Serial Television: Big Drama on the Small Screen

Serial Television focuses on contemporary television drama, offering detailed accounts of hugely popular, influential, and groundbreaking shows such as The Sopranos, Queer as Folk, Sex and the City, Twin Peaks, This Life, Prime Suspect, Cold Lazarus, The Kingdom, Holocaust, Heimat, and Roots. Glen Creeber argues that the demise of the single play has not meant the end of original, challenging, and innovative television drama. Instead, he reveals how contemporary television drama is frequently more complex, radical, and multilayered than its historical predecessors. In particular, he shows how serial dramas have breathed new life into representations of gender politics and refreshed genre formats, and he reconsiders trends such as art television, soap operas, and the historical mini-series.