Stranger Things: Complex Serial, Complex Industry. The Institutional, Cultural, and Textual Significance of Internet-Distributed Television

<p>This thesis explores the emergence and significance of internet-distributed television by unpacking the industrial, cultural, and textual ramifications of programming originated for an online context. As one of the foremost streaming services both globally and within the United States, Netflix will be the central focus of this thesis. The programmes that Netflix originates facilitate discussions around the potential of this network and its online platform to encourage innovation and novelty in its long-form TV drama. Netflix’s Stranger Things (2016–), a programme concept that was reputedly rejected by a number of cable networks before being accepted by Netflix, provides a compelling case study of the creative possibilities afforded by streaming capabilities. This exploration is structured into three chapters. The first examines the environmental and institutional factors of the US television industry from which internet-distributed networks emerged. This chapter also explores the different economic models and the associated storytelling methods of each. Chapter 2 demonstrates the cultural significance of streaming on consumption behaviours and explores how broadcast, cable, and internet-distributed TV networks conceive of and pursue audiences. The analysis of several seminal TV dramas, such as The Sopranos (HBO 1999-2007), Game of Thrones (HBO 2011-2019), and Breaking Bad (AMC 2008-2013), provides comparisons from which to better understand the significance of Stranger Things to both the network that commissioned it and to the American television industry at large. The third chapter offers a detailed analysis of Stranger Things as an exemplar of Netflix’s ability to commission what Trisha Dunleavy (2018) terms the ‘complex serial drama’ and in doing so emulate the successful strategies first deployed by US cable networks.</p>

Stranger Things: Complex Serial, Complex Industry. The Institutional, Cultural, and Textual Significance of Internet-Distributed Television

<p>This thesis explores the emergence and significance of internet-distributed television by unpacking the industrial, cultural, and textual ramifications of programming originated for an online context. As one of the foremost streaming services both globally and within the United States, Netflix will be the central focus of this thesis. The programmes that Netflix originates facilitate discussions around the potential of this network and its online platform to encourage innovation and novelty in its long-form TV drama. Netflix’s Stranger Things (2016–), a programme concept that was reputedly rejected by a number of cable networks before being accepted by Netflix, provides a compelling case study of the creative possibilities afforded by streaming capabilities. This exploration is structured into three chapters. The first examines the environmental and institutional factors of the US television industry from which internet-distributed networks emerged. This chapter also explores the different economic models and the associated storytelling methods of each. Chapter 2 demonstrates the cultural significance of streaming on consumption behaviours and explores how broadcast, cable, and internet-distributed TV networks conceive of and pursue audiences. The analysis of several seminal TV dramas, such as The Sopranos (HBO 1999-2007), Game of Thrones (HBO 2011-2019), and Breaking Bad (AMC 2008-2013), provides comparisons from which to better understand the significance of Stranger Things to both the network that commissioned it and to the American television industry at large. The third chapter offers a detailed analysis of Stranger Things as an exemplar of Netflix’s ability to commission what Trisha Dunleavy (2018) terms the ‘complex serial drama’ and in doing so emulate the successful strategies first deployed by US cable networks.</p>

Rough Heroes

This essay is a response to Anne Eaton’s case for the position in the ethics of narrative fiction known as “immoralism,” or as she calls it “Robust Immoralism.” Her examples in behalf of immoralism include the cultivation of positive attitudes on the part of the audience toward characters like Tony Soprano in the television series The Sopranos. In contrast to Eaton, the author argues that the case for “rough heroes” is based on what he calls “the narrative fallacy” and that currying sympathy for rough heroes is not, pace Eaton, a very challenging artistic feat.

Television Series Review

Showtime’s Couples Therapy (2019-2021) has done something very few shows have done well-showcase real therapeutic treatment on television. The advent of “prestige tv” has led to a proliferation of programs which show the therapeutic relationship in hi definition between protagonists and their therapists, such as HBO’s The Sopranos (1999-2007), and the recently revived In Treatment (2008-2010, 2021). Prior to this the “real” therapy seen on television was limited to the so-called “reality television” trend that gave us the wildly popular Intervention on A&E (2005-ongoing) and the seedier Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew (2008-2012).

The Immigrant's Journey: Race and Trauma in The Sopranos

David Chase’s series The Sopranos (1999-2007) was a wildly successful and popular show which has attracted rich analysis from both critics and academics. However, what has not been adequately analyzed by scholars is the central role that race (specifically Whiteness and Whitening) plays within the series. By using theories of Whiteness (especially Sheshadri-Crooks’s idea of Whiteness as master signifier), Whitening, and racialization, this paper shows how Italian- Americans’ history of racialization, oppression, and eventual Whitening and deracialization expresses itself in complex ways within the series. Specifically, this paper focuses on how the trauma of historical Italian-American oppression and racialization are a constant theme within the seemingly Whitened Italian- American communities and relations portrayed in the series. This intergenerational trauma is considered in the context of historical developments in the Italian-American community and dialogue and plot developments within the series.

