Counting down In October or November, every TV and radio channel in Denmark announces its special version of the yearly Christmas calendar. Looking back on highlights from previous years, social media, magazines and newspapers cover the event, bringing clips, quotations, pictures and evaluations.
Dear Santa, That’s 2020 almost over and done with. Again, I’ve tried very hard to be good. When Boris has told me not to go out, I’ve not gone out. And I’ve done my best to see if I can help people who are struggling. So – and you’re probably expecting this already – would it be possible to get La La Land Records’ four-disc set of the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964-1968) soundtrack please?
I decided to write this because I felt an almost divine force compelling me to have everybody in TV studies aware of what is happening in a certain corner of the internet. Where to begin. I’ll start with the show itself.
So, about a year ago, I was watching that Breaking Bad film on Netflix and Watchmen on HBO, and I was still thinking about the Deadwood movie from the previous spring.
Back in July 2020, the BBC began screening its new Sunday night serial on BBC One in an attempt to bring an adaptation of Vikram Seth’s very long, 1993 novel to a mainstream British audience. This blog is not a review of the serial, nor of the critical response to it, which, for reasons which will become clear, would take a lot more time and effort than I currently have.
The last time I’d seen Stu, we were both in tuxedos. It was a packed hotel ballroom in London, the evening Jazz 625 Live: For One Night Only (Somethin’ Else/BBC Four, 2019) won Best Music Programme at the Broadcast Awards. Weird to think of that now, rubbing elbows with tipsy celebrities. A month later, we’d be in lockdown.
This account builds on an earlier blog, ‘Problems of Style in High-end Drama’ and an article published in Critical Studies in Television . It deals with ideas in a new book that accounts for contemporary US television drama’s formal strategies, due to the growing complexity of television narrative.
In the last decades, the European audiovisual and creative sectors have not stopped developing in size, significance and reach. They have assumed an increased role in policy, business and cultural life, but most of all they have greatly contributed to the consolidation of European identity and a stronger sense of community. Throughout the decades, different factors have contributed to the high levels of innovation in these sectors.
It’s been just over nine months since the UK entered its first COVID-19 lockdown (time flies when you’re stuck indoors…) With significant restrictions on how we can spend our leisure time, it’s not surprising to hear that we are watching more television than we have done in years. TV studies scholars rejoice – we’ve never been more relevant!
