television shows out this season with a paranormal or science fiction twist? I count at least five new series, plus plenty of returning shows and more on the horizon. Some are definitely better than others, but it's safe to say that whatever flavor of speculative television you prefer, the fall lineup has you covered.

If you're like me, and your schedule (not to mention your DVR) can't handle the influx, I give you this handy flow chart to help narrow down the new (and a few not-so-new) options:

.

Personally, I'm devouring past seasons of Doctor Who in a desperate attempt to catch up, anxiously awaiting Bitten, and catching occasional episodes of The Walking Dead and The Originals. What are you watching this season?

Five things to love about TV’s new love affair with fantasy

Tim Mison as Sleepy Hollow's Ichabod Crane

Stephen Amell as Arrow's Oliver Queen

Colin O'Donoghue as Once Upon a Time's Hook

Jay Ryan as Beauty and the Beast's Vincent Keller

David Giuntoli as Grimm's Nick Burkhardt

Oh, and yeah...them. ;)

Yeah, I’m in that kind of a mood. I’m seriously digging the multitude of SFF offerings on TV this season, and the above isn’t the only reason, but it sure doesn’t hurt. And of the five six, Sleepy Hollow, Once Upon a Time, and Beauty and the Beast at least have strong women playing equally important roles. My favorite for that so far is Sleepy Hollow—and also for its diverse casting. Grimm and Arrow get props for trying, but Supernatural? Heading into season nine and they've really never gotten it right. Oh, well. I hear there's a spin-off in the works. Can't wait to see what that will bring!

And there's more to love among the plethora of fantasy shows: Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, Doctor Who, Lost Girl, Continuum, Warehouse 13, Alphas, Being Human, and last year's favorite of mine that I can't wait to see more of: Orphan Black. (Just to name a few.) But I have to confess to really enjoying the eye candy in the list above. I also have to confess to so far not being that impressed with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Except for Ming-Na Wen and Clark Gregg, I'm not really loving the cast. But maybe they'll grow on me. I'm definitely going to keep watching, I just haven't been wowed yet by this latest Whedon project.

Do you have a favorite so far?

Would Paranormal Romance Make Good TV?

Yesterday's post by Jax Garren had a great discussion about the differences between Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance: http://herebemagic.blogspot.com/2013/06/urban-fantasy-week-shelving-conundrum.html. One of the frequent designators I've seen lately is that when Urban Fantasy contains romance, it's generally between the same protagonists who are in each successive book. There's no guarantee of an HEA, though oftentimes there's a whisper of a promise of an HEA at the end of the series itself, should the Urban Fantasy be a series. This, of course, doesn't mean devoted readers will agree the HEA is all that happy (cue furious Sookie Stackhouse readers!), but the author's literary promise is most often that the protagonists will not be left dangling like a too-soon cancelled TV show that doesn't get its own Hollywood movie.

In Urban Fantasy novels the plot and worldbuilding bear more of the word-weight than the romance and relationship building. The complicated dance of romantic relationships are spread out over several save-the-world plot arcs since books, for various reasons, can only be so long.

Basically, what we're talking here is Urban Fantasy is Buffy/Lost Girl/Paranormal TV Series with definite romance subplots and Paranormal Romance is Underworld/Twilight/Paranormal movies with definite romance main plots. Technically an Urban Fantasy could also be a paranormal movie in which the romance wasn't that influential, but that confuses my simple parallel.

Some Urban Fantasies don't have romance in them at all. It's not a requirement. There are probably Paranormal Romances that don't have much save-the-world stuff going on as well. The thing they both have in common is the paranormal worldbuilding. It often takes place in a contemporary human world that isn't aware of all these supernatural shenanigants--what David Bridger called earlier this week "hidden in plain sight" (http://herebemagic.blogspot.com/2013/06/hidden-in-plain-sight.html).

And just like with the TV series/movies parallel, that's not always the case, since some stories include (or even revolve around) the concept of the paranormal types being known to the regular humans. The aforementioned Sookie Stackhouse series is a prominent example.

