The logic of formatting: A case study on transnational television production

The transnationalization of television production has been examined by studies on formats and multinational media companies, which have often highlighted the resilience of the local in the global. This article investigates transnationalization on the micro level of television production, drawing on participant observations in a Dutch production company that is partly owned by an American conglomerate. It explores the deep entanglement of the local with the global in different facets of production – including legal, organizational and market aspects – as manifested in daily practices and decision-making in television production. Our analysis reveals an industrial logic of formatting that is not only induced by transnational ownership structures and business models but also deeply ingrained in production routines and programme conventions. Through this logic, transnationalization shapes media professionals’ daily work, the selection of programme ideas and the process of content development.

A woman scientist in pursuit of truth: A rising trend of representation with Chernobyl

Sky/HBO’s miniseries Chernobyl (2019) tells a human story behind the catastrophic disaster that had begun with an explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Soviet Ukraine on 26 April 1986. Over the course of five one-hour episodes, Chernobyl dramatizes the incidents that paved the way to the massive explosion, such as the Cold War era, the dysfunctional Soviet bureaucracy and the power issues among the male political and scientific establishment. The highlight of the miniseries is female agency being the symbol of scientific approach, rational thought and common sense. This article analyses Chernobyl and the character of a Belarusian nuclear physicist named Ulyana Khomyuk (played by Emily Watson) by focusing on women’s representation on popular television in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. It also questions whether Chernobyl is one of the very few examples in popular culture of changing patterns of women’s representation in STEM.

Netflix, nostalgia and transnational television

This article offers an overview of the various kinds of nostalgia Netflix engages with. The focus here is self-produced originals and the way nostalgic elements are used to create different kinds of political outlooks within a transnational television environment. An underlying question is: in what ways can nostalgia be political within the transnational context of Netflix? The article explores this question while giving an overview of nostalgia’s use in different series, such as the culturally regressive politics of The Crown (2016–present), the progressive social justice project of Sex Education (2019–present) and the semiotic (if not political) project in series like Bridgerton (2020–present).

Lesbians on Television: New Queer Visibility and the Lesbian Normal, Kate McNicholas Smith (2020)

Review of: Lesbians on Television: New Queer Visibility and the Lesbian Normal, Kate McNicholas Smith (2020) Bristol: Intellect Books, 206 pp., ISBN 978-1-78938-280-8, h/bk, £80

An experiment in space and time: Remaking the missing Doctor Who episode ‘Mission to the Unknown’

In the 1960s, the majority of Doctor Who (1963–89, 1996, 2005–present) episodes were wiped or lost. Students and staff at the University of Central Lancashire recently took on the challenge of remaking the missing Doctor Who episode ‘Mission to the Unknown’ (1965). The goal was to faithfully recreate the episode in a way that lays a claim to authenticity. This article examines the process and product and asks, with reference to television historiography, whether it achieves its goal of authenticity and what ‘authenticity’ might mean in this context. Ellis and others discuss the estrangement felt when viewing television from earlier decades. This article discusses the ‘feedback loop’ involved in knowing that the episode was made recently whilst assessing it as if it had been made in the past. The estrangement the viewer feels is therefore a sign that the episode is succeeding in its task of staying authentic to its era. But is it possible to completely abandon the knowledge of its contemporary production and lose oneself to the experience of viewing?

Whose nostalgia? Differentiation in German television’s audience address

Nostalgia is often examined as an element of the text. In this contribution, I argue that texts offer a number of spectator positions that can be perceived as nostalgic if the viewer has accumulated certain life experiences that render them so. Examining Babylon Berlin, I argue that the programme offers a spectator position that can look at its Weimar of 1929 anxiously and nostalgically. This is a spectator position that assumes a viewer who is likely to be from the former West and who likely is younger than 55 years of age.

The ‘troubled rebel girl’ and the ‘boy-next-door’: The apparent inversion of gender and love archetypes in 13 Reasons Why, Élite and Sex Education

Teen series play a central role in the socialization process of young people, since they offer portrayals and models that young people can relate to, identify with or modify and break. Previous studies have shown that teen series continue to perpetuate a stereotyped gender representation and usually reproduce a heteronormative relationship model based on the myth of romantic love following the storyline of ‘Beauty and the Beast’. The present study consists of a close reading of three popular current Netflix teen series: 13 Reasons Why (2017–present), Élite (2018–present) and Sex Education (2019–present). The results show an inversion of the gender archetypes of Beauty and the Beast. The three female protagonists are ‘badasses with a good heart’, embodying the typical archetype of the ‘Beast’, while the three male protagonists are patient, caring, innocent and even virginal, embodying the archetype of the ‘Beauty’. However, unlike in the classic model, the boys fail in their attempts to save their beloved from themselves, and the girls end up suffering irreparable consequences. The tragic end of the female characters condemns them to the impossibility of a redemption that has traditionally been granted to males.

ABC Sports: The Rise and Fall of Network Sports Television, Travis Vogan (2018)

Review of: ABC Sports: The Rise and Fall of Network Sports Television, Travis Vogan (2018) Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2981 pp., ISBN 978-0-52029-295-6, h/bk, $85.00 ISBN 978-0-52029-296-3, p/bk, $29.95

Sacha Levy’s unorthodox kindness: Holby City’s medicine and pedagogy

Holby City (1999–present) is a stalwart of British television media. Since its conception in 1999, the show has continued to attract contemporary audiences who tune in to passively, and passionately, experience turbulent battles between life and death. However, the locus of interest is not on the patients within Holby’s wings, but rather the staff themselves; it is their emotional, psychological and pedagogical development which spurs the plot forward and grips viewer attention. Through the use of medical pedagogy, Holby City becomes a drama of perpetual Bildungsromane, where relationships between peers, mentors and mentees are under consistent pressure. Furthermore, this pedagogy does not merely ensure Holby City’s series continuation but becomes a site of transformation, challenging preconceived ideologies of toxic masculinity. This is never more apparent than in the character of Sacha Levy (Bob Barrett), whose emotional availability, vulnerability and religious spirituality directly challenge concepts of the self-destructive ‘burnt-out’ male medic. This article explores the character of Sacha Levy in Holby City, demonstrating how the show’s writers engage actively in research to directly confront stereotypes of toxic masculinity and Jewish underrepresentation in the contemporary medical drama.

Scheherazade in Istanbul: A study of the popular Turkish TV series Binbir Gece

One Thousand and One Nights is a composite, transnational work, consisting of popular stories originally transmitted orally within its embedded cultures and developed over several centuries. Ever since its translation into European languages in the nineteenth century, or perhaps even before, it has been adapted and appropriated into different forms and mediums and thus has reached different corners of the world. This project was inspired by the level of popularity of One Thousand and One Nights, often known as The Arabian Nights, in the world today. Although only a relatively small number of people might have read all the tales, we can safely assume that most people do have an idea of what the Nights are, whilst some could even name one or two films, series or cartoons that they think are based on the Nights. Indeed, only a very limited number of stories included in editions of the Nights have been adapted into films or TV series. There are two main characteristics of the Nights that help identify adaptations and adoptions in popular culture: embedded storytelling using a frame tale, and the ‘feminist’, emancipating heroine Scheherazade. The popular Turkish TV series Binbir Gece (One Thousand and One Nights) (2006–09), which this article focuses on, not only makes use of these two popular features; it also offers a fresh and contemporary adaptation of the frame story of Shah Shahriyar and Scheherazade and elements from many other tales from the Nights, such as the emphasis on the importance of education for women, or the evil of cunning women. After analysing the degree of adaptation of the frame story in this series, this article sheds light on its global reach, reception and popularity.