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Robi n Nel son
a
a
Depar t ment of Cont empor ar y Ar t s, Manchest er
Met r opol i t an Uni ver si t y, MMU Cheshi r e, Hassal l Road,
Al sager ST7 2HL, UK E- mai l :
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Channelling distinction through TVIII
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oo!., 1.!...c . /... |o |. c.. (jo.c..| t,c, Quality Popular
Television, iti, tc1c, 2+, :)
The era of TVIII is distinguished above all by distinction of programming. In
Todreass neat formulation there has been a great value shift from conduit to
content (1999, p. 7) in American television output. Indeed, as HBOs tag line
would have it, there has been a paradigm shift, in respect of quality fiction
production, from television to quasi-cinema: Its not TV, its HBO. That is to say,
its not television at all but home cinema accessed through your Home Box Office.
Where the economics of TVI led to the Least Objectionable Programming
(LOP) of an era in which the American network cartel (NBC, CBC, ABC) made
profit out of control over distribution, the economics of production and distribution
in a digitalglobal, multi-channel environment demand product distinction to ensure
visibility in a crowded marketplace. This distinctive product is then mobilised across
a number of digital media platforms to exploit secondary and tertiary markets.
Besides the primary distributionin HBOs case through cable and Digital Broadcast
Satelliteand secondary distribution through international sales, a related website
and DVD (with additional features) are now standard distribution practices. Profit is
made additionally from all kinds of related merchandising.
The location of HBO in a huge media conglomerate, Time Warner, allows
the benefits of an additional range of media platforms for publicity. Besides HBO,
Time Warner includes America Online (AOL), New Line Cinema, Time Inc.,
Time Warner Cable, Turner Broadcasting Inc., Warner Brothers Entertainment,
New Review of Film and Television Studies
Vol. 5, No. 1, April 2007, pp. 2540
ISSN 1740-0309 print/ISSN 1740-7923 online
2007 Taylor & Francis
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals DOI: 10.1080/17400300601140159
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Time Warner Investments and Global Marketing. To individuate and distinguish
its various products Time Warners Global Marketing company publicises and
facilitates through devolved branding the other companies and their output in the
overall corporate context. As Global Marketings website announces, they
Push Brand Awareness to a New Level:
A catalyst for collaboration across the company, Global Marketing fully
develops customized, idea-driven programs for its marketing partners by
capitalizing on Time Warners wealth of content, media platforms, consumer
relationships and marketing infrastructure worldwide.
Besides dispersing risk amongst a range of business interests, such conglomerates
as Time Warner have the critical mass to invest in infrastructure and in specific
expensive products such as high end TV fictions. They also have the means to
promote their products and HBO commit very large budgets to promotion in a
way that has historically been associated more with launching movies than
television series.
In TVI, the networks aimed merely to maximise the number of viewers to
secure the maximum income from advertisers as determined by Nielsens in
sweeps weeks. Thus the aim was to offend the smallest number of viewers to
prevent defection to one of the other two networks. Relatively bland
programming, LOP, was the result. HBO, in contrast, does not need to be
overly concerned with how many people are actually watching its programmes as
long as their subscription list is expanding. Thus, HBO needs only to please the
constituency of its niche target markets. Love them or loathe them, the products
of HBO Premiumo., :. o1 |. c.,, 1|. :c.oc, :. t.. u1.., co..o!.,
.o1cc1, ico.o., 1|. P... and moreare undeniably different. Indeed, all
they have in common is that each is distinctive with high production values.
Another distinctive feature of HBO as a subscription channel in America is
that it lies outside the purview of the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC), the regulatory body for television in the USA. Since subscribers, or pay-
per-view purchasers, voluntarily buy into HBO programming, they cannot
complain about their content, whereas audiences for licensed distribution channels
have recourse to the FCC if they find the content of broadcast television offensive
or unsuitable in any way (and the USA historically has been conservative in respect
of sex and strong language). The most obvious freedom afforded to HBO by this
means is in the use of expletives and the graphic portrayal of sexuality. Thus it
might be assumed that HBO would go down-market and exploit its freedoms with
appeal to the lowest common denominator of prurience. Although HBO does
run adult content on a subscription and pay-per-view basis, the output on which
HBO Premium at least has made its name is up-market and sophisticated. Since
subscription is relatively expensive, HBO needs to appeal to ABC1s whose
2 6 NEW REVI EW OF FI LM AND TELEVI SI ON STUDI ES
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income and lifestyle suits an Event TV approach. Having little time to watch
television, busy professionals might prefer to select quality programming for the
occasions when they do wish to watch TV. Furthermore, given that professionals
are likely to be formally better educated than the average, they may even prefer
programming which challenges as well as entertains. So successful has HBO
Premium been at branding its fiction output as quasi-cinema, that subscription to
HBO is now effectively a status symbol amongst professionals in the USA.
