Let’s Watch Urban Fantasy

Let's start off with defining urban fantasy...


Urban adjective

  1. of, relating to, or designating a city or town
  2. living, located, or taking place in a city

Fantasy noun

  1. imagination, especially when extravagant and unrestrained
  2. the forming of mental images, especially wondrous or strange fancies; imaginative conceptualizing
  3. a mental image, especially when unreal or fantastic; vision

Urban Fantasy:

  • a subgenre of fantasy that takes place in a contemporary and urban setting.

Modern technology will play a part in these stories, including cellphones, computers, and vehicles. There will be fantastical or paranormal creatures amongst the human population or some sort of magical element at play. Some urban fantasy may also feature horror or noir conventions.

Some readers find urban fantasy easier to dive into than epic fantasy due to less worldbuilding. The world is already familiar instead of having to wrap your brain around new geography, politics, religion, language and more.

Urban fantasy can frequently overlap with paranormal romance, where a relationship is the main focus, but this isn't necessary in UF.


Click here for the full Urban Fantasy TV & Movies list.

TV SERIES

**I have chosen to only feature series that RDPL owns Season 1 of, but there are many others available through MeLibraries!

Bitten

When she left Stonehaven - 'for good this time' - Elena Michaels thought she had left the world of supernatural behind. Until the night she got a mysterious call from her pack leader asking her to come back. So now she is heading back, away from her normal life as a photographer in Toronto and back into the world of werewolves, full of rules about protecting the pack and a man she had spent years trying to forget. As if things were not bad enough, Elena also happens to be the only living female werewolf left.

Lucifer

Bored and unhappy as the Lord of Hell, Lucifer has resigned his throne and retired to the City of Angels, where he is indulging in wine, women, and song. When a beautiful pop star is brutally murdered before his eyes, he feels something awaken deep within him, for the first time in ten billion years. Is he actually capable of feelings for a human being? The very thought disturbs him, as well as his best friend and confidante, Mazikeen, a fierce demon in the form of a beautiful young woman.

Being Human

Follows three housemates as they do their best to live their lives as normally as possible despite their strange and dark secrets. Lovable George battles with his double identity as a mild mannered hospital porter who for one night of the month turns into a flesh hungry werewolf, Mitchell is a good looking and confident vampire trying to go cold turkey from his blood sucking urges and recently deceased Annie is a chatty yet underconfident ghost whose ex-fiancé is the landlord of the house the three of them share. All this on top of the usual issues faced by young people surrounding love, work and mates and the only thing they have to rely on in their heightened world is each other.

Witches of East End

Centers on the adventures of a mother and her two adult daughters, both of whom unknowingly are their family's next generation of witches, who lead seemingly quiet, uneventful modern day lives in Long Island's secluded seaside town of North Hampton. When one of the daughters becomes engaged to a young, wealthy newcomer, a series of events forces her mother to admit to her daughters they are, in fact, powerful and immortal witches.

Wolfblood

Being a teenager is hard enough. Being a Wolfblood teenager is ten times more complicated. Fourteen-year-old Maddy loves her abilities, heightened senses, being faster, stronger and more graceful, but hates the secrets that come with them. And when a new boy starts at Maddy's school, she learns that her family isn't the only Wolfbloods in town.

Charmed (2018-)

Demons, ghosts, vampires, necromancers - none stood a chance against the bonds of sisterhood. After the murder of their mother Marisol, sisters Mel and Maggie Vera discovered they not only had an older half-sister - the brilliant geneticist Macy - but that with the "Power of Three, " they are among the most formidable witches in the world.

What We Do in the Shadows

A look into the daily (or rather, nightly) lives of three vampires, who've lived together for over 100 years, on Staten Island.


MOVIES

Onward

Two elven brothers embark on a quest to bring their father back for one day.

Underworld

A beautiful and aristocratic vampire named Selene falls in love with a Lycan, a werewolf, whose people are involved in an ancient war with the vampires.

Blood & Chocolate

With the Five on her tail, a beautiful and young werewolf named Vivian looks for peace in the arms of a man named Aiden while trying to escape the relentless infatuation of Gabriel. After a series of 'accidental' murders happen, it threatens to tear and expose her pack apart.

Odd Thomas

When Odd Thomas, a young man with the ability to see dead people, realizes that evil forces have come to his town he seeks the help of his girlfriend and the sheriff to battle the supernatural beings.

Hellboy (2004)

A demon raised from infancy after being conjured by and rescued from the Nazis, grows up to become a defender against the forces of darkness.


Do you have a favourite urban fantasy series or movie? Comment below!