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The continuous flow made possible by the serialisation of the television program was originally derided, even stigmatised for its association with an "assembly line aesthetic" (Wilsher in Creeber, 1997:11). The strong, overwhelming power of capitalistic motivations could not have been escaped; it was always seen as something that may have "valued profit more than it did artistic freedom and expression" (Creeber, 2004:2), reducing it to what British television dramatist Dennis Potter dismisses as 'formula ridden' television (Potter in Creeber, 1994:12).
On the other end of the critical spectrum, Vanity Fair has called The Sopranos "perhaps the greatest pop culture masterpiece of its day" (Biskind, 2007). The triumph on a scale which transcends its own medium and into the broad scope of popular culture itself. There is the realisation of a neglected component allowing this to be possible, owing to serialisation.
Félix Guattari said:
The generic idea of a television program has been met with both high criticism and high praise. It is a multifaceted, multi-dimensional life form that spans not only within its own medium but has the cultural, penetrative impact that fosters a transcendence into others."[T]here is no univocal subjectivity based on cut, lack or suture, but there are ontologically heterogeneous modes of subjectivity, constellations of incorporeal Universes of reference which take the position of partial enunciators in multiple domains of alterity, or more precisely, domains of alterification." (1995:45)
The continuous flow made possible by the serialisation of the television program was originally derided, even stigmatised for its association with an "assembly line aesthetic" (Wilsher in Creeber, 1997:11). The strong, overwhelming power of capitalistic motivations could not have been escaped; it was always seen as something that may have "valued profit more than it did artistic freedom and expression" (Creeber, 2004:2), reducing it to what British television dramatist Dennis Potter dismisses as 'formula ridden' television (Potter in Creeber, 1994:12).
On the other end of the critical spectrum, Vanity Fair has called The Sopranos "perhaps the greatest pop culture masterpiece of its day" (Biskind, 2007). The triumph on a scale which transcends its own medium and into the broad scope of popular culture itself. There is the realisation of a neglected component allowing this to be possible, owing to serialisation.
"In particular, the way some storylines were developed and resolved while other were [not] gave greater sense to realism… By increasing its narrative complexity in this manner, Nelson argues that the ‘flexi-narrative’ form better responds to and reveals the complexity, ambiguity and lack of closure that typifies the contemporary world... [T]he sheer breadth of the television serial frequently allows them room and possibilities that cinema or theatre simply cannot. ” (Creeber, 2004:5-6)
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