Changes in television technology have brought the experience of viewing
television closer to that of visiting the cinema (though some significant differences
remain, as we shall see). If you sit comfortably in an armchair in a darkened room
watching HDTV on a wall-mounted plasma screen with digital surround sound,
the experience approximates to that of the cinema. In the current advertising
jargon of major Japanese producer Hitachi, it is possible with HDTV to:
experience the beauty of true cinema with the new Hitachi UltraVision
CineForm Series.
1
Furthermore, if you watch a single, individual programme distributed on DVD, or
perhaps time-shifted on TIVO to filter the advertisements, your disposition may
be more the gaze associated with cinema viewing rather than the glance
associated with television. The latter theory assumed that any given programme
was inexorably experienced as part of the overall flow of television
programming, and that the frequent distractions of the domestic environment
in which television was typically watched dispersed concentration on the screen
image.
2
Whilst much television viewing may continue in this fractured and casual
vein, there has been a significant drift in TVIII towards more selective and
concentrated viewing sufficient to require re-visiting, and at least modifying, the
flow and glance theories that have held sway for the past three decades.
3
The quality of the image on the screen is significantly improved in comparison
with previous generations of television receivers. The emergent High Density or
High Definition television (HDTV) has more than double the greatest number of
lines per frame (formerly 625 lines in the UK) such that its pictures show more
detail.
4
Even prior to this development, however, digital imagery was much
improved and many monitors have the capacity to adjust the aspect ratio to suit
the wide-screen of cinema (typically a relation between height and width in
proportions of 16:9 or 1.85:1). Wide-screens capacity to locate subjects in broad
environments, and the more complex visual semiotics facilitated by improved
image quality, have together encouraged TV fiction makers to be more ambitious
visually in their work. Indeed, a number of established film-makers from David
Lynch to Quentin Tarantino have ventured into television either for entire series
(Lynchs 1. t.o|) or in guest director slots, Tarantino on ir and c:i, for
example. Producers well known for their aversion to the constraints of network
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television (e.g. David Chase and Darren Star) have found the freedom, in TVIII,
to be creative via their work on 1|. :c.oc and :. o1 |. c.,, respectively (see
Akass & McCabe 2002; Lavery 2002).
Thus a combination of factors in TVIII has afforded a step change in approaches
to the production of TV fiction. This is particularly the case in the USA but, where
America leads, other producing nations tend to follow. The LOP disposition to be
bland has been displaced, at least at the high end of TV fiction production, with
visual and conceptual ambition, in some instances aspiring towards European
modernist cinema. As noted above, the huge media conglomerates which have
emerged in TVIII have the critical mass to afford the high budgets which ambitious
production demands. Though they do not yet quite match the mega-budgets of
blockbuster movies, todays TV fictions command significant amounts (e.g. the
$100 million for the 1261-hour episodes of rc., HBO co-production with the
BBC, 2005). Such budgets, whilst they do not ensure critical success, afford
writer-producers the resources to develop and refine scripts, to draw upon the best
film/TV music composers, to cast reputed actors and to create lavish visual
environments. A filmic production process is possible with individually lit shots,
multiple takes and post-production editing, enhanced by CGI and a range of digital
effects. Above all, the creatives have been afforded that freedom to be
imaginative and to take risks. Where, in the TVI and TVII eras, edgy or innovative
productions were the exception that proved the LOP rule, today imaginative
production has become the hallmark of the HBO Premium brand. In turn, the
influence of HBO has impacted upon the network production of such TV fictions
as 1|. P. P. (NBC) and ...o. uco... (ABC).
HBO Premium range: five sketchesSix Feet Under, Carniva`le,
Sex and the City, Oz, The Sopranos
The selection of HBO Premiums output to be sketched below covers a broad
range of vehicles from the mafia mobster genre (:c.oc) to a magazine lifestyle
show (:. o1 |. c.,), and on through tele-fantasy (co..o!.) and its obverse,
social realism (o.), to a surrealism redolent of European avant-garde cinema (:.
t.. u1..). The range can scarcely be said to be bland or repetitive and, indeed,
each of these ascribed tags is insufficient to account for the product, as we shall
see. Where an HBO Premium vehicle draws upon an established genreas, for
example, :c.oc evidently owes a debt to the mobster movieit invariably
develops that genre in creative, and on occasion in truly innovative, ways. These
shows may not have drawn the highest audiences ever, but Nielsen ratings, as
noted above, is not their primary aim. Their purpose is to have impact and to
generate a high quality brand which will serve as a flagship for HBO and Time
Warner more broadly and to keep the punters subscribing to the service.
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And these examples have had huge impact, sometimes creating a furore and
inviting bilious criticism perhaps best illustrated by Charlotte Ravens observation
that :. o1 |. c., amounts to a worthless pile of swill (cited in Akass &
McCabe 2004, p. 2) and Camille Paglias denigration of :c.oc as a buffoonish
caricature of my people (cited in Lavery 2002, p. xiii). On Mark Lawsons more
positive summary note, however, :c.oc has been voted the best TV drama of
all time in both US and British surveys.
