Birth of the Binge: Serial TV and the End of Leisure

313 Pages·2019·12.65 MB·English

by  Dennis Broe

Birth of the Binge
Contemporary Approaches to
Film and Media Series
A complete listing of the books in this series
can be found online at wsupress.wayne.edu
General Editor
Barry Keith Grant
Brock University
Advisory Editors
Robert J. Burgoyne
University of St. Andrews
Caren J. Deming
University of Arizona
Patricia B. Erens
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Peter X. Feng
University of Delaware
Lucy Fischer
University of Pittsburgh
Frances Gateward
California State University, Northridge
Tom Gunning
University of Chicago
Thomas Leitch
University of Delaware
Walter Metz
Southern Illinois University
Dennis Broe
Wayne State University Press
Detroit
Copyright © 2019 by Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan 48201.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without formal
permission. Manufactured in the United States of America.
ISBN 978-0-8143-4597-9 (hardcover); ISBN 978-0-8143-4526-9 (paperback);
ISBN 978-0-8143-4527-6 (ebook)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018961790
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To Paris, the City of Light, which contributed in its own way to
my seeing television differently.
To Bob Spiegelman, with whom I have shared many pleasurable
conversations on television, film, culture, and politics and
whose generous spirit regarding my work has constantly
pushed me forward.

C
ontents
Acknowledgments ix
Preface: Oh! Williams!: The Rise and Fall and Rise Again of
Television Studies xi
Introduction: Down the Rabbit Hole of Seriality, Narrative Complexity,
and Quality Television 1
I: Metaseriality
1. Hyperindustrialism, Hypernarrativity, and the Home Screen 13
2. The Mobile Serial TV Viewer: Prime Time Begets Flex Time
Begets No Time 39
3. This Is Your Brain, This Is Your Brain on Serial TV: Autism
and Addiction as the (Psychoanalytic) Hyperindustrial
Condition 71
4. Seriality and Political Economy: Flexibility and Dominance in
the New Television 99
II: Serial Specificity
5. Serial Aesthetics: Philosophical, Artistic, and Media Histories of
Seriality / Hegel and Richard Kimble on the Trail of the
One-Armed Man 137
6. Serial TV and Narratology: Hybridity, Time Travel, and
Complexity in the Service of What Ends? 173
III: Serial Auteurs and the Possibilities of
Industrial Resistance
7. Joss Whedon and the Metaphysics of the Machinic 209
8. J. J. Abrams and the Serial Fracturing of Post-9/11 Entertainment
Militarization 231
Conclusion: The King Is Dead, Long Live the King: US Serial TV
“Peaks” while Global Serial TV Soars 241
Appendix: One Hundred Seminal Serial Series 247
Notes 251
Bibliography 281
Index of TV Shows Mentioned 291
General Index 295
viii - Contents
A
Cknowledgments
Many contributed to the making of this book and to encouraging me
along the way.
I was able to develop my ideas on television initially through teaching
graduate classes in New York and Paris. Thanks particularly to Long Island
University and its Media Arts Department and to the Sorbonne, Paris III, and
its Department of Cinema and Audiovisual.
At LIU I would like to thank the LIU Library for its help in my research and
particularly media librarian Rachel King. From the faculty, much love to Claire
Goodman and Larry Banks whose always thoughtful encouragement aided
me greatly as well as to the television-writing program headed by Norman
Steinberg and to fellow professor Steve Molton. My students aided me greatly:
in particular Frank Zagottis, whose master’s thesis helped me immensely in
clarifying key aspects of this book and who remained a thoughtful participant
throughout; Fangchi Gato, whose lively participation and enthusiasm is always
much appreciated; Brian Jackson, for his general thoughtfulness and appraisal
of Last Resort; and Robin Lee Kelly for her intellectual curiosity and constant
support. Finally, to the university itself for granting me the time and resources
to complete the project.
At the Sorbonne, thanks to Guillaume Soulez, Martin Goutte, Kira Kit-
soupanidou, and Maria Vezzoni for putting up with my French and allow-
ing me to teach a graduate course in television studies, which also furthered
my research.
My thoughts on television were also formed and expressed in various
media outlets in three countries. Special thanks in the US to Prairie Miller of
Pacifica Radio and WBAI’s Arts Express for giving me free rein and allowing
me to articulate my thoughts on the progress and meanderings of serial tele-
vision. Thanks in France to Paris’s Art District Radio and particularly to Didier
Dippe and Julie Chaizemartin for their encouragement and help in launching
my show Breaking Glass and my television series TV on TV. Special thanks as
well in Britain to Garrick Webster and Maria Sophia of Crime Fiction Lover