Complex TVMain MenuIntroductionVideos for IntroductionComplexity in ContextBeginningsVideos for Chapter 2AuthorshipCharactersComprehensionEvaluationOrienting ParatextsTransmedia StorytellingEndsVideo GalleryTable of ContentsJason Mittell06e96b1b57c0e09d70492af49d984ee2f68945deNew York University Press
Serial Melodrama
12015-03-15T11:35:41-07:00Jason Mittell06e96b1b57c0e09d70492af49d984ee2f68945de13504structured_gallery1303712015-03-18T12:12:59-07:00Jason Mittell06e96b1b57c0e09d70492af49d984ee2f68945deThis chapter explores the role of melodrama within contemporary serial narratives, starting with the soap opera’s debatable connection to this mode of storytelling. By separating out the narrative norms of soap operas from the emotional appeals of melodrama, I argue that soaps’ textual form is less vital to prime time serials than is the discursive history linking seriality to the soap genre for decades. Instead, I consider how the emotional responses triggered by serial melodrama help forge the mixed-gender appeal of narratively complex series, with programs such as Veronica Mars, Friday Night Lights, Lost, The Good Wife, and The Wire playing with such conventions to complicate well-established assumptions about genre categories and their gendered appeals.
12015-03-15T15:25:44-07:00Jason Mittell06e96b1b57c0e09d70492af49d984ee2f68945dep. 240-241: MARY HARTMAN MARY HARTMAN2plain2015-03-18T07:31:36-07:00Jason Mittell06e96b1b57c0e09d70492af49d984ee2f68945de
12015-03-15T15:36:40-07:00Jason Mittell06e96b1b57c0e09d70492af49d984ee2f68945dep. 258-259: THE GOOD WIFE2plain2015-03-16T12:37:05-07:00Jason Mittell06e96b1b57c0e09d70492af49d984ee2f68945de