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A Shift in Complex Narrative Changing Features and Audience Activity A SHIFT IN COMPLEX NARRATIVE CHANGING FEATURES AND AUDIENCE ACTIVITY An analysis of the House of Cards Trilogy (1990) and House of Cards (2013) Universiteit van Amsterdam Masters’s Thesis Evelien Bloemena Television and Cross-Media Culture: Professional Track (Documentary) Student number: 1020553 Supervisor: Dr. Sudeep Dasgupta Second Reader: Dr. Jaap Kooijman June 2016 Abstract Complex narrative, introduced firstly by Jason Mittell, is a concept that describes deep narrational complexity in long-form television shows. It is a crucial component of the era of complex television, that rose in the early nineties as a result of technological advancements. Following the technologi- cal advancements of the past 26 years, there has been a shift in this concept, implying that it con- tinuously needs to be reconsidered. This thesis depicts and describes this shift through building up- on the concept of complex narrative. Firstly, three major features that form the concept of complex narrative are defined: 'extensions, 'intensity and 'temporality'. Secondly, it is demonstrated how technological advancements resulted in a higher audience activity, and how this affected complex narrative. As a third step, the shift in complex narrative is exposed with help of a textual analysis of the features of complex narrative and audience activity in two serials — the House of Cards Trilogy (BBC, 1990) and House of Cards (Netflix, 2013). Based on the foregoing, this study shows that deep- er narrational complexity has been created by more creative and excessive use of the features and a higher audience activity, due to Web 2.0. Keywords: complex narrative • audience activity • Jason Mittell • extension, intensity, temporality• House of Cards • the House of Cards Trilogy • long-form television • (online) paratexts • flow 1 Index Chapter 1: Introduction 5 1.1 Research question, method and structure 6 Chapter 2: Features of complex narrative and audience activity 9 2.1 Section 1: Features of Complex Narrative 9 2.1.1 Extension 9 2.1.2 Intensity 11 2.1.2.A Centrifugal- versus centripetal complexity of the narrative 2.1.2.B Operational aesthetics and operational reflexivity 2.1.3 Temporality 15 2.1.3.A Flashbacks and Flash-forwards 2.1.3.B Other strategies of temporality in complex narrative 2.2 Section 2: Audience activity: from a viewing to a participatory audience 18 2.2.1 Determining the notion of flow in the light of the VCR, DVR and DVD 19 2.2.2 The rise of Web 2.0 and its effect on audience activity 21 2.2.2.A Collective intelligence: fandoms and interaction between audiences and creators Chapter 3: Shifting complex narrative: an analysis of the House of Cards Trilogy and House of Cards 25 3.1 The House of Cards Trilogy 25 3.1.1 Extension in the House of Cards Trilogy 26 3.1.2 Intensity in the House of Cards Trilogy 28 3.1.2.A Centripetal complexity 3.1.2.B Operational aesthetics and operational reflexivity 3.1.3 Temporality in the House of Cards Trilogy 29 3.1.4 Audience activity in the House of Cards Trilogy 30 3.2 House of Cards 32 3.2.1 Extension in House of Cards 32 3.2.2 Intensity in House of Cards 33 3.2.2.A Centrifugal- versus centripetal complexity of the narrative 3.2.2.B Operational aesthetics and operational reflexivity 3.2.3 Temporality in House of Cards 36 2 3.2.4 Audience activity in House of Cards 38 3.2.4.A Bottom-up audience activity 3.2.4.B Top-down audience activity 3.3 Differences between the House of Cards Trilogy and House of Cards: the shift in com- plex narrative through the years 46 3.3.1 Extension 46 3.3.2 Intensity 48 3.3.3 Temporality 48 3.3.4 Audience activity 49 4. Conclusion 51 4.1 Features of complex narrative and audience activity 51 4.2 Limitations, recommendations for future research and contribution to the scientific de- bate 53 5. References 54 6. Media List 58 3 "Now it's the viewers' problem if they don't know what's going on. And all of a sudden, a world has opened up to us as writers." — Matthew Weiner, creator of Mad Men (AMC, 2007) Quoted in Brett Martin 4 Chapter 1: Introduction Television is an ever-changing medium; as is the field of television studies. Over the years, its many transformations have resulted in television as we currently know it. Although all of these changes are interesting, there is one transformation that is particularly intriguing: that of narrational com- plexity in serials. Complex narrative is a crucial component of the era of complex television; an era that was introduced firstly by media professor Jason Mittell. It rose in the early nineties, due to technological advancements, and it is still evolving today. The fact that the concept has gone through so many transformations, and that it is a continuing process, indicates a shift in the con- cept of complex narrative towards serials with far deeper narrational complexity. Therefore, it is paramount to conduct