The Immigrant's Journey: Race and Trauma in The Sopranos

David Chase’s series The Sopranos (1999-2007) was a wildly successful and popular show which has attracted rich analysis from both critics and academics. However, what has not been adequately analyzed by scholars is the central role that race (specifically Whiteness and Whitening) plays within the series. By using theories of Whiteness (especially Sheshadri-Crooks’s idea of Whiteness as master signifier), Whitening, and racialization, this paper shows how Italian- Americans’ history of racialization, oppression, and eventual Whitening and deracialization expresses itself in complex ways within the series. Specifically, this paper focuses on how the trauma of historical Italian-American oppression and racialization are a constant theme within the seemingly Whitened Italian- American communities and relations portrayed in the series. This intergenerational trauma is considered in the context of historical developments in the Italian-American community and dialogue and plot developments within the series.

Melismatic Madness and Technology

By the mid nineteenth-century, coloratura had become stylized to the point that it could represent hysterical cries. If we consider technology in its original sense as a “practical art” that extends the body’s abilities, then coloratura—an art that features the extended agility and range of the voice—is perhaps the most striking technology employed to mark and empower the operatic madwoman. This chapter explores mid-century mad scenes and related technologies: Giacomo Meyerbeer’s L’Étoile du nord and Le Pardon de Ploërmel, as well as Ophélie’s mad scene in Ambroise Thomas’ Hamlet. These operas also feature sopranos who embody a particular, aestheticized view of femininity at mid-century as stylized, objectified icons of hysteria. Exploring the aural impact of these scenes, the sopranos who originally portrayed the mad heroines, the original staging manuals, and the historical context of emerging psychiatry highlights the importance of the visual in thinking about this phenomenon.

The showrunner as televisual “auteur” in promotional materials — a case study of posters for David Simon’s television shows

Within the rapidly evolving field of modern television, one of the issues which demand to be thoroughly analyzed is the matter of authorship. In the post-network era, the figure of a showrun­ner emerged as American television’s answer to cinema’s auteur. Since HBO’s The Sopranos started the New Golden Age of TV, writer-producers such as Alan Ball and David Simon captivated the imagination of audiences and critics alike, with the last showrunner being famously compared to Charles Dickens, Leo Tolstoy and William Shakespeare. The aim of this article is to analyze one-page posters and ascertain how evident the concept of “showrunner as an auteur” is in said promo­tional materials. The article does not focus on the content of advertised shows, but rather tries to determine whether the artworks reflect the auteurist status of The Wire’s showrunner, David Simon.The case study of posters for television shows run by David Simon demonstrates the rise of his sup­posed popularity and recognizbility.Operating on the assumption that poster credits are not only a part of contractually-bound transaction between the network and talent, but also function as one of the elements that attract prospective viewers, one can conclude that David Simon’s auteurist brand, as recognized by HBO’s publicity department, grew more prominent throughout the years.

Zmieniający się paradygmat opowiadania we współczesnych serialach grozy

Od czasu emisji serialu Rodzina Soprano (The Sopranos, 1999–2007) można zaobserwować nowy etap w historii kinematografii, popularnie nazywany „złotym okresem telewizji”. Główną jego cechą są seriale złożone narracyjnie. Twórcy tych utworów korzystają z nowych środków stylistycznych, a także eksperymentują z ukonstytuowanymi od początku istnienia telewizji schematami narracyjnymi. W artykule podjęto tematykę serialowych horrorów, które zalicza się właśnie do produkcji złożonych narracyjnie. Na przykładzie wybranych sezonów popularnych amerykańskich seriali grozy: Buffy, postrach wampirów (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 1997–2003), Żywe trupy (The Walking Dead, 2010–), American Horror Story (2011–) i Channel Zero (2016–2018) oraz serialu amerykańsko-angielskiego Dom grozy (Penny Dreadful, 2014–2016) omówiono kwestię zmian w strategiach narracyjnych tychże seriali. Szukano odpowiedzi na następujące pytania: czy współczesne seriale grozy przeszły podobną metamorfozę jak dramaty jakościowe i na czym ta zmiana polega? Czy występują postmodernistyczne kolaże, zakłócenia w warstwie temporalnej linii narracyjnych? Czy twórcy wplatają nowatorskie rozwiązania, podążając za myślą formalistów rosyjskich, w struktury narracyjne? I w końcu czy można mówić o nowym typie seriali horrorów, czy są to jedynie powielone wzorce, które wcześniej występowały w serialowym dyskursie grozy?