Brevity and the Short Form in Serial Television
Edited by Shannon Wells-Lassagne, Sylvaine Bataille, Florence Cabaret
Focuses on television fictions as short forms rather than expansive narratives, and how this relates to their seriality
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
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.
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.