I have recently published my first Urban Fantasy with Samhain Publishing (Tangible) involving a secret society of folks whose nightmares create monsters and their attempts to keep the nightmares from taking over the world. I already know future volumes in the budding series will be more in the Paranormal Romance vein. They'll have recurring characters but different romantic leads in each successive volume. There will also be connecting plots and threads between all the books, in the manner of a TV series.

How do you think a TV series could handle some of the Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy hybrids like the one I've dreamed up? I know there are other hybrids out there! What are your favorites and how would you like to see them on the screen, if you would? Or do you think the TV medium is just better suited for the more classic Urban Fantasy style where all the characters' stories and relationships are ongoing and subject to change?

Jody Wallace
Author, Cat Person, Amigurumist
http://www.jodywallace.com  * http://www.meankitty.com  

5 TV shows to complement your reading

I have to admit, the past few years have conjured up some great offerings on television for fans of sci-fi, paranormal and fantasy. Just skimming through the TV Guide, I counted 20 shows airing in the United States before, well, I got tired and stopped counting. Maybe that's why I'm watching more television now than I think I've ever watched in my life! It puts a serious cramp into my writing time, but quite frankly, when I turn off my television after watching one of my favorite TV shows, I usually want to head straight for the computer because I feel quite inspired. I call it my Television Muse.

So what shows do I recommend? I've picked five that I just can't stop watching.

1. The CW's Supernatural, Fridays at 9 p.m. EST. Aside from the fact I could drool all night by simply pausing the screen on the show's main stars, Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki, I think the writing on this show is top notch. I mean, how can you go wrong with two demon-hunting brothers battling monsters every week? Plus, they drive an Impala. Or, they used to. OK, don't get me started on the Impala, or I might start crying.

2. Once Upon a Time, ABC, Sundays at 8 p.m. EST. I honestly didn't expect to like this show as much as I do. The town of Storybrooke, Maine, is populated by characters from fairy tales, who have been exiled to the real world due to a curse cast by the Evil Queen as part of a revenge plot against Snow White and Prince Charming. Because of the curse, most of the inhabitants of Storybrooke have no memory of their true identities and have been stuck timelessly in Storybrooke for years. The show has a creative premise, and I love that each week it seems to focus on a different character from fairy tales.

3. The CW's The Vampire Diaries, Thursdays at 8 p.m. EST. I think this one is aimed at teens, but it's my guilty pleasure and IMHO far too sexy to be aimed only at teens. Set in the appropriately named Mystic Falls, this soap opera revolves around Elena Gilbert, a 17-year-old girl who falls for a 162-year-old vampire named Stefan Salvatore. Of course, Stefan has a much sexier, snarky older brother, Damon, who is also a vampire, vying for Elena's affections. Plus, there are werewolves, witches and more plot twists and turns than you can count.

4. SyFy's Being Human, Mondays at 9 p.m. EST. Actually, I should note that there is also a UK version of this show that is probably more awesome than the U.S. version, but since I haven't finished watching the UK seasons, I can only fully comment on the U.S. version, which is about a werewolf, a vampire and a ghost - 3 roommates who are struggling to find their humanity despite being monsters. I love the dynamics that have evolved in season two, and I have become quite emotionally attached to these characters. Plus, I really heart Josh and Nora as a couple.

5. SyFy's Lost Girl, Mondays at 10 p.m. EST. I now know this is a Canadian show that has only recently begun airing in the U.S., and I must say, it is quite a sexy show for television. It's the story of supernatural seductress Bo, a Succubus who feeds off sexual energy. She's torn between the worlds of the Fae - light and dark - and is the center of a love triangle with Dyson, a wolf shifter, and Lauren, a human doctor. This is a show that isn't afraid to push the sexual envelope, but I'm more drawn to the magical stories of Fae.

Honorable mentions: HBO's True Blood (vampires), NBC's Grimm (fairytale creatures), AMC's The Walking Dead (zombies), and the CW's Secret Circle (witches).

Tell me. What sci-fi, paranormal or fantasy shows inspire you?