5
Though no publicity is bad publicity, the
latter impact is no doubt preferred by HBO executives, but the fact that HBO
output offends some people is a mark of its independence from regulatory
constraints and the freedom it affords the creatives to re-work established forms
and imaginatively construct them how they will, rather than tone forms down to
LOP blandness. A show such as .o1cc1 (not to be discussed here), for example,
is shot through with the strongest language and graphically presented sexual
practices which render it the kind of material which even mature, liberal adult
viewers might not wish to share with their spouses, let alone their children and
their maiden aunts.
Another aspect of impact lies in the critical community. All the above shows
have won prestigious awards. :. t.. u1.., for example, received two Emmy
awards at the 58th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, 2006, for Outstanding
Guest Actress in a Drama Series (Patricia Clarkson) and Outstanding Prosthetic
Makeup for a Series, Miniseries, Movie or Special. In 2004, alone 1|. :c.oc
won four Emmys, including Drama Series; Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
(Michael Imperioli); Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (Drea de Matteo); and
Writing for a Drama Series (Terence Winter, Long Term Parking). The show
has also won five Golden Globe Awards, including the award in the Best
Television SeriesDrama category in 2000. :. o1 |. c., won an Emmy for
Outstanding Comedy Series in 2001 and two Golden Globes in 2002 for Best
Television Music/Comedy and the performers also won individual awards (Akass
& McCabe 2004, p. 5).
All but two of my selected examples have had an academic reader published
on them and those that have not yet met with such treatment have strong cult
followings with dedicated websites. Indeed, co..o!., the only one of my
examples to be cancelled by HBO before it had run its course in the view of its
creators, has been supported by a strong Internet campaign to have it re-instated
and a feature-length film version remains under consideration.
Six Feet Under (HBO, 63 episodes over five seasons, 20012005)
What other TV fiction might get away with juxtaposing an autopsy on a three-
week old baby, sado-masochistic queer bondage practices and in-yer-face lap-
dance nudity (literally thrusting female breasts in close-up on the screen) with a
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Funeral Directors convention, and a yogic approach to flower-arranging? All this
and more features in an episode of :. t.. u1.. chosen more or less at random
for a second viewing to inform this sketch. The context, locations, character
relations and incidents of :. t.. u1.. render it a truly distinctive show. As many
have remarked, the very idea of a prime-time TV fiction set in a funeral parlour
and focusing significantly on death and related aspects of dying would seem
untenable. And yet, Alan Ball has proceeded to create, co-write and executive
produce an extraordinary TV fiction success based on the Fisher family and their
funeral home.
6
For those unfamiliar with the series, Nate (Peter Krause) and his
brother David (Michael C. Hall) take on responsibility for the independent family
business when their father is killed in a bizarre traffic accident. Their widowed
mother, Ruth (Frances Conroy), tries to make a new life for herself and sustain
her family including her daughter Catherine (Lauren Ambrose). Periodically, the
late Nathaniel Fisher (Richard Jenkins) appears unheralded from beyond the
grave, and not introduced by the familiar television conventions which indicate
ghosts. These appearances are one of a number of features of :. t.. u1.. which
dislocate normative televisual bearings. Another, in the early series was
advertisements for death or dying-related products which were similarly
unflagged to create a momentarily disturbing sense of the surreal.
To judge from the :. t.. u1.. website chat-room, viewers take a range of
pleasures from the series. Some are fascinated by the sheer audacity of its content.
Others are impressed by the drift to avant-garde European cinema in a TV fiction
which :. t.. u1.. represents in its bizarre material, its visual dislocations and its
impressively eclectic sonic accompaniment. Jane Feuer has remarked how, where
a network show such as 1|. P. P. has a high quality but orthodox soundtrack,
:. t.. u1.. composer Richard Marvin deploys a range of non-Western
instruments and styles in an eclectic mix which resonates with the avant-garde
visual style of the series.
7
Many viewers, however, simply have a favourite
character or set of character relations. Peter Krause, as the self-reflective and
sensitive but nevertheless masculine Nate, appears to attract heterosexual and gay
admiration alike. The relationship between David and his homosexual partner
Keith (Matthew St Patrick) has its followers as does Nates with Brenda and those
between Claire and her various boyfriends. One chat-room respondent favours
Sarah and Bettina whilst another finds Brenda to be, a complex and well-crafted
character and congratulates the writers for, creating such a dynamic, modern
woman.
8
Thus it would appear that :. t.. u1.. retains the capacity of a more
traditional narrative fiction to draw some viewers into the characters and their
relationships whilst attracting other viewers precisely through its dislocation of
televisual norms. The series content alone, as noted above, makes it different
from the norm and it thus carries the flag of distinction heralding HBO products.
On one end of the spectrum it is admired by aficionados for its sheer daring. As
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Lavery has remarked of the experience of watching the final series, they cant be
going there; they are going there; theyre surely not going to risk ending it there;
yes they are!
9
HBO creatives are able take the risks from which a disposition to
conservatism and LOP has historically constrained American television. The
freedom from the regulator is one aspect which allows HBO Premium output to
be more like cinema (others will be discussed below). :. t.. u1.. may not be to
everyones taste but it is undeniably original.
