Brevity and the Short Form in Serial Television

Shannon Wells-Lassagne is a Professor of Film and Television Adaptation in the English Department at the University of Burgundy, France. Sylvaine Bataille is a Lecturer in Literature and Film Studies in the English department at the University of Rouen Normandie Florence Cabaret is Lecturer in Postcolonial Literatures in the English Department at the university of Rouen Normandie

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.

• List of FiguresAcknowledgementsNotes on the ContributorsIntroductionShannon Wells-Lassagne, Sylvaine Bataille and Florence CabaretPart 1: Confirming – and Deconstructing – Television Traditions of Brevity1. Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Subverting Anthology TV SeriesJulien Achemchame2. The Jewel in the Crown: A Miniseries between Short and LongFlorence Cabaret3. Short Middle Ages: Comic Dramatization of Rhythm in French Shortcom KaamelottJustine Breton4. Short but Serious? Slimming Down the Episode in ‘Prestige’ Drama HomecomingSylvaine Bataille5. Twin Peaks, 25 Years Later: Whatever Happens Happens Now, and Nothing Else MattersBenjamin Campion Part 2: New Media and New Forms: Web-series, Streaming Platforms and the Short Form6. Orders of Magnitude: Fractality and Granularity in Contemporary Television SeriesFlorent Favard 7. ‘Minute by Minute’: Short Form Deriality and Social Viewing and Waiting in SKAMSara Tanderup Linkis8. Narrative Efficiency and the Constraints of the Short Form in Les EngagésStéphane Sawas9. Crisis on Earth X or the Status of the Crossover EventClaire CornillonPart 3: Blurring Boundaries: Production, Paratexts and Reception of the Short Form10. Loops, Bottles and Clips: Structuring Brevity in American TelevisionShannon Wells-Lassagne11. Ovulate and Repeat: Temporal Uncertainties and the Serialising Effect of Narratives of ‘Women’s Time’ in the Sitcom FriendsJessica Thrasher12. ‘Spoilers Ahead!’: Short-circuiting Complex Series in Explainer Online VideosSébastien Lefait13. Writing En thérapie: A Conversation with Vincent PoymiroSylvaine Bataille, Florence Cabaret, and Shannon Wells-Lassagne with Vincent PoymiroIndex