Discourses on Series - Text 3
With analytical clarity, the work of Jason Mittell on complex television[10] seeks to surmount the pitfalls of a perspective based on quality, a judgement of taste or an axiological perspective. The analysis of complexity by means of narratological tools enables Mittell to work on the structure of the television series, identifying modes of construction, particularly in the innovative relations in complex television between narrative arcs both minor (on the level of the episode) and major (on the level of the season or the entire series). Mittell also employs the instruments of David Bordwell’s neo-formalism, based on the text, on familiarity with the production context and on the uses of this context by audiences, enabling him to highlight the connection maintained by a series with the material dimension of its creation and reception. Mittell’s reading foregrounds a poetics of complexity and identifies a precise trend in contemporary television, made possible by the arrival of recording and viewing technologies and tied to greater control by audiences, to keener attention to details and to collaborative and participative or even community reception. This enables television series to become objects which can be extracted from the flow and, especially, which are worthy of being seen and re-seen with constant and thorough attention.
