Table Of ContentQuality Telefantasy
This book explores the relatively new genre of ‘Quality Telefantasy’ and
how it has broadened TV taste cultures by legitimating and mainstreaming
fantastical content. It also shows how the rising popularity of this genre
marks a distinct and significant development in what kinds of TV are
culturally dominant and critically regarded.
By expanding and building on the definition of US Quality TV, this book
brings together a number of popular science fiction, fantasy and horror TV
series, including Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead and Westworld,
as case studies which demonstrate the emergence of the Quality Telefantasy
genre. It looks at the role of technology, including internet recap culture
and subscription video on demand distribution, in Quality Telefantasy’s
swift emergence, and analyses its success internationally by considering
series created outside the US like Kingdom (South Korea, Netflix)
and Dark (Germany, Netflix). The book argues that Quality Telefantasy
series should be considered a part of the larger Quality TV super-genre and
that the impact they are having on the global TV landscape warrants further
investigation as it continues to evolve.
This is a valuable text for students and scholars studying or undertaking
research in the areas of television studies, new media and pop-cultural
studies.
Dr Andrew Lynch teaches cinema and screen studies in the Department
of Media and Communication at Swinburne University of Technology,
Australia. He has previously published work on telefantasy, genre
and Quality TV in Quarterly Review of Film and Video and Refractory. His
current research focuses on the diverse approaches of niche and marginal
streaming services.
Routledge Advances in Television Studies
13 American Television and the Sensate Body
Affect and Meaning
Marsha F. Cassidy
14 Creating Reality in Factual Television
The Frankenbite and Other Fakes
Manfred W. Becker
15 A European Television Fiction Renaissance
Premium Production Models and Transnational Circulation
Edited by Luca Barra and Massimo Scaglioni
16 Difficult Women on Television Drama
The Gender Politics of Complex Women in Serial Narratives
Isabel C. Pinedo
17 Global Trafficking Networks on Film and Television
Hollywood’s Cartel Wars
César Albarrán-Torres
18 Cognition, Emotion, and Aesthetics in Contemporary Serial Television
Edited by Ted Nannicelli and Héctor J. Pérez
19 Children, Youth, and International Television
Edited by Debbie Olson and Adrian Schober
20 Quality Telefantasy
How US Quality TV Brought Zombies, Dragons and Androids into the
Mainstream
Andrew Lynch
Quality Telefantasy
How US Quality TV Brought
Zombies, Dragons and Androids
into the Mainstream
Andrew Lynch
First published 2022
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2022 Andrew Lynch
The right of Andrew Lynch to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-032-15625-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-15624-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-24499-8 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003244998
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
List of figures vi
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction: the rise of Quality Telefantasy 1
1 Battlestar Galactica and True Blood: transitioning
to Quality Telefantasy 29
2 The Walking Dead: the three key elements
of Quality Telefantasy 50
3 Game of Thrones: recap culture and
Quality Telefantasy 79
4 The Marvel/Netflix superhero series:
adapting comic books into Quality Telefantasy 104
5 Westworld: self-reflexive Quality Telefantasy 128
Conclusion: the future of Quality Telefantasy
in (and outside) the United States 152
Works cited 165
Appendix: Quality Telefantasy corpus 186
Index 191
Figures
1.1 A human envoy reviews documents in the rebooted
Battlestar Galactica miniseries (Syfy 2003), which show the
robotic Cylon villains from the original series
(ABC 1978–1979) 40
1.2 The Battlestar Galactica miniseries (Syfy 2003) asks the
audience to compare the original series’ Cylons (actors in
costume) to its new digitally rendered Cylons 41
1.3 A young boy messily eats strawberries, a visual allusion to
vampirism in True Blood’s (HBO 2008–2014) title sequence 45
1.4 Evocative imagery of an insect emerging from its cocoon in
another allusion to vampirism in True Blood’s
(HBO 2008–2014) title sequence 46
1.5 A church sign displaying the message ‘God Hates Fangs’ in
True Blood’s (HBO 2008–2014) title sequence 46
1.6 Black-and-white footage of an African American protestor
being detained by police in True Blood’s (HBO 2008–2014)
title sequence 47
2.1 An example of the generically ambiguous disaster imagery
(an abandoned building) in The Walking Dead’s (AMC
2010–2022) title sequence 68
2.2 Protagonist Rick Grimes’ (Andrew Lincoln) photo in a
discarded newspaper in The Walking Dead’s (AMC 2010–
2022) title sequence 69
2.3 Character Lori Grimes’ (Sarah Wayne Callies) photo in a
broken frame in The Walking Dead’s (AMC 2010–2022)
title sequence 69
4.1 Imagery from the Daredevil comic book (a Christian
