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- Volume 6, Issue 3, 2018
Journal of Popular Television, The - Volume 6, Issue 3, 2018
Volume 6, Issue 3, 2018
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Mental illness media and the paradox of ‘productivity’ in Elementary and Limitless
By Sean BraytonAbstractThis article examines representations of mental illness in North American network television. It is particularly drawn to the CBS police procedurals Elementary (2012–present) and Limitless (2015) as distinct but overlapping stories of mental illness, addiction and intellectual labour. Though depression, drug addiction and anxiety disorders are treated differently in each series, Elementary and Limitless offer complementary narratives of occupational therapy that equate work with mental well-being. While they seem to present a positive image of mentally ill characters with meaningful jobs, Elementary and Limitless measure mental fitness by one’s capacity to work in the same industries often linked to mental illnesses in the first place, resulting in a paradox of productivity. Here the television programmes, much like occupational therapy, tend to overlook critical questions about the socio-economic underpinnings of psychological disorders and encourage viewers to understand the links between mental illness and work in rather myopic ways.
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Transgression – identification – interaction: Blu-ray bonus features and Supernatural’s cult status
More LessAbstractBeing ‘cultish’ is not a feature which is inherent in a given media text. Rather, this quality is attributed to the text in question over time, usually due to the development of a passionate fan community around it. Nevertheless, media producers are well aware of means which help increase – or in some cases even produce – the cult status of their products. This article dissects the role the bonus features included in Supernatural’s Blu-ray releases play in the cultification of the series. As this article demonstrates these special features primarily function as a means of tightening the bond between the fan community and the show’s creative team.
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The road to Negan: Governance and power in The Walking Dead
Authors: Andrew Howe and Sean EvansAbstractIn Robert Kirkman’s graphic novel The Walking Dead (2003–present), a zombie apocalypse serves as the backdrop against which the survivors make the practical and moral decisions that will determine their fate. The struggle is less about combating the undead than maintaining a civilized, moral imperative and reformulating a micro-society from the ashes of previous civilization. Leadership and decisionmaking become critical in situations where the wrong choice can result in destruction. The television adaptation offers a rare glimpse into a world where some of the fundamental features of civilization – government, kinship, culture – are simultaneously and completely enveloped in chaos. In the midst of a complete breakdown of structure, power vacuums occur and are inevitably filled, most notably in the early parts of the series by Rick Grimes and Shane Walsh, friends and former law enforcement officers who model very different visions of power and governance. This article explores power structures and hierarchy in The Walking Dead from two disciplinary perspectives – historical/cultural and psychological – and focuses upon the clash of competing hierarchal structures and leadership styles that develop as the survivors band together and begin to seek out islands of safety from zombies and other humans alike. The zombie apocalypse is thus a backdrop against which to project the real story: the power dynamics within a micro-society undergoing tremendous stress, and what these dynamics indicate about the conflicted nature of power and identity.
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From ambivalence to acceptance: Representations of trans embodiment on American television
Authors: Marc Lafrance, Jay Manicom and Geoff BardwellAbstractBoasting some of the highest ratings in American cable television history, FX’s six-season dramatic series Nip/Tuck (2003–10) features more trans characters than any other show of its kind. Focusing on its regularly recurring trans woman character, Ava Moore, we argue that Nip/Tuck’s representations of trans embodiment are complex, contradictory and, above all, ambivalent. More specifically, we claim that the show portrays medically-assisted transition not only as a large-scale crisis in the order of things but also as a path to personal prosperity and success. In doing so, we demonstrate that the former is articulated through themes of incest, infertility, fraudulence and monstrosity while the latter is articulated through themes of beauty, intelligence, resilience and social mobility. Having presented our analysis of how Nip/Tuck represents sex reassignment and those who undergo it, we then turn to a critical consideration of how a more recent dramatic series, Orange is the New Black (2013–present), portrays the trans trajectory. Widely understood to represent a kind of ‘transgender tipping point’, Orange is the New Black can be seen as a useful index of how trans people are portrayed in present-day televisual culture. Through our consideration of these portrayals, we think critically about whether popular media representations of sex reassignment have changed since Nip/Tuck and, if so, in what ways.
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From ‘pop’ nostalgia to millennial modernity: Bugs as an ‘Avengers for the 1990s’
More LessAbstractThis article examines the 1990s adventure series Bugs (1995–99), whilst also exploring broader transformations in British television thrillers and nostalgic programming. First, I position the series’ origin as a response to the popularity of 1960s adventure series repeats on the BBC in the 1990s. I argue, that the nostalgic impulse of Bugs itself did not manifest in visual terms, as in more conventional 1960s pastiches, but was instead at a narrative level. The series dispensed with contemporaneous trends towards more psychologised characters and serialised narratives in favour of a self-consciously ‘retro’ rejection of ‘depth’. Yet I also explore other ways in which it adapted the adventure series for the 1990s. These included reworking the spy agency as a small business enterprise for the ‘dotcom’ age, reinventing alienating surveillance technology as the user-friendly gadget, glamorizing neo-liberalism through exoticizing London’s redeveloped Docklands, and presenting terrorism as a leading existential threat for the post-Cold War era. I argue that whilst Bugs represented a dead end for an ‘innocent’ model of nostalgic drama, through many of the latter characteristics it stands as an unacknowledged influence on a later generation of stylish, issue-led ‘War on Terror’ thriller series.
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In flag-rante: Julia Gillard and the infamous ‘flag scene’ in ABC’s At Home with Julia
More LessAbstractIn 2011, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation financed and produced a controversial sitcom based on the life, characteristics, and politics of incumbent Prime Minister Julia Gillard. At Home with Julia (2011) examined Gillard’s private life by fictionalizing her de facto relationship with partner Tim Mathieson. Before, during, and after it aired, the series became a media spectacle as print, digital and broadcast journalists debated the propriety of the parody/satire. Media hype peaked in response to a fleeting scene in which the main characters appear cuddling under the Australian flag. Drawing on scholarship about postfeminism, this article examines the representation of single/unmarried women in popular culture and the characterization of political women in television dramas. The media commentary surrounding At Home with Julia denounced the ‘flag scene’ in the strongest terms, yet this reportage also conveyed an underlying unease towards the series’ candid depiction of sexuality. Most significantly, journalists collectively failed to adequately distinguish between Gillard, the prime minister, and ‘Julia’, the fictional character. Such a failure, this article suggests, enabled and excused the media’s subsequent and far more visceral sexualization of Australia’s first female prime minister. Although the public clearly understood the fictional premise of At Home with Julia, the Australian media fabricated a ‘sex’ scandal that came to be read onto the body of Gillard herself.
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Conference Report
By Caitlin ShawAbstractAt Home with Horror? Terror on the Small Screen, University of Kent, 27–29 October 2017
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