Core Post 5 - Charlotte

  I was very compelled by Kackman’s introduction to quality versus complex television, as I think I have tended to conflate the two for the most part. Between the Kackman and Mittel pieces, I am left questioning whether complexity and quality count as genre categories. HBO feels like the easiest network to “look beyond the text itself” (Mittel 3) and consider the influence of cultural context, as perhaps more than any other the network connotes a designation of quality television. Anecdotally, last fall as the miniseries The Undoing was being released by HBO Max, a friend asked if I liked the show. I told him that I thought it was fine, to which he responded that fine for HBO means good anywhere else. I, too, associate HBO with quality television, as the shows produced almost all have a certain level of aesthetic and narrative complexity, regardless of whether or not I enjoy the content. This is likely tied in with Feuer’s analysis of the inclusion of the melodramatic mode in much of contemporary television. The mise-en-scene of HBO series is almost always perfectly curated to further express narrative development. I notice this most frequently in interior settings, particularly bedrooms, where the set conveys a great deal of information about the occupant. Other series - I’m thinking specifically here about Criminal Minds - frequently show a mis-match between setting and location. While the sets that appear in each episode of the series (and this is a highly episodic series) are specific and personal, the locations once they leave are represented as relatively homogenous. The exterior shots of cases set in Pittsburgh are nearly identical to those set in Phoenix. I think this may also feed a bit into our earlier discussions of soap operas, wherein television is viewed as a more ambient or auditory medium than cinema. The self-contained episode of a crime show follows a relatively predictable format, making it easier to multitask while watching and thus drawing attention away from mise-en-scene. While other popular streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime tend to produce a mixture of ‘high’ and ‘low’ quality content. For instance, Netflix has produced a number of quality series like The Queen’s Gambit and The Crown, in addition to ‘lower’ forms like reality television and true crime series. Is this how HBO maintains its cultural representation as being the ultimate hub of quality television? Or is this differentiation equally based in the network’s history as the forerunner of quality television production?