Carniva`le (HBO, 24 episodes over two series, 20032005)
co..o!. is similarly at the experimental art end of HBO Premiums output
spectrum. Though it might be located in the mode of tele-fantasy (see Johnson
2005) rather than the European avant-garde, like :. t.. u1.. it develops its own
distinctive style from its influences and its highly sophisticated titles herald arty
production values and epic themes.
10
A series of tarot-style cards with portentous
names such as The World, Temperance and Judgement, each featuring an
image from classical Western art (for example, figures from the Sistine Chapel
ceiling and from Breughel), flutters down on to a piece of parched, dustbowl
earth.
11
The camera zooms into, and through, the cards and, in the first sequence,
comes to rest on an apparently still postcard image of a soup line in the American
Depression. For it emerges that co..o!. is set precisely in Oklahoma in 1934, the
period of Steinbecks great novel, 1|. c.o. c P.o|, dealing with the enforced
removal of the Okies from their land. The still image, however, suddenly
animates into a piece of documentary footage from that era. Subsequent title
sequences feature additional documentary shots of Mussolini (fascism), Stalin
(totalitarianism) and the Klu Klux Clan (racism), setting the specific 1930s
historical location of co..o!. against the broader sweeps of early twentieth-
century history. Such textual density and thematic evocation announce that
co..o!. is to be more than the average television show.
Again, for those who are not familiar with the series, the narrative is
structured from the outset as a Manichean struggle between good and evil. The
two protagonists, overtly set in parallel by the inter-cutting of the main narrative
trajectory are Brother Justin Crowe (Clancy Brown) and Ben Hawkins (Nick
Stahl). At the outset, Hawkins has been a small-time farmer in Oklahoma trying
to make a go of the dusty, barren plot of land belonging to his bed-ridden mother.
When his mother dies, the house is bulldozed before his eyes by agents of the
foreclosing bank. He has little choice but to become a migrant Okie and join the
carnival that happens by. Crowe, in contrast, is comfortably settled as the
Evangelical revivalist minister of the First Methodist Church in Mintern,
California, where he aims to re-instate that old-time religion. But, as the series
progresses, the simple binary distinction between the apparently saintly Crowe
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who seeks to open a chapel for the Okies unwelcomed by his bourgeois
congregationand the no-good roustie, Ben, is increasingly problematised.
The carnival itself, from which the series takes its name, features a range of
unusual characters, some harking back to the travelling freak shows of the
nineteenth century. Led by the ironically named Samson (Michael J. Anderson
of 1. t.o| red room fame), their number includes a bearded lady (LilaDebra
Christofferson), a pair of dancing Siamese twins joined at the hip (Alexandria and
CaledoniaKaryn and Sarah Steban), a blind seer steeped in absinthe (Professor
Ernst LodzPatrick Bauchau) and a lizard-like figure with scales and a tail
(GeckoJohn Fleck). In addition, there is a pair of cootch dancers (Dora Mae
and Libby DreifussAmanda Aday and Carla Gallo) and a female snake charmer,
Ruthie (Adrienne Barbeau). A young woman traveller, Sofie (Clea Du Vall), is
ostensibly a tarot card reader but her readings are not her own but rather
transmitted telepathically through her by her catatonic, bed-ridden mother,
Apollonia (Diane Salinger), who also has the power to animate objects and turn
them into dangerous missiles. The magic, illusions and distortions which might be
expected of a carnival, extend, however, beyond the ring-tent. In particular, Ben
Hawkins turns out to have powers of healing by the laying-on of hands. For
example, he appears to release a negative energy from a crippled girl who visits
the carnival into the surrounding fields which turn brown with a digital special
effect as they wither and die in exchange for the girls restoration to health.
Hawkins also has profound psychic visions of his mutilated body in wars
ranging from the Crusades to the First World War. These occur mainly in his
sleep and, so powerful are they, that he tries to stay awake at night. However,
they also occur occasionally in the day and in one instance a powerful energy is
transmitted when he shakes the hand of somebody whose signet ring bears the red
cross on a white ground of the Crusaders, images of whom are mobilised. Such
psychic flashbacks are almost subliminal in their visual density, involving 30 or
more rapidly edited images in a sequence of a few seconds screen time. Besides
extending the interest of a series which is already visually rich in its beautifully lit
and framed shots of the desert landscape and the carnival at night, such sequences
also echo the titles in evoking a broader historical context of wars.
Though in the two series made, a complex inter-twining of the destinies of
Crowe (who is not who he seems) and Hawkins is established, the full scope of
epic struggle between good and evil is not brought to fruition in the manner of
creator, Daniel Knaufs vision. Knauf conceived three books and 12 series, but
HBO pulled the plug on co..o!. after two series on the grounds of falling
audiences, though they have not ruled out a revival, perhaps on the back of a
feature-film version. Incomplete as it is, co..o!. nevertheless reflects HBO
distinction. Its visual production values, as indicated, are very high, their
inevitable financial cost perhaps influencing the decision to pull the plug in spite of
the cult fans vigorous Internet campaign to keep it alive. The soundtrack, too,
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like that of :. t.. u1.., is innovative, involving specially composed mood music
by Jeff Beal, drawing upon an eclectic mix of pre-recorded sounds, ranging from
popular music of the pre-1934 period (including ethnic blues, folk and jazz) to
European classical music (beloved by Professor Lodz) and 1920s Rembetika music
from Istanbul.
