Wasn't it only a few years ago that most new TV shows were hyper-realistic procedurals? Now networks want fantasy, and the further removed from real life the better. Pushing Daisies, one of the most successful new shows of the season so far, is about a hero with the magical power to raise the dead. The highest-rated new series on the CW network is Reaper, whose hero is contractually forced to work for Satan and has the power to bring escaped souls back to hell — and to move shopping carts with his mind. Add returning series like Heroes(superpowered teenagers), Medium(psychic housewife)and Ghost Whisperer(dead people talk to Jennifer Love Hewitt), and it's clear that where once the networks wanted cops and crooks, now they want magical powers.

For many years, fantasy(along with its cousin, science fiction)was a hard sell on major networks. Cable and syndication had its share of magic and monsters, and shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Charmed managed long runs on the small, struggling WB network. But among executives at the bigger networks, fantasy was considered a niche market, something for the audience that played Dungeons and Dragons. But today, networks are scrambling to bring magic to non-niche audiences. Jeff Mariotte, author of fantasy novels such as Witch Season and many official tie-in novels with fantasy TV shows(like Buffy), says that whereas fantasy was "ghettoized" in the past, today "there's definitely a new mainstream acceptance of fantasy themes in mass entertainment."

What changed? One thing was that fantasy suddenly became mainstream. Peter Jackson turned Lord of the Rings into a mass-market sensation; J.K. Rowling made it mandatory to read about a magical nerd. But it's not as if people want to see just any show about supernatural occurrences. Fantasy shows that are too dark, or veer too close to reality, have trouble becoming mainstream hits. Before creator Bryan Fuller hit it big with Pushing Daisies, he flopped with Wonderfalls, about a young woman who was depressed and whose supernatural encounters might be a sign of mental illness. Pushing Daisies is much lighter and sweeter, and there's no doubt that the hero's powers are real. Non-fantasies like 24 or Dexter can get away with violence and darkness, but for anything with the supernatural in it, viewers want something nicer.

Networks have made fantasy safe for average viewers by adopting what TV fantasy and comedy writer Jane Espenson has called the "Chosen One Paradigm." In an article for the New Republic, Espenson wrote that the most popular fantasy series, like Star Wars, Harry Potter and Buffy, are about ordinary people who discover that they have been chosen to fulfill a destiny: "the curtain is pulled back and a whole new world, or a new set of rules of this world, is revealed. And what's more — and this is the important part — in that new world, they are something special."

These shows tell us that regular people can be special and magical. Though shows like Pushing Daisies or Reaper deal metaphorically with real-world themes, the wish-fulfillment aspect gives them an escapist appeal. Michele Fazekas, who created Reaper with Tara Butters, adds that this type of storytelling makes it easier for the audience to relate to a fantasy world: "You have the person that represents the audience. The main character is learning this world along with the audience, so you kind of see through their eyes."

Another advantage of this format is budgetary. Creating a large-scale fantasy world would be almost impossible on TV budgets. By putting a few fantasy elements into a mundane world of chain stores and parking lots, a show like Reaper manages to tell stories about elaborate supernatural murders even though Fazekas and Butters admit that they don't have a lot of money for special effects. "We say, 'let's have one or two great effects, rather than 10 crummy effects,' " says Fazekas. "We write from the perspective of, let's write a great story and then decide what's feasible."

While fantasy shows don't require a lot of money, they do require new ideas, and the networks may already be running low: CBS's Moonlight, about a mystery-solving vampire, has a premise that was already used by the cable show Blood Ties. But as Fazekas points out, network trends "come in cycles. Tara and I came off Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, and for a while, everyone was doing cop-show procedurals." So if the networks run out of fantasy ideas, they can always go back to procedurals. It's the circle of TV life.

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