Complex TV: The Poetics of Contemporary Television Storytelling - Softcover

Mittell, Jason

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0814769608 ISBN 13: 9780814769607

Publisher: NYU Press, 2013

Synopsis

Over the past two decades, new technologies, changing viewer practices, and the proliferation of genres and channels has transformed American television. One of the most notable impacts of these shifts is the emergence of highly complex and elaborate forms of serial narrative, resulting in a robust period of formal experimentation and risky programming rarely seen in a medium that is typically viewed as formulaic and convention bound. 

 

Complex TV offers a sustained analysis of the poetics of television narrative, focusing on how storytelling has changed in recent years and how viewers make sense of these innovations. Through close analyses of key programs, including The Wire, Lost, Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, Veronica Mars, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Mad Men the book traces the emergence of this narrative mode, focusing on issues such as viewer comprehension, transmedia storytelling, serial authorship, character change, and cultural evaluation. Developing a television-specific set of narrative theories, Complex TV argues that television is the most vital and important storytelling medium of our time.

 

» Browse a gallery of supplemental video clips on the Complex TV website.

 

About this title

About the Author

Jason Mittell is Professor of Film & Media Culture at Middlebury College. His books include Genre & Television: From Cop Shows to Cartoons in American Culture, Television & American Culture, and Complex Television: The Poetics of Contemporary Television Storytelling, and Narrative Theory and Adaptation. He is project manager for [in]Transition: Journal of Videographic Film & Moving Image Studies, and author of numerous video essays.

Edition details

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0814769608
• ISBN 13: 9780814769607
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416