12
It may be that the undisclosed economics of HBO Premiums
output simply did not stack up in this instance. Though the company trades on
flagship distinction rather then Nielsens, there must be a point at which viewer
levels fall below a sustainable threshold.
Sex and the City (HBO, 74 episodes over five seasons)
:. o1 |. c., is neither epic in scope nor rife with historical resonances. Like
co..o!., it is specifically located in time and place, indeed New Yorkand
Manhattan in particularis central to the shows contemporary lifestyle feel. But,
where co..o!. mines the historical depth of the psyche, :. o1 |. c., stays
largely on the postmodern surface.
For those who are not familiar with the seriesand, given its worldwide
popularity in marked contrast with co..o!. which has reached only a limited
audience, that number may be relatively few:. o1 |. c., features the lives of
four thirty-something female professionals sufficiently wealthy to live indepen-
dently in Manhattan. Though they each follow a profession, the attention paid to
the means by which they support their lavish social lives is scant. The series rather
foregrounds fashion, fun and, as the title suggests, sex. Indeed, :. o1 |. c., is
groundbreaking in its focus upon womens sexual pleasures, often portrayed as
being independent of men, even though each of the gals is notionally seeking
Mr Right. Samantha, in particular, is sexually rapacious and is famous for having
sex like a man, that is, purely for pleasure without any emotional attachment.
Charlotte, in contrast, is much more traditional in her approach to relationships,
though her marriage to Troy, apparently destined to be romantically perfect,
turns out to be a hollow sham. Miranda, the most evidently feminist of the four
friends, ironically finds herself holding the baby. A lawyer by profession, and
sharp in appearance and manner with her black suits and cropped red hair,
Miranda falls pregnant. Series 3 explores the impact of single motherhood not just
on Miranda but also on her independent friends. The episodic stories of :. o1 |.
c., are narrated, in part in voice-over, by Carrie Bradshaw, a social columnist for
a New York paper whose journalist pieces, tapped out on her laptop, make wry
observations on the life and times of women in the contemporary city.
The show has something of a magazine format, not only in respect of Carries
column pieces and epigrammatic headlines which aim to encapsulate the theme or
moral of each episode, but in its lifestyle imagery. Since the gals are much pre-
occupied with how they look, each with a different but highly fashionable visual
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style, the series developed into something of a fashion show. Sometimes overtly
featured on a catwalk, the gals approach life generally as if it were primarily a
fashion show. As they arrive at a party, gallery opening or other such social event,
the camera captures them in a veritable tableau to reveal their outfits to best
advantage. Many references are made to haute couture and designer names
(Gucci, Burberry, Prada), with Carries penchant being for shoes by Manolo
Blahnik. Though fun is overtly made by the four friends themselves about their
indulgences in episodes such as A Girls Right to Shoes (Season 6, 13), the
double irony of the series postmodern approach affirms the value of fashion as
much as it subverts it. Indeed, ostentatious displays of wealth equated with the
wearing of designer labels on the sleeve are the very stuff of :. o1 |. c.,
lifestyle. As Samantha neatly encapsulates the consumerist ethic, if youre not
wearing something the kids cant afford, how do they know to look up to you?
(Season 6, 9). If womens fashion magazines are rich in visual images and short
written features which purport to ask questions about contemporary lifestyle at
the apex of advanced Western capitalism, but which effectively efface any serious
economic and ethical considerations which might unsettle consumer individual-
ism, then :. o1 |. c., fits the lifestyle magazine billing. But this would be to
overlook other, more socially positive potential.
Judging by the evidence of published research (see particularly Akass &
McCabe 2004), :. o1 |. c., liberated and empowered a number of women,
not just sexually but socially. It may even have struck a telling blow against core
patriarchal myths. The conversations between the four friends over lunch are not
only sharp and witty but often daring in their use of vocabulary, including the C
word. The foregrounding of female conversation in this way is perceived by some
as a key liberating feature of the series, re-positioning womens talk from its
denigration, in the soap opera tradition, as gossip. Though the series varied in
tone, shifting considerably over the five seasons and arguably becoming more of a
romantic drama than a sit-com in its final denouement, at its best the sharp
dialogue of :. o1 |. c., was as groundbreaking as some of its topics. Like so
much HBO product, this series took creative advantage of its freedom from the
regulator. It may have upset a number of people but it appears to have pleased and
empowered many more. Indeed, edginess and risk was part of its purpose and the
small screens of TVIII would undoubtedly have been the poorer without it.
