Modern television: the era of narrative complexity
I love modern TV. For the most part, the last 20 years have seen television mature as an art form and storytelling. Modern TV is smarter, more experimental and daring and expects greater engagement from a more savvy audience. And I’m part of a savvy audience! So when TV writers are targeting me, and making shows for the attentive and the informed, it makes all those hours I’ve spent on the couch seem just that little bit less like a waste of time.
TV programming is going through a renaissance very similar to that which cinema went through in the 1970s. Like Scorcese and Spielberg, a new generation of TV creators are leading the field, a generation of people who were raised on TV themselves. These creatives are familiar with TV techniques and tropes and relish in challenging elements of form, structure and genre.
Jason Mittell defines this present era of television as the era of narrative complexity, one in which narrative flow of television is no longer episodic or serial, but a more complex amalgamation of the two. You notice it with most modern TV shows, structure where an episode is loosely self-contained with an event and something of a resolution, but also has elements that carry through a longer story arc.
Scrubs: a sitcom based solely on in-jokes
By relaxing the narrative structure, modern television is made infinitely more accessible to all types of viewers. In many cases, casual viewers get a self-contained story that is easy to consume, while references to past episodes and character developments remain as a bonus for long term viewers. As an example, Scrubs runs on a fairly episodic structure. Each episode establishes the norm, then an element of conflict, before JD’s voice over ties the episode’s threads into a neat conclusion. What makes Scrubs a complex narrative is its serial canon and use of recurring jokes from previous episodes and seasons. These references are extremely rewarding to long term viewers of the show, for example, a character known as Snoop Dogg Intern is introduced in season three, and as time passes on the show, the characters refer to him as Snoop Dogg Resident and Snoop Dogg Attending as his position changes. Long-term viewers of the show recognise the transition and can appreciate the show’s acknowledgement of a character’s past and changing future, while casual viewers think nothing of it. Long-term viewers are rewarded for the commitment and engagement with the show by getting a joke that casual viewers miss.
Hey Lana, Lana, LAAANAAA. DAAANGER ZOOONE!
Another show that does this well is Archer. For an animated comedy, shows that normally have very little, no or negative continuity, Archer has a strong seriality with many multi-episode and seasonal arcs. Jokes and events established in earlier episodes are constantly recalled throughout the season. In one episode in the second season, a scar is seen on Archer’s foot, a scar that came to be there because Lana, his co-worker and sometimes love interest, shot him in the foot in season one. Similarly, tattoos that Archer gets stay with him throughout the series, and references to old and even obscure and not easily noticed events are references with subtlety and clever acuity. This is complex narrative in animation at its finest.
Mittel argues that narratively complex television is meta-reflexive. Audiences are engaged not so much by the content of the program, but the techniques and tropes writers experiment with. Pleasure is derived from use of experimental narrative structure and storytelling, and it’s less a case of “what will happen” and more a case of “how will they pull this off?” At risk of sounding like a broken record, I do have to say Community is the best current example of meta-reflexivity in narratively complex television. Community explores and experiments with the conventions of television and genre constantly. In season two, nearly every episode explores a different genre. The stop-motion animated episode “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas”, the Christmas special and animation itself are played with, injecting fantasy elements like diegetic character song into the episode. Not to mention the fact that this one weird episode of a live action show is animated. Other episodes play with the structure of TV and cinematic tropes and openly alert the audience to their intention, as seen in “Cooperative Calligraphy” in which Jeff announces “we’re doing a bottle episode”. In-world, this is a weird thing to say, but Community is a highly self-aware show, constantly leaning on the fourth wall and causing the audience to actively sit up and take notice of the techniques used in our favourite genres.
For the most part, Mittel is totally right about modern narratively complex television. It’s a more rewarding, engaging and intelligent manifestation of TV. He’s also correct in saying that complex doesn’t necessarily equal quality. Most modern television has episodic structure while playing with aspects of continuity, making the world of the show a richer viewing experience. But unless writers are constantly adding to their world and experimenting with the nature of television, even shows that are narratively complex can become stale. For example, United States of Tara began with an interesting premise, a complex storyline, a mystery and believable characters and family dynamics despite the craziness at its core. I don’t know what my life would be like if my mother had multiple personalities, but Tara hazards a pretty reasonable guess. But in the second season, the show that had been popular for its wit and family dynamic had lost that element, becoming fixated on bizarre external storylines. It was axed after its third season, for what could have been a number of reasons. It could be because it lost its sense of joy or because it deviated too much from its original premise and dynamic, a case in which complexity and experimentation may have backfired.
Despite some failures, narratively complex television is an incredibly good thing. There are now layers of complexity, symbolism and structure experimentation to enjoy in television. It’s not simply a medium for braindead couch potatoes. Modern TV is constantly challenging its audience and demanding active engagement. When you do dive head first into complex TV, you truly reap the rewards.
