The Television Series Complexity / Simplicity

This collection interrogates the concept of complex TV, and reappraises the value of simplicity in TV, with reference to a range of television programming, including episodic series and serial dramas, sitcoms, science-fiction, animation, horror, thrillers and period dramas. The ‘Moments in Television’ collections celebrate the power and artistry of television and the excitement that particular televisual moments can engender, while simultaneously interrogating current concepts and debates within TV studies. Each book is organised around a binary theme that engages with key concepts in television studies. Complexity / simplicity addresses the idea of complex TV, an increasingly influential category within television criticism and scholarship. It examines the potential and limitations of complexity and explores its impact on creative and interpretative practices. The book also opens up new pathways, reassessing simplicity as a potential criterion for evaluation that has been neglected within television scholarship. Complexity and simplicity are employed persuasively to illuminate the book’s chosen programmes in new ways. The chapters in Complexity / simplicity are inspired by moments drawn from an eclectic range of TV fictions, dramatic and comedic. Contributors from diverse perspectives explore, expand and enrich the kind of close analysis most commonly found in television aesthetics. Each chapter attends to one carefully chosen programme, evoking its particular qualities and appraising its achievements – while situating it within historical, technological, institutional, cultural, creative and art-historical contexts. The programmes examined here are The Handmaid’s Tale, House of Cards, Father Ted, Rick and Morty, Killing Eve, The Wire, Veep, Doctor Who, Vanity Fair and The Long Wait. Complexity / simplicity is essential reading for those interested in how notions of complexity and simplicity can enhance our critical appreciation and enjoyment of television. An exciting new strand in The Television Series, the ‘Moments in Television’ collections celebrate the power and artistry of television, whilst interrogating key critical concepts in television scholarship.Each ‘Moments’ book is organised around a provocative binary theme. Complexity / simplicity addresses the idea of complex TV, examining its potential, limitations and impact upon creative and interpretative practices. It also reassesses simplicity as an alternative criterion for evaluation. Complexity and simplicity persuasively illuminate the book’s chosen programmes in new ways.The book explores an eclectic range of TV fictions, dramatic and comedic. Contributors from diverse perspectives come together to expand and enrich the kind of close analysis most commonly found in television aesthetics. Sustained, detailed programme analyses are sensitively framed within historical, technological, institutional, cultural, creative and art-historical contexts.