Oz (HBO, 56 episodes over six seasons, 19982002)
Shown only once in the UK in a late night slot on Channel 4 and available only on
American format DVD, o. (Series One, 1997) was the first hour-long original
drama to be commissioned by HBO and it progressed to 56 episodes over six
seasons, with writer Tom Fontana finally deciding in 2006 that the idea had run its
3 4 NEW REVI EW OF FI LM AND TELEVI SI ON STUDI ES
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course. o. is a prison-drama set in the Oswald Maximum Security Penitentiary
from which it ostensibly takes its name, though the abbreviation also derives from
the prisons experimental rehabilitation unit, Em City. The series lies primarily in
a social realist tradition untypical of the USA, with producer Barry Levinson
teaming up again with Fontana following the critical acclaim of uc...1. t.. c
|. :... with its hand-held documentary feel. Indeed, Fontana is on record in
respect of o.s social aim to make visible, a faceless population in the U.S. that
deserves more recognition and attention than it gets by most of us on the outside
(cited in Levin 2003, p. 1).
This concern with the marginal runs to a consideration of a range of ethnic
groups within the prison which does not play safe. For, besides the familiar Italian-
Americans, black Homeboys, Irish and Latino groups in Em City, there is a
Muslim group led by Kareem Said (Eamonn Walker). Not only is he depicted as a
man of peace, overtly opposed to violence and able to resist provocation, he is
shown to be a calming influence on his fellow-Muslims. He encourages them to
resist violence, drugs, obscenity, alcohol, cigarettes and unlawful sex, that is, all
those things which most inmates rely on to lighten their burden. Indeed,
challenging dominant ideas in contemporary America of the fanaticism of Islamic
fundamentalists, the Muslim group appears to have a strength and disposition
towards peace and clean-living lacked by the other communities whose frailties
stand in relief against Kareems capacity for self-control.
Aspects of a social realism are a significant dimension of o.. Through
grounded detail in the treatment, perspectives that challenge hegemonic cultural
views are made visible and convincing. But the slightly surreal setting of Em City
with glass walls to its pods militates against established realist conventions. The
very name of Em City invites a largely ironic comparison with the Emerald City of
1|. P..o.1 c o. and, to British viewers at least, the stylishness of the production
values may detract from the conviction of a realistic portrayal of prison life.
Like all HBO product, as noted, o. has high production values signalled by its
expensively made title sequence which comprises a montage of imagery of prison
confinement inter-cut with close-ups offering teasers of the characters through
selected parts of bodies without revealing anybodys full identity. One such
recurring image is the tattooing of the O of Oz on a mans arm (the arm being
reputed to be Levinsons). An envelope frame, used to transmit films on 14:9
aspect ratio television monitors, is intermittently introduced to carry the opening
credits above and below the images. The overall sequence is set to a strong beat
with a cool jazz trumpet riff augmenting the cinematic feel of the visuals. The
titles seem to be echoing the refrain, this is not TV, this is HBO.
Some aspects of the treatment undermine the claustrophobia which gives rise
to the tensions which periodically flare up into violence. For example, insert
action-adventure sequences detail the typically violent or sexual crimes for which
the inmates have been convicted, and they take the viewer beyond the prison
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confines and into other generic modes. The series is also narrated mainly by a
black inmate, Augustus Hill (Harold Perrineau), a former crack addict who
operates from a wheelchair having been pushed off a building by the police
following a foot chase. Hills key function is to comment on the action whilst
spinning disorientatingly on his wheelchair apparently suspended in space in a glass
pod. He makes gnomic remarks on the action in the manner of a Greek chorus
observation, intermittently but particularly at the beginning and end of episodes.
This device is innovative in the television prison drama genre (though, of course,
it has precedents in theatre and film history) and it is effective in adding a
dimension of philosophical reflection on the prison action. It tends, with the other
aspects noted, to work against the intensity of established social realism, though
arguably it extends the mode in new ways for new times.
The Sopranos (HBO Original Programming, Brad Grey Television
and Chase Films, 77 episodes over six seasons, 19992007)
Huge claims have been made about 1|. :c.oc, as noted above, but, whilst the
claim that it is the best TV drama ever is certainly open to debate, there can be
little doubt that it is a high quality and highly successful drama, even amongst
HBOs distinctive output. Many of the dramas sketched above are built upon
mixes of established forms but :c.oc best illustrates the generic hybridity of
HBO product, and other contemporary television programming.
It is a truism that :c.oc draws upon the mobster movie genre preceding
itand more perhaps on ccc1.!!o than 1|. cc1o|..if only because the
characters themselves frequently refer to their favourite movies. But :c.oc is
also a family drama, a kind of soap opera with the strong women in protagonist
Tony Sopranos (James Gandolfini) life featuring fully, partly in relation to him,
but also in their own right. Carmela (Edie Falco) Tonys wife, holds the family
together and takes the major responsibility for bringing up their children,
Meadow and Anthony Junior. But, besides being seen in the family home, she is
also featured with her friends and engaged in fundraising events for charities in
the Catholic context of Italian-American suburbia. Tonys sister, Janice, aka
Parvati (Aida Turturro) proves influential in a number of narrative strands whilst
the domineering attitude of his mother, Livia (Nancy Marchand), to her son,
evident in the early seasons before she dies, is perhaps the root cause of Tonys
relationship to another strong woman, Dr Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco), a
psychiatrist who bravely takes on the role of the capos shrink.
