Magic on the screen

Ah, late autumn. This time of year is filled with enjoyable things: delicious food, fun holidays and all the television series premiering and striving to be the “next big thing.”

And in case you’re wondering what that next big thing is, it’s pretty simple. Move over, vampires—witches and fairy tales are in.

Riding the waves of the CW television network’s Gossip Girl and Vampire Diaries comes The Secret Circle. The plot centers on six teenage witches with Britt Robertson’s Cassie Blake as the main protagonist.

After an unexpected house fire leaves her orphaned, Cassie moves back to her mother’s hometown of Chance Harbor, Wash., to live with her grandmother. Upon her arrival, Cassie befriends (or is forced to befriend) Faye, Nick, Diana, Adam and Melissa, a group—or coven—of witches. Cassie soon discovers that she is the final member of their coven and is necessary for sealing the circle, thus making the teen witches stronger as well as binding them together magically.

In the tradition of cult classics like The Craft and Teen Witch, The Secret Circle plays up the drama in order to attract an audience. In the pilot episode, magic is used as a metaphor for sex (oh, no!) as Adam’s girlfriend Diana exclaims, “You did magic with her?” in reference to Adam showing Cassie that magic can be fun.

Also premiering in this festive fall season are Once Upon A Time, the new series from LOST writer Damon Lindelof, and Grimm, a series that is filmed and takes place in our very own Portland, Oregon.

Both shows focus on fairytales (in Grimm’s case, the stories collected by the Grimm brothers) and bring them into the present day and age. While Once Upon A Time is a lighthearted fantasy that brings together two alternate realities, one set in a Snow White–esque fairytale land and one set in modern day Boston, Grimm is a bit darker and definitely aimed toward an older audience.

The plot focuses on a homicide detective who learns he is the descendant of a group of supernatural hunters known as Grimms. Grimms fight to keep humanity safe from the sinister storybook characters that have infiltrated the world.

The show’s pilot, which premiered Oct. 28 to high ratings, was full of allusions to the classic Red Riding Hood story. From a victim’s red sweatshirt to a character being called “the big bad wolf.”

So what is it about these shows focusing on witchcraft and fairytales that is so interesting to audiences right now? Producers and writers could be cashing in on the fact that audiences are eager to jump on anything to fill the empty void left by the Harry Potter franchise. While for hardcore fans the series will never truly be over, for the mediaphiles of the world clamoring for more entertainment, these new series give them that magical fix.

These shows, like many others before them, help audiences rediscover their imaginative sides. With today’s fast-paced and cutthroat work environment, exhausting social practices and daily norms taking over our lives everyday, it’s no wonder people are using fantasy television as a means of escapism and as a coping mechanism.

So basically any show that plays up the existence of a magical or fantastical world is bound to do well in this fall season of television. This coming November marks the beginning of the end of another media powerhouse: the Twilight franchise. I can already hear the angels’ chorus singing praise that this series will finally be coming to an end.

Personal opinions aside, the same factors that are propelling The Secret Circle and Grimm to popularity are what made Stephanie Meyer’s sappy vampire love story so popular. Vampires aren’t real, but we sure do (or did) love to read about them, watch them on TV and see them on the big screen.

Thankfully, with Meyer’s tale (finally) coming to an end, there seems to be fewer vampire dramas premiering or even being expanded on in television and in theaters. Both HBO’s True Blood and the CW’s Vampire Diaries have focused on the occult in general rather than actual vampires in their last seasons.

But magic is contagious. Even Showtime’s psycho-thriller Dexter is utilizing magical elements in its current season, which focuses on a group of religious fanatics obsessed with human sacrifice as a way of ushering in the end days.

So, with all these fantastical dramas just teeming to take over you life, it’s important to remember to keep your head in the real world. Just keep in mind the escapes TV is offering for you now for when life gets too tough. Navigate fairy tales and magical dramas; just be careful not to lose your head.

After all, we are in Grimm territory now.