Mastering Narrative Formats

3.1. Mastering Narrative Formats

3.1.1. Episodic Narrative

It’s simple enough to see the form that mastery would take for viewers of procedural dramas, which are structured around the introduction, investigation, and gradual resolution of a mystery. In such cases, a

viewer – much like the investigating protagonist driving the narrative – would ‘master’ the text by guessing the outcome in advance. Since television procedurals tend to provide all of the relevant information required

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for this sort of mastery within the episode where it is applicable, this may help explain the appeal of procedural programming in a culture where many viewers are pressed for time, and reluctant to commit to

watching multiple episodes in order to experience the pleasures of mastery and narrative resolution.

3.1.2. Serial Narrative

However, many serialized and continuous television narratives offer additional, more subtle opportunities for “optional” mastery, which draw upon knowledge that a viewer could only acquire by watching several – or, in some cases, all – of the previous episodes of a program, providing an incentive for viewers to invest in a program by watching consistently and attentively.

As noted earlier, one of the hallmarks of modern American television programming is an overall shift toward the inclusion of serialized and continuous narrative threads in almost all fiction programming 8 . What makes this development particularly pleasurable to many television viewers is the potential it introduces for long-term mastery through the application of knowledge acquired over time.

FOX’s medical procedural House provides an excellent example: while the occasional viewer will be able to follow the central, stand-alone narrative that provides the focus for each episode, dedicated viewers experience an additional level of satisfaction by speculating on the significance and long-term implications of the subtle and evolving interpersonal relationships on the program. Occasional viewers will have no trouble sensing that there is some sort of sexual tension between Doctors House and Cameron; dedicated viewers will know why, when it began, and how it shades the significance of much of their dialogue.

3.1.3. Complex Narrative

While most television programs allow different opportunities for viewer mastery, complex ‘puzzle’ narratives such as Lost and Twin Peaks all but demand them, challenging viewers to engage in an active process of deciphering clues, ignoring red herrings, and putting together events in order to “solve” the show. In such cases, mastery becomes a conscious pleasure, with the show’s producers structuring the television

8 See the discussion of narrative complexity in American television in Chapter 2, Section 1 (Program Qualities).

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program itself as a complex system that viewers must master in order to comprehend. In such television series, as Jenkins has observed of Twin Peaks, “almost everything can count as a clue,” and that the text was

so blatant in its complexity that viewers felt certain “no matter how closely they looked, whatever they found there was not only intentional but part of the narrative master plan, pertinent or even vital to understanding

textual secrets.” 9 As a result, every aspect of a complex narrative – as well as any extensions or ancillaries produced in

relation to the narrative – is subject to analysis and speculation, leading the most committed viewers to parse each episode of shows like Twin Peaks on a frame-by-frame basis in search of clues and hidden meaning. The desire to master the challenges issued by such programs can also direct viewers outwards in search of intertextual and extratextual references that might offer clues.