Brevity and the Short Form in Serial Television

by Shannon Wells-Lassagne (Editor), Sylvaine Bataille (Editor), Florence Cabaret (Editor)

Overview

This book offers various approaches to understanding the short form in television. The collection is structured in three parts, first engaging with the concept of brevity as inherent to television fiction, before going on to examine how the rapidly-changing landscape of "television" outside traditional networks might adapt this trope to new contexts made accessible by streaming platforms.
The final part of the study examines how this short form is inextricable from a larger context, either in its relation to seriality (from the crossover to the "bottle episode") and/or a larger structure, for example in the reception of a larger whole through short but evocative clips in order to better weigh their impact (from "Easter Egg" fan videos to "Analyses of"). The collection concludes with an interview with award-winning screenwriter Vincent Poymiro about his French series En thérapie (an adaptation of BeTipul/In Treatment).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781474482042
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Publication date:	10/31/2024
Series:	Screen Serialities
Pages:	242
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Shannon Wells-Lassagne is a Professor of Film and Television Adaptation in the English Department at the University of Burgundy, France.

Sylvaine Bataille is a Lecturer in Literature and Film Studies in the English department at the University of Rouen Normandie

Florence Cabaret is Lecturer in Postcolonial Literatures in the English Department at the university of Rouen Normandie

Table of Contents

List of Figures

Acknowledgements

Notes on the Contributors

Introduction
Shannon Wells-Lassagne, Sylvaine Bataille and Florence Cabaret

Part 1: Confirming – and Deconstructing – Television Traditions of Brevity
1. Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Subverting Anthology TV Series
Julien Achemchame
2. The Jewel in the Crown: A Miniseries between Short and Long
Florence Cabaret
3. Short Middle Ages: Comic Dramatization of Rhythm in French Shortcom Kaamelott
Justine Breton
4. Short but Serious? Slimming Down the Episode in ‘Prestige’ Drama Homecoming
Sylvaine Bataille
5. Twin Peaks, 25 Years Later: Whatever Happens Happens Now, and Nothing Else Matters
Benjamin Campion
Part 2: New Media and New Forms: Web-series, Streaming Platforms and the Short Form
6. Orders of Magnitude: Fractality and Granularity in Contemporary Television Series
Florent Favard
7. ‘Minute by Minute’: Short Form Deriality and Social Viewing and Waiting in SKAM
Sara Tanderup Linkis
8. Narrative Efficiency and the Constraints of the Short Form in Les Engagés
Stéphane Sawas
9. Crisis on Earth X or the Status of the Crossover Event
Claire Cornillon
Part 3: Blurring Boundaries: Production, Paratexts and Reception of the Short Form
10. Loops, Bottles and Clips: Structuring Brevity in American Television
Shannon Wells-Lassagne
11. Ovulate and Repeat: Temporal Uncertainties and the Serialising Effect of Narratives of ‘Women’s Time’ in the Sitcom Friends
Jessica Thrasher
12. ‘Spoilers Ahead!’: Short-circuiting Complex Series in Explainer Online Videos
Sébastien Lefait
13. Writing En thérapie: A Conversation with Vincent Poymiro
Sylvaine Bataille, Florence Cabaret, and Shannon Wells-Lassagne with Vincent Poymiro

Index

Editorial Reviews

This rigorous, insightful, and often delightful collection grapples ably with an ongoing and constitutive dialectic of television: series is constituted by episode. Brevity makes possible serial duration. As television undergoes massive, rapid change, this volume carefully tracks those transformations through a series of brilliant, brief analyses. The result? Required reading.

Johns Hopkins University Samuel A. Chambers

This is a timely, brilliant volume by sterling scholars. Through its focus on the many reflexive forms of brevity (scenes, episodic anthologies, special episodes, shortcoms, miniseries, paratextual videos) and its emphasis on the fragment as well as the whole, it enriches our understanding of television seriality in a decisive way.

Sarah Hatchuel