But as to how much fantasy on television,I suspect over 15 right now though I do not have my tv guide at hand. Dead Like Me, that thing with telepathic Patricia Arquette solving crimes, the Collector (collects or saves souls), and if needed I will expand.

And I do not buy the “Spiderman” argument about them being just like us and having all the same problems. I think you are discounting the importance of the mortal and bounded body (ooh that was almost pomo lit talk). To be subject to sickness, injury and aging is essential to a realistic relationship to the world. I will have to think about this more and I am sure with your greater knowledge of fantasy etc that you will have counterexamples but we are talking about television here, not the full expression of the genre. It is quite possible that television has served drama much better than fantasy. It certainly has a dismal record concerning science fiction.

And just a small note re the Sopranos. I went through a “its overhyped” period with that show but I am now convinced it is much better than I gave it credit for. One of the things that turned me was that a central character (Paulie) perhaps one of the most repellant characters ever, does not get his comeuppance. Every show I was hoping and it just never happened and I thought…yes, that is like life. As well, most of the killers on this show have met their ends in one way or another.

I do have a tv set and sometimes I wonder if that is a good thing….seems like this particular universe is composed of a few diamonds in a large cesspool. The good stuff is so good but most of it is so bad.

First: If you are making the point that too much of anything is a bad thing, then say that, don’t just say “too much of fantasy” is a bad thing. But I would say the obsession with reality tv far outways the fantasy - there really aren’t that many fantasy shows out there honeybunches, check your stats before you spew forth. What is it, like three major shows Battlestar, this one you mentioned, and Heroes? That doesn’t count as an overabundance. I don’t own a tv, but those are the only ones I hear about, therefore the only ones that must be “major”I don’t buy it when you pull stuff out of that steely ass of yours, remember? Reality tv is the still the biggie - if you wanna analyze what’s wrong with society for wanting too much of some type of show, analyze why society is so obsessed with home/people make-overs and home renos. That’s where the fucking overabundance lies. Not to mention the paucity of imagination.

Second: Your argument that the characters that are in fantasy worlds do not have the same building blocks that make up your experience is just plain dumb. Most fantasy/sci fi deals with humans going through something very real (alcholism, divorce, dealing with being isolated blah blah blah) that comes exactly from these so called building blocks. The characters grow up with parents, issues, the whole deal. The only thing that’s different is the setting, it’s this larger than life setting symbolizes how the rest of our lives can seem so overwhelming when we’re trying to deal with daily shit like our families, daughters, death etc (hello? anyone thinking of the Sopranos here?). ‘When one is going through issues, one generally feels like one cannot deal with the daily routine, hence fantasy shows make that daily routine into what it actually feels like: battaling demons and fighting wars. (again, I’m smelling Sopranos). In fact, usually if you have androids in a show, the whole damn show is about what it means to be human, analyzing the human condition and the human experience.

I’ll give you one crumb: yes the characters in more “realistic” shows are subject to the same physical laws. This does make a difference in how we relate to them. You know I’m all for the “slice of life” shows, I really like them. One needs both the fantasy and the reality. I’m not saying that I dislike reality based stuff, or that it’s wrong to like it more than fantasy, I’m just saying your reasoning behind some of your distaste is faulty.

Though again with the Sopranos - they have the same physical laws but not the same legal/societal laws. Most people I know that kill that much do get caught. Not that I know people that kill that much…

However, it is fundamentally different just as androids are fundamentally different from humans. Though the world of the Sopranos or Shakespearean drama or Dylan Thomas or Ernest Hemingway is composed of some elements that will likely never be part of my direct experience, they are all made up of the same building blocks that make up my experience of the world. These people are subject to exactly the same physical laws (I realize that some of Shakespeare might not exactly correspond to this) that govern us.

The reason I am throwing out my conjecture about a paucity of imagination (because resorting to fantasy can be just that) is not that there are fantasies or shows like Heroes (which I promoted from the start) but the sheer number of them. Just the same as there are too many remakes out there. A few is always good but too many indicate that something is a little out of balance.

Before this otherworld tilt was a “big intrusive government agencies” tilt which was no better (24, Alias, Vegas, etc). Its not the genre so much as the proportion.

What the fuck is the difference between a writer trying to present reality and real human issues through a fantasy world and a writer trying to present those things through a world that presents a civilization that was long lost to us and about whose daily life and human interactions we know virtually nothing (like Rome)? The answer is, there is no fucking difference!

So really I’m not sure why people liking fantasy means something is amiss in today’s society when people liking historical fiction apparently does not mean this. Both are fantasy, both are escapism, both are trying to present human interaction through fantastic scenarios. And I would argue that the Sopranos does the same as really, for how many of us is the gangster life of killing and torturing a reality? We liked the show because the character portrayals seemed real to us, not because it was actually a realistic show.

Why is liking the fantasy and disturbing as hell violence of this show not an indication of a disturbed society, but people liking Buffy and Heroes is? Huh? Tell me that Ass.