research on how precisely this concept changed. With help of a textual anal- ysis of two serials — the House of Cards Trilogy (BBC, 1990) and House of Cards (Netflix, 2013) — this thesis depicts and describes this shift through building upon the concept of complex narrative. Moreover, it indicates the symbiosis between changing narrational complexity in relation to audi- ence participation. According to Mittell, complex narrative is, at its most basic level, a redefinition of episodic forms that are influenced by serial narration (Mittell, Narrative 32). It consists of several different features that all together frame the concept as a whole. These features are highly linked to narra- tional length, to how narratives are structured, to what occurs in the narrative, to how characters are defined and to how they relate to each other. Also, it underlines the importance of how plot connections are made, how narratives force the audience to hypothesise and how creators experi- mented with temporality. These features have evolved of late, and continue to do so due to the technological growth of our society. This proliferation has contributed significantly to a changing perception of television's legitimacy over the years (Mittell, Narrative 31). The shift concerns a movement to finding new, more complex forms of narrational storytelling within long-form televi- sion. Consequently, this has changed how audiences engage with serials. Since consuming a narra- tive requires a constant managing of the information that is received and of the narrational gaps that need to be filled in by the audience, it requires a more active audience if there is more narra- tional complexity. Therefore, in this thesis I will underline a shift from a viewing audience to a par- ticipating one — along with the transformation of the concept of complex narrative. The origin of complex narrative is correlated to the development of the VCR at the end of the 1980s and later to that of the DVD — as both have had an influence on the experience of 5 watching television — especially the development DVD technology, which has had a major impact on the serial experience (Mittell, Narrative 31; Turner & Tay 10; de Valck and Teurlings 8). The cul- tural experience of simultaneously watching television — which used to be common due to national broadcasting — was partly eliminated with the rise of DVD technology (Mittell, Complex 27). Audi- ences could suddenly watch serials without a temporal gap between sequential episodes. Screen- time became more easily controllable, as people could now record, play, pause and rewind the pro- grammes themselves. Consequently, it resulted in the possibility for audiences to watch — and re- watch — all episodes in chronological sequence without missing essential plot information (Mittell, Narrative 31). This technological advance provided audiences the ability to comprehend narratives more fully and appreciate the intricacies of the narrative. Therefore, creators of serials were em- powered to implement more complexity in their narratives, which resulted in a profound shift with- in the concept of complex narrative. However, the concept of complex narrative developed even further as technologies ad- vanced from the VCR and DVD to the rise of Web 2.0. Web 2.0 provided incomparable opportuni- ties for both creators and audiences from a narrational complexity perspective, in the sense of a deeper audience engagement and is therefore a stepping stone for extending narrational complexi- ty in serials. Streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon released whole seasons of serials online at once, which encouraged binge-watching — the concept of watching multiple chronological epi- sodes in one sitting. Online fandoms were developed and social media platforms allowed wider and simpler communication. Web 2.0 resulted in a new mode of viewing serials, that is referred to as audience activity — which greatly enable the implementation of further complexity within serial narratives (Mittell, Narrative 38). 1.1 Research question, method and structure In this thesis, I demonstrate the shift in the concept of complex narrative and the transformation from a viewing audience to a participating one, with a grounding enablement of technological ad- vancements. This demonstration is accomplished through the employment of the textual analysis of two serials: the House of Cards Trilogy and House of Cards. Accordingly, the research question to be answered is as follows: 6 How has narrative complexity evolved between the House of Cards Trilogy (BBC, 1990) and House of Cards (Netflix, 2013) due to transformations in television technology and audience activity? To demonstrate the shift in complex narrative, it is necessary to determine and analyse the features of complex narrative and audience activity at the commencement of the complex televi- sion era and that of a recent version of the concept.
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