Television Aesthetics and Style

348 Pages·2013·1.89 MB·English

by  Steven Peacock

Television
Aesthetics and Style

Television
Aesthetics and
Style
EDITED BY
JASON JACOBS AND
STEVEN PEACOCK
Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
1385 Broadway 50 Bedford Square
New York London
NY 10018 WC1B 3DP
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www.bloomsbury.com
First published 2013
© Jason Jacobs, Steven Peacock and Contributors 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or
any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the
publishers.
No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining
from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury
Academic or the author.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Television aesthetics and style / edited by Jason Jacobs and Steven Peacock.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4411-7992-0 (hardcover : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-4411-5751-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Television broadcasting--Aesthetics. 2. Television--Aesthetics. I. Jacobs, Jason editor of
compilation. II. Peacock, Steven, 1974- editor of compilation.
PN1992.55.T3865 2013
791.4502--dc23
2013004521
ISBN: 978-1-6235-6903-7
Typeset by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NN
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Contributors xi
Introduction 1
Jason Jacobs and Steven Peacock
PART ONE Conceptual debates
21
1 Television aesthetics: Stylistic analysis and beyond 23
Sarah Cardwell
2 The qualities of complexity: Vast versus dense seriality in
contemporary television 45
Jason Mittell
3 What does it mean to call television ‘cinematic’? 57
Brett Mills
4 Rescuing television from ‘the cinematic’: The perils of
dismissing television style 67
Deborah L. Jaramillo
PART TWO Aesthetics and style of television comedy
77
5 Why comedy is at home on television 79
Alex Clayton
vi CONTENTS
6 Situating comedy: Inhabitation and duration in classical
American sitcoms 93
Sérgio Dias Branco
7 Arrested developments: Towards an aesthetic of the
contemporary US sitcom 103
Timotheus Vermeulen and James Whitfield
8 Better or differently: Style and repetition in The Trip 113
James Walters
9 The presentation of detail and the organisation of time in
The Royle Family 125
James Zborowski
10 The man from ISIS: Archer and the animated aesthetics of adult
cartoons 135
Holly Randell-Moon and Arthur J. Randell
PART THREE Critical analyzes of television drama
145
11 Don Draper and the promises of life 147
George Toles
12 Justifying Justified 175
William Rothman
13 HBO aesthetics, quality television and Boardwalk Empire 185
Janet McCabe
14 Storytelling in song: Television music, narrative and allusion in
The O.C. 199
Faye Woods
CONTENTS vii
15 Camera and performer: Energetic engagement with
The Shield 209
Lucy Fife Donaldson
16 Flashforwards in Breaking Bad: Openness, closure and
possibility 219
Elliott Logan
17 The fantastic style of Shameless 227
Beth Johnson
PART FOUR Non-fiction and history
239
18 ‘Let’s just watch it for a few minutes’: This is Your Life in
1958 241
Charles Barr
19 Gaudy nights: Dance and reality television’s display of
talent 251
Frances Bonner
20 Television sublime: The experimental television of Lithuanian
CAC TV 269
Linus Andersson
21 Closer to the action: Post-war American television and the
zoom shot 277
Nick Hall
22 Think-tape: The aesthetics of montage in the post-war
television documentary 289
Ieuan Franklin
viii CONTENTS
23 What FUIs can do: The promises of computing in contemporary
television series 309
Cormac Deane
Index 323
Acknowledgements
Thank you first and foremost to the contributors Linus Andersson, Charles
Barr, Frances Bonner, Sérgio Dias Branco, Sarah Cardwell, Alex Clayton,
Cormac Deane, Lucy Fife Donaldson, Ieuan Franklin, Nick Hall, Deborah L.
Jaramillo, Beth Johnson, Elliott Logan, Janet McCabe, Brett Mills, Jason
Mittell, Holly Randell-Moon, Arthur J. Randell, William Rothman, George
Toles, Timotheus Vermeulen, James Walters, James Whitfield, Faye Woods
and James Zborowski. Equally heartfelt thanks to Katie Gallof at Bloomsbury
for her support, guidance and enthusiasm for the project. Parts of the
Introduction appeared in guest blogs by Jason Jacobs and Steven Peacock for
CST Online, and in Critical Studies in Television 3:1 (2008) and 4:2 (2009). We
are grateful to the editors for permission to reprint. Steven would like to thank
his colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire for their enthusiastic backing.
Jason is grateful for the support of the Cultural History Project funded by the
Faculty of Arts at the University of Queensland.
This book is dedicated to Leigh and Val.