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Paranormal: the new “normal” on TV?

I am not particularly drawn to the paranormal. As I mentioned previously, I had a few issues after my brother tricked me into seeing

Poltergeist. And it’s not just that I get scared. (Of course, it’s partly that I get scared.) It’s also that it’s just not my thing most of the time. I did watch The Twilight Zone, and I like the occasional campy heaven-and-hell—themed movie (Two of a Kind, Oh God, Switch). And there’s The Hunger. But that’s not about the vampires.

It seems, however, that my tastes do not reflect the current television lineup. Alessandra Stanley, the New York Times TV reviewer who recently expressed dismay at how insecure the new Jaime Sommers is, notes that this season is paranormal-heavy. I must say I agree with her that it is pretty weird.

She noted that a few of the paranormal shows have been on for a least a couple of years:

The Ghost Whisperer

Lost Medium And then, of course, last year introduced Heroes. This year, however, it seems the real explosion has happened.

There’s Moonlight, about a vampire private investigator. And then there’s Journeyman, about a guy who time-travels within his own lifetime to fix things from the past. I’ve seen one episode of this, thus far. It’s not living up to Quantum Leap (I did that paranormal series!) yet, but we’ll see.

I have not watced Pushing Daisies, about a “piemaker-turned-detective who can raise the dead long enough to ask them whodunit,” but it sounds kind of fun. And then there’s Reaper, about a kid whose parents sold his soul to the devil. And, of course, Saving Grace, with Holly Hunter and a country-singing angel named Earl. (Irrelevant aside: I was once mistaken for Holly Hunter’s personal assistant.)

And in production are New Amsterdam on Fox (about a secretly immortal New York City police officer. He saved a Native American girl way back in the day. Waaaaay back.) and True Blood, an HBO vampire series featuring Anna Paquin.

And that’s not a complete listing of all the paranormality!

In the Times article, Stanley proposes a couple of possible explanations.

“Nobody really knows where network executives come from or where they go after being fired. Perhaps those neatly groomed suits marching in lock step through Burbank are themselves the undead, demons, witches and vampires who suck the blood of Nielsen pollsters, turn viewers into zombies and howl at the Moonves. They are taking over the planet one show at a time.”
” … howl at the Moonves” – get it? (Oh, that made me chuckle.)

But she also noted that “[t]rends, like zombies, tend to rise again, and certain periods have been marked by an increased fascination with the occult.” During times of seemingly uncontrollable chaos, people are often drawn to supernatural explanations. (It seems there was a lot of interest in the occult after the Civil War.) She suggests that given global warming, international terrorism and the like, perhaps people want to be both entertained by the paranormal and to entertain the fantasy that there are paranormal explanations and solutions to these frighteningly human problems.

Or perhaps television executives really are the undead.

Of course, as one who never even watched Buffy or The X-Files, I cannot come up with a better explanation.

What do you think? Do you watch these shows? Any idea why there are so many of them?

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