church, complete with a crucifix and weeping angel) from
Daredevil’s (Netflix 2015–2018) title sequence 114
4.2 A comic-book-styled Daredevil in Daredevil’s (Netflix
2015–2018) title sequence 114
4.3 Daredevil’s (Charlie Cox) first, makeshift black costume 119
Figures vii
4.4 Daredevil’s (Charlie Cox) proper red superhero costume,
complete with horns 121
5.1 Game of Thrones’ (HBO 2011–2019) first season
protagonist Eddard Stark (Sean Bean) loses his head in the
episode ‘Baelor’ (2011) 136
5.2 Prominent The Walking Dead character Glenn Rhee’s
(Steven Yeun) grisly head wound in the episode ‘The Day
Will Come When You Won’t Be’ (2016) seals his fate 140
5.3 Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) pummels Glenn’s (Steven
Yeun) lifeless body, confirming the character is absolutely
dead and cannot return to the series, even as a zombie 141
5.4 A and B Game of Thrones character (HBO 2011–2019) Jon
Snow (Kit Harrington) is revealed to be the rightful King
of Westeros via a match cut in the episode ‘The Winds of
Winter’ (2016) 145
5.5 A and B Westworld (HBO 2016–) character William (Jimmi
Simpson) is revealed to be the Man in Black (Ed Harris) via
a match cut in the episode ‘The Bicameral Mind’ (2016) 147
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to Dr Radha O’Meara and Dr Djoymi Baker, Professor Angela
Ndalianis and Dr Mark Nicholls, all of whom, at one time or another, super-
vised the PhD thesis that became this book. Thanks also to my friends and
colleagues in cinema and screen studies at Swinburne University of Tech-
nology: Associate Professor Liam Burke, Dr Jessica Balanzategui, Associate
Professor Dan Golding and Dr César Albarrán-Torres, who have helped me
along the way with feedback (and patiently listened to me argue that the
final season of Game of Thrones was not as bad as everyone says!). Finally,
thank you to my amazing partner Sinéad Stubbins, who has supported me
every step of the way to completing this book and continues to inspire me
every single day!
This book was written on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin
Nation.
Portions of chapter 3 have been published previously:
Lynch, Andrew. 2018. “The Last-night’s Watch: Game of Thrones, contemporary
recap culture, and HBO’s continuing legacy.” In HBO’s Original Voices: Race,
Gender, Sexuality and Power, edited by Victoria McCollum, Giuliana Mon-
teverde. New York & London: Routledge.
Portions of chapter 4 have been published previously:
Lynch, Andrew. 2019. “I’m not trying to be a hero’: Quality TV superheroes and
generic hybridity in the Marvel/Netflix television series.” Refractory: A Journal of
Entertainment Media, 32.
Introduction
The rise of Quality Telefantasy
In 2011, the upstart basic cable network AMC made a gamble that failed to
recognise that Quality TV would soon be populated by zombies, androids
and dragons, not just mobsters and advertising executives. They had just
signed a pricey new contract with Matthew Weiner, the creator of their
1960s advertising drama Mad Men (AMC 2007–2015) for its fifth and sixth
seasons. Weiner was a known quantity in Quality TV, having previously
worked on another hit cable series about ‘difficult men’ (Martin 2013),
HBO’s The Sopranos (HBO 1998–2007). Though Mad Men was beloved by
critics, and culturally influential, it never became the ratings success AMC
had hoped for. At the same time, AMC made significant cuts to the second
season budget of a series about zombies, based on a comic book and brought
to TV by Frank Darabont, a film director known for his well-received Ste-
phen King adaptations. Apart from upsetting Darabont enough that he quit
the show (Flint 2011), these financial adjustments showed where AMC saw
the future of Quality TV, in classy, real-world dramas with established criti-
cal appeal. Just two years later, The Walking Dead (2010–2022) became the
most watched series on US TV among the coveted adults aged 18–49 demo-
graphic, drawing more viewers than Sunday Night Football (NBC 2006–)
(O’connell 2013). By the time The Walking Dead concluded its 12-season
run in 2022, the zombie plague had spread across AMC’s schedule through
a number of spin-off series, becoming a full-fledged franchise. Also in 2011,
the prestigious premium cable network HBO took a gamble on a new
show based on a successful but still niche series of fantasy novels, Game of
Thrones (HBO 2011–2019). Unlike AMC they seemed less concerned with
expenses, going so far as to reshoot Game of Thrones’ pilot episode when
the first attempt was deemed ‘a piece of shit’ by consulting screenwriter
Craig Mazin (Jones 2016). HBO’s costly bet paid off. By the time it finished
its eight-season run in 2019, Game of Thrones had accumulated 59 Emmy
awards (a new record for dramatic series), among them four Outstanding
Drama wins. What’s more, audiences were just as invested in the history
and political machinations of Game of Thrones’ dragon-riding Targaryen
family as they had been in David Chase’s complex representation of New
Jersey mobsters in The Sopranos. In a few short years, these serious-minded
DOI: 10.4324/9781003244998-1
