Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Spring 2017
DOI
10.6092/issn.2421-454X/7147
Publication Title
Series: International Journal of TV Serial Narratives
Volume
3
Issue
1
Pages
73-86
Abstract
In popular discourse around television, a series’ relationship with place is often marked through the suggestion its setting is “like a character in the show”, but this article argues against adopting this as a framework for analyzing television’s relationship with space and place. It articulates the relationship between this discourse of “spatial capital” and hierarchies of cultural capital within the television industry, limiting the types of series that are deemed to warrant closer investigation regarding issues of space and place and lacking nuanced engagement with place’s relationship with television narrative in particular. After breaking down the logic under which these discourses function through an investigation of AMC’s Breaking Bad, this article offers a more rigorous framework for examining how television drama narratives engage with spatial capital in an age of narrative hybridity. Through a close analysis of depictions of the city of Miami, the article considers how two specific narrative strategies—place as narrative backdrop and place as narrative engine—manifest across both serial and procedural programming, disconnecting spatial capital from its exclusive association with “quality television” and building a model for analyzing how place and narrative intersect in the contemporary moment.
Original Publication Citation
McNutt, M. (2017). Narratives of Miami in Dexter and Burn Notice. Series: International Journal of TV Serial Narratives, 3(1), 73-86. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2421-454X/7147
Repository Citation
McNutt, Myles, "Narratives of Miami in Dexter and Burn Notice" (2017). Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications. 49.
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/communication_fac_pubs/49
Included in
American Popular Culture Commons, Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Television Commons
Comments
This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. It releases its articles under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. This license allows anyone to download, reuse, re-print, modify, distribute and/or copy the contributions. The works must be properly attributed to its author(s).