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What happens when elves get jobs, vampires pay rent, and wizards have to deal with parking tickets? You get urban fantasy, the genre where magic meets metro passes and ancient evil hides behind artisanal coffee shops.

In this episode, we leave the enchanted forests of classic fantasy behind and head straight into the city, where the only thing more dangerous than a necromancer is the rush hour traffic. We compare urban fantasy to its more medieval cousin — you know, the one with castles, dragons, and way too many guys with a king complex — and look at how the modern setting changes the game.

We talk about movies like The Craft, Bright, and Doctor Strange, where magical chaos unfolds in the middle of very mundane problems. Demons in alleyways? Sure. Magic cops with emotional issues? Of course. Wizards with Wi-Fi? Obviously. We’ll dig into how these films use fantasy to explore real-world messiness. From social conflict to existential dread, all while wearing trench coats and looking broody.

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