Transatlantic Television Drama Industries, Programs, and Fans

In 2014, the UK science-fiction television series Black Mirror was released on Netflix worldwide, quickly becoming a hit with US audiences. Like other beloved British imports, this series piqued Americans' interest with hints of dark comedy, clever plotlines, and six-episode seasons that left audiences frantic for more. In Transatlantic Television Drama, volume editors Michele Hilmes, Matt Hills, and Roberta Pearson team up with leading scholars in TV studies and transnational television to look at how serial dramas like Black Mirror captivate US audiences, and what this reveals about the ways Americans and Brits relate to each other on and off the screen.

Focusing on production strategies, performance styles, and audience reception, chapters delve into some of the most widely-discussed programs on the transatlantic circuit, from ongoing series like Game of Thrones, Downton Abbey, Orphan Black, and Sherlock, to those with long histories of transnational circulation like Masterpiece and Doctor Who, to others whose transnational success speaks to the process of exchange, adaptation, and cooperation such as Rome, Parade's End, Broadchurch, and Gracepoint. The book's first section investigates the platforms that support British/American exchange, from distribution partnerships and satellite providers to streaming services. The second section concentrates on the shift in meaning across cultural contexts, such as invocations of heritage, genre shifts in adaptation, performance styles, and, in the case of Episodes, actual dramatized depiction of the process of transatlantic television production. In section three, attention turns to contexts of audience reception, ranging from fan conventions and fiction to television criticism, the effects of national branding on audiences, and the role of social media in de- or re-contextualizing fans' response to transnational programs.

Michele Hilmes is Professor Emerita at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she taught media studies for more than twenty years. Her books include Hollywood and Broadcasting: From Radio to Cable, Radio Voices: American Broadcasting 1922-1952, Network Nations: A Transnational History of British and American Broadcasting, and Only Connect: A Cultural History of Broadcasting in the United States.

Roberta Pearson is Professor of Film and Television Studies at the University of Nottingham. Her books include Many More Lives of the Batman, Star Trek and American Television, Reading Lost: Perspectives on a Hit Television Show and Cult Television.

Matt Hills is Professor of Media and Film at the University of Huddersfield, UK, and co-director of the Centre for Participatory Culture based there. His monographs include Fan Cultures, The Pleasures of Horror, Triumph of a Time Lord and Doctor Who: The Unfolding Event. He has published more than a hundred journal articles/book chapters on media fandom.

Introduction: Flying the Flag for Contemporary Transatlantic Television Drama
Matt Hills, Michele Hilmes and Roberta Pearson

Part One: Transatlantic Industries

Section One Introduction

1) Making Masterpiece Matter: The Transnational Cultural Work of America's Longest-Running Prime-Time Drama Series
Michele Hilmes

2) Traveling Without a Passport: 'Original' Streaming Content in the Transatlantic Distribution Ecosystem
Karen Petruska and Faye Woods

3) BBC America: Cloning Drama for a Transnational Network
Chris Becker

4) Branding Bridges: Sky Atlantic, 'Quality' Imports and Brand Integration
Sam Ward

Part Two: Transatlantic Programs

Section Two Introduction

5) Sherlock and Elementary: The Cultural and Temporal Value of High-end And Routine Transatlantic Television Drama
Roberta Pearson

6) Mainstream trends and Masterpiece Traditions: ITV's Downton Abbey as a Hit Heritage Drama for Masterpiece in the US
Eva Redvall

7) Meta-commentary and Mythology: Episodes as a Performance of Transatlantic TV
Jonathan Bignell

8) Boundary collisions in HBO-BBC transnational coproduction: Rome and Parade's End
Robin Nelson

9) Game of Thrones: Investigating British Acting
Gary Cassidy and Simone Knox

Part Three: Transatlantic Fans and Audiences

Section Three Introduction

10)Black Mirror as a Netflix Original: Programme Brand 'Overflow' and the Multi-Discursive Forms of Transatlantic TV Fandom
Matt Hills

11) Contextualizing Quality US Television Programs for the UK: The Guardian's Media and Televisions Blogs and the Role of Critics
Paul Rixon

12) Fans, Fezzes and Freebies: Branding British Television Series at the San Diego Comic Con
Lincoln Geraghty

13) From Imagined Communities to Contact Zones: American Monoculture in Transatlantic Fandoms
Lori Hitchcock Morimoto

14) Crossing Over the Atlantic: SuperWhoLock as Transnational/Transcultural Fan Text
Paul Booth

Glossary
Index
Glossary