Dan's Media Digest

THE TELEVISION NOVEL

The biggest trend of the past five years has been serial drama. These "television novels" treat each episode as a chapter in the show's overall story.

It's a format used on Lost, 24, Prison Break, Heroes and Veronica Mars, amongst others. Of course, serials are nothing new to telly. Remember David Lynch's Twin Peaks? That trod a similar path in 1990, with each episode representing a day of a murder invesigation.

Five years later, Murder One told a single story over consecutive episodes, becoming the first series where this format was integral to the show. However, audiences weren't ready to invest as much time/effort into following these shows back then.

Twin Peaks became a pop-culture icon but remained cult viewing and was cancelled after just two years. Such shows were born into a world where it was considered bizarre for Quantum Leap to have a three-part episode!

It was also very difficult to keep up with serials in the 90s: DVD box-sets weren't as prolific, Sky+ was years away and repeats weren't scheduled regularly. Most people only had terrestrial channels, so it wasn't possible to do the type of "marathon catchups" so familiar to E4 and Sky One viewers these days.

So why are serials so popular now? Is it purely because we have the technology to fit their schedule around our own social lives? Well, perhaps. It certainly makes them easier to digest and that's been the downside to serials since they began. You see, there's no point watching 24 when Jack Bauer's already 16 hours into his latest mission. Likewise, newcomers to Lost will find the third season totally impenetrable.

That's why a lot of a marketing muscle is employed when a serial debuts. 24's sixth season premiered four episodes in two days, then released a Premiere DVD to curb illegal downloading (although that backfired when the DVD was leaked onto the 'net a weeks before their transmission!) Heroes blitzed comic book conventions months before it aired, while Lost's publicity machine is omnipresent whenever a new season begins.

If a serial is unlucky enough to go ignored in its opening hours, or fails to develop a quick momentum thereafter, it spells certain doom. Just take a look at Invasion or Day Break. Viewers have finite time to spare and not much loyalty to go around. If we continue the novel allegory, you don't expect bookworms to be reading six books concurrently, but TV execs want us be watching dozens of their own stories!

Is that justified? Many viewers realize know much time is needed to invest in serial dramas, so they purposefully don't start watching them for fear of getting hooked! A bizarre situation arises when some people daren't watch new serials incase they get cancelled and the story goes unresolved... so their actions create their own fear. Catch-22.

Given the risky nature of making a serial drama successful and attaining viewer loyalty, doesn't it make more sense to create shows that have self-contained plots? Shows that take their time to settle in and don't infringe on our lives? Like in the old days.

Well, the truth is, the vast majority of TV still deal with traditional formats of standalone episodes. Anyone can catch an episode of CSI, Monk, ER or House without feeling late to the party, because their premises are easy to grasp. Sure, they still have continuing elements for fans to enjoy, but nothing that's crucial.

The X-Files actually had its feet in both camps during the 90s. The majority of its episodes were standalone stories, enjoyed by fans and casual viewers alike, while only the minority were hardcore conspiracy plots for X-Philes. To be honest, this is till the most popular compromise with the traditional format and sprawling serials -- just look at Supernatural, Smallville, Medium, CSI, The Wire, Deadwood, etc.

The age of "television novels" has certainly matured though. By looking beyond simple weekly fixes, a good serial offers elaborate and sustained narratives. Creativity and storytelling depths open up for talented showrunners, allowing epic storylines for the small screen that enables competition with Hollywood through sheer complexity.

Film director Terry Gilliam once claimed that superhero epic Watchmen would only work on TV, while the popular Preacher graphic novel is being primed for a sprawling HBO series instead of a diluted movie. Indeed, with US budgets of $2 million per episode. the exodus of film actors to television and a relaxed attitude to sex/violence on certain channels, TV is encroaching on film's territory more and more...

To illustrate this, George Lucas is intending to focus on the boob tube now, with a 100-episode Star Wars series slated for 2009...