Tony Soprano is head also of another family, his crew, which features as a
kind of work family in the serial narrative. Tonys kinship family and crew are
not entirely distinct furthermore in that many, like Uncle Junior (Dominic
Chianese) and Tony Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli) are blood relatives, uncle
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and nephew, respectively. The family dimensions of :c.oc afford inter-
cutting of action-adventure sequence and scenes of gang conflict and violence,
typical of a mobster movie, with domestic locations and issues. According to
Akass and McCabe, the gangster genre collides with the soap opera in a series
in which:
the mobster finds himself in unfamiliar generic territory characterized by
mundane chores and domestic worries. The narrative structure demands
that Tony relinquish mob violence and function within feminineand
feminisingspaces.
(in Lavery 2002, p. 147)
An additional aspect which takes Tony Soprano beyond the normative territory
of mobster movies is his relationship with Dr Melfi in which a troubled, even
sensitive, side of the capo is revealed. Though he appears to have all the
trappings associated with success defined in terms of wealth and power in
contemporary American lifefamily, a mansion with a pool, ready cash, an
expensive carTony suffers from a kind of existential angst. As he expresses it
to Melfi in one of their interview sessions, If all this shits for nothing then why
do I got to think about it? (Denial, Anger, Acceptance: 1003/3). He also
becomes fixated on a set of ducks which chance upon his swimming pool as a
resting place. In short, :c.oc deploys a range of means to delve more deeply
into the psyche and the existential being of its hero than any of its mobster
movie influences.
The cinematic treatment of :c.oc is announced in the sharply edited set
of opening titles featuring Tony driving home along the New Jersey Turnpike
which, in Jeffrey Pages description, involves abstract expressionist shapes,
strange lines and angles, concentration of various transport, kinetic energy and
tumult, wildlife and history.
13
Additional energy and a contemporary urban
rock feel are supplied by the soundtrack. But other montages have a different
tone and aesthetic. The much-vaunted quasi-dream sequence set to Frank
Sinatras wistful version of It Was a Very Good Year which opens Season Two
stands in marked stylistic contrast to the titles and other aspects of the action. As
Creeber summarises:
[a]s the song plays, so we are given a long and leisurely paced selection of
apparently unconnected scenes. Sequences such as Livia lying motionless and
depressed in her hospital bed. Carmela baking at home. Silvio trying on a new
pair of shoes. AJ self-consciously combing his hair, and Tony and Paulie
making love with their girlfriends/prostitutes provide an essentially
domestic montage.
(in Lavery 2002, pp. 131132)
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Overall, :c.oc various treatments and high production values go a long way to
vindicating the claim the Its not TV, its HBO. As Alik Sakharov, first director
of photography has remarked:
From the pilot, we would sit down with the whole script and break the
scenes down into shots. Thats what you do with feature films. But the
approach was very different for television.
But :c.oc true distinctiveness lies perhaps in its blend of a long-form serial
narrative for television in a genre hybrid which does more than mix different
ingredients but makes for an innovative dramatic form for the advanced television
medium. That production quality is more or less sustained at a quasi-cinematic
level over many hours of transmission marks the series additionally as an
exceptional piece of TV fiction.
Reflections: upsides and downsides
As argued and illustrated in this paper, HBO Premium output is so varied,
innovative and of such a high standard of production that its distinctive product
approach has undoubtedly made a big impact on contemporary TV fiction
production. Not only is HBOs output an achievement in itself but it has caused
the networks, and other subscription channels such as Showtime, to re-think their
approaches in order to compete. Series such as 1|. P. P. and ...o.
uco... are less daring than HBO product, partly because they remain subject
to the regulator, but they too have contributed to the distinctive era of TVIII.
Though HBO output, and related product in TVIII, aspires to be cinema, and
though, as Sakharov indicates above, feature film production methods are used,
television series remain distinct from cinema if only because of their length.
Beyond visual and sonic treatment, long-form television narratives pose the
challenge of sustaining viewer commitment not just for a one-off experience of
about 120 minutes but for hour after hour, week after week. The skill on the part
of writers to achieve such duration should be given due credit, and the different
experience serial narrative affords should not simply be conflated with the idea of
cinema, however, strong the visual treatment of contemporary television series.
To recognise the distinction of TV fictions is by no means to denigrate their
achievement relative to those products destined for the cinema theatre circuit, but
it is to qualify what is meant by the term cinematic when applied to television.
HBO does have some downsides. The first is its relatively high cost and its
consequent exclusiveness. To those who believe television should be a democratic
medium with all its products free at the point of delivery as a matter of public
service, subscription and pay-per-view approaches are unacceptable.
