This paper proposes to study TV serials as instances of a nationally sanctioned fantasy of the family. They set out, in an exaggerated mode, everyday problems encountered in families and thus allow viewers to negotiate between their own realities and the norm and follow the resolution offered by the serials to issues of family and desire. The concept of fantasy, it is argued, is useful in looking at affective cultural products such as melodramatic TV serials since they deal with the nature of attachment to others and the acceptability or not of desire. The paper compares TV plots with those that reality shows deal with, indicating the extent to which these plots are similar to one another. In both cases, the notion of fantasy allows us to see the relationship between desire and the transgression of a norm, as well as the violence that accompanies these transgressions.