TV or Not TV? The Sopranos and Contemporary Episode Architecture in US Network and Premium Cable Drama

Bibliographic details

Anthony N. Smith, 'TV or Not TV? The Sopranos and Contemporary Episode Architecture in US Network and Premium Cable Drama', Critical Studies in Television 6:1 (Spring 2011), 36-51.


Abstract

HBO's original programming is positioned as a distinct alternative to network television not only by the premium cable brand's own promotional rhetoric (and that of its programme makers), but also through critical and journalistic discourse. This article tests such rhetoric by analysing the storytelling techniques of HBO's drama series, The Sopranos (1999-2006). It combines analysis of production evidence with an examination of the act-structure and multi-plot organisation of individual episodes; it demonstrates ways in which the mob saga adheres to, and departs from, the primetime ensemble-cast drama format (a mainstay of network programming since the 1980s onwards).


Link

http://manchester.metapress.com/content/k02848p55747nww2/?p=643674d88e794c16bc29bf530938e5cd&pi=4