Furthermore, some products such as :. o1 |. c., are open to the charge that
3 8 NEW REVI EW OF FI LM AND TELEVI SI ON STUDI ES
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they endorse and encourage an indulgent consumerism by glossing over economic
realities with which the majority of people have to deal. But it would be harsh to
blame HBO for the workings of advanced capitalism and the contemporary culture
of consumer individualism. Payment for leisure is so widespread in developed
economies that television can scarcely be made an exception, even though there may
be a strong case for retaining some aspects of public service television.
The subscription approach, as distinct from public service, has, as noted,
afforded HBO (and others) a freedom from regulatory constraints which have the
broadly beneficial effect of more risk-taking. Not needing to hold back on some
matters such as strong language and sexual explicitness for fear of offending a
small part of the possible audience, appears to have disposed HBO to be broadly
more creative and not merely pornographic. Indeed, given the lure of prurience,
the HBO output discussed above may be considered quite restrained in its
approach. In respect of its content and treatments, HBO Premium has tended
rather towards a form of art television, drawing at times, as noted, on European
modernist and avant-garde traditions. This relatively high culture disposition
may not be to all tastes and, indeed, it may largely reflect just the taste formation
of the ABC1s of the channels target audience, and it does have limitations.
Though some products (o., for example) feature a broad range of ethnic
minorities, it may be that whitebread fare remains dominant, and that at times
HBO products have not been quite as mould-breaking as they might be.
Overall, however, the dynamism and variety which HBO output has brought
to contemporary television screens has to be commended. Simon Sutton,
President of HBO International, noting that power has shifted to those who
control the programme brands, has publicly stated HBO Premium will continue
to produce signature series with a strong, unique creative vision.
14
Above all,
they will do this because at least some segments of the overall audience are drawn
to quality product of the kind HBO offers.
Notes
1 http://www.thefreedictionary.com/high-density (accessed 6 November
2005).
2 Raymond Williams (1974) established the concept of flow and John Ellis
(1994) extended the idea with glance theory.
3 John T. Caldwell (1995) has challenged the current sustainability of flow
and glance theory.
4 There are currently three different systems with different resolutions in
play (prior to HDTV): 425 lines with NTSC in North and South America;
625 lines with PAL in the UK, and SECAM in France and Eastern Europe.
5 1|. coo.1.o, G2, 30 August 2006, p. 16.
6 Alan Ball also wrote the hit film +....o i.oo,.
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7 The analysis was presented in a keynote at the American Quality Television
conference, Trinity College, Dublin, Easter 2004, and a published version
is forthcoming.
8 http://boards.hbo.com/thread.jspa?forumID5117&threadID52108
9 In conversation at the TV Fiction Exchange conference, Manchester
Metropolitan University, September 2006.
10 These titles were six months in the making by A52 visual effects.
11 For an insider account of the imagery and the sources in classical art for the
card images, see http://www.hbo.com/carnivale/behind/index.shtml
12 For a discussion of source music for co..o!. by Aleaxandra Patsavas and
Kevin Edelman, see http://www.hbo.com/carnivale/behind/music_
supervisors.shtml (accessed 7 July 2006, p. 2).
13 http://www.hbo.com/sopranos/credits/index.shtml
14 Simon Sutton speaking at the Oxford Media Convention, 19 January 2006.
References
Akass, Kim and McCabe, Janet (2002) Beyond the Bada Bing!: negotiating female
narrative authority in 1|. :c.oc, in 1|. 1|. c oo. i..o. 1|.
:c.oc, ed. David Lavery, Wallflower, London and New York.
Akass, Kim and McCabe, Janet (eds) (2004) r.o1. :. o1 |. c.,, I. B. Tauris,
London and New York.
Caldwell, John T. (1995) 1.!..oo!., :,!., c... o1 +o|c.., . +....o
1.!...c, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ.
Creeber, Glen (2002) TV ruined the movies: television, Tarantino, and the
intimate world of 1|. :c.oc, in 1|. 1|. c oo. i..o. 1|.
:c.oc, ed. David Lavery, Wallflower, London and New York.
Ellis, John (1994) ../!. t...c, Routledge, London.
Jancovich, Mark and Lyons, James (eds) (2003) oo!., tco!o. 1.!...c, BFI,
London.
Johnson, Catherine (2005) 1.!.oo,, BFI, London.
Lavery, David (ed.) (2002) 1|. 1|. c oo. i..o. 1|. :c.oc,
Wallflower, London and New York.
Levin, Gary (2003) The inside story on HBOs o. True to form, its final season
wont be pretty either, u:+ 1c1o,, 1 February.
Todreas, Timothy M. (1999) o!o. c..o.c o1 i.o1. . 1.!...c ..o! +.,
Quorum Books, Westport, CT and London.
Williams, Raymond (1974) 1.!...c, 1..|c!c, o1 co!o.o! tc., Fontana,
London.
Robin Nelson, Department of Contemporary Arts, Manchester Metropolitan
University, MMU Cheshire, Hassall Road, Alsager ST7 2HL, UK.
[e-mail: R.A.Nelson@mmu.ac.uk]
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