Concept TV: An Aesthetics of Television Series

135 Pages·2021·3.225 MB·English

by  Luca Bandirali, Enrico Terrone

Concept TV

Concept TV
An Aesthetics of Television Series
Luca Bandirali and Enrico Terrone
LEXINGTON BOOKS
Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
Published by Lexington Books
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passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bandirali, Luca, 1973- author. | Terrone, Enrico, 1970- author.
Title: Concept TV : an aesthetics of television series / Luca Bandirali and
Enrico Terrone.
Other titles: Filosofia delle serie TV. English
Description: Lanham : Lexington Books, [2021] | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021017911 (print) | LCCN 2021017912 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781498597562 (cloth) | ISBN 9781498597579 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Television series—United States—History and criticism. |
Television series—Philosophy.
Classification: LCC PN1992.8.S4 B34513 2012 (print) | LCC PN1992.8.S4 (ebook) |
DDC 791.45—dcundefined
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021017911
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021017912
∞ ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
RL_00_CATS_PRELIMS_INFO_docbook_new_indd.indd 4 9/30/2021 2:53:08 PM
Contents
List of Figures vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1 The Problem: Supersize Narratives 5
2 The Solution: Conceptual Narratives 23
3 The Upshot: Engaging with Conceptual Narratives 57
Bibliography 111
Index 119
About the Authors 123
v

List of Figures
Figure 2.1 24 (Fox, 2001–2010) 32
Figure 2.2 Money Heist (Netflix, 2017–) 42
Figure 2.3 Homeland (Fox, 2015–2020) 50
Figure 2.4 Stranger Things (Netflix, 2016–) 56
Figure 3.1 Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (Netflix, 2018) 68
Figure 3.2 The Good Wife (CBS, 2009–2016) 71
Figure 3.3 Gomorrah (Sky Italia, 2014–) 77
Figure 3.4 Game of Thrones (HBO, 2011–2019) 90
Figure 3.5 Mad Men (AMC, 2007–2015) 102
Figure 3.6 BoJack Horseman (Netflix, 2014–2020) 106
vii

Acknowledgments
The authors want to thank Jana Hodges-Kluck, Holly Buchanan, and Sydney
Wedbush, our editors for Lexington Books. Thanks also to the two refer-
ees for Lexington Books, whose insightful comments have contributed to
improve this book. The first chapter draws on material from the paper “Super
Size Stories: Narrative Strategies in Contemporary TV Series” published in
issue 11 of the journal Cinergie in 2017. Thanks to Roy Menarini, editor in
chief of Cinergie, for allowing the use of those materials in this book. The
authors would also like to thank Isabella Hernández for her help in preparing
the final manuscript.
Enrico Terrone would like to thank Mario Calderale, editor in chief of the
journal Segnocinema, which has hosted several reviews of TV series that had
been the starting point for the research that has led to this book. He also would
like to thank Sara Guindani and Maurizio Ferraris for insightful comments on
the talk “Pouvoir en serie. Images de la force et de la loi dans les nouveaux
récits audiovisuels. De 24 heures chrono à House of Cards” which he gave on
February 12, 2016, in the framework of “Cycle de conférences: Pouvoirs des
images / Images de pouvoir,” organized by Fondation Maison des Sciences
de l’Homme Paris et Département d’Arts de l’Université Paris 8.
Luca Bandirali would like to thank Roberto De Gaetano (University of
Calabria) for appreciating and encouraging this work since the beginning and
Massimiliano Rossi (University of Salento) who read the work in progress
and was generous with his feedback. He would also like to thank Alessia
Cervini, Antioco Floris, and Marco Gargiulo for providing him opportunities
to talk about Gomorrah at the 2018 conference “La forma cinematografica
del reale. Teorie, pratiche, linguaggi: da Bazin a Netflix” in Palermo and
at the 2019 conference “Lingue e linguaggi del reale” in Bergen. He also
acknowledges Fabio Pollice and rector’s staff at University of Salento;
ix