‘Nothing but the Truth’: Genre, Gender and Knowledge in the US Television Crime Drama 2005-2010 Hannah Ellison Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) University of East Anglia School of Film, Television and Media Studies Submitted January 2014 ©This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that no quotation from the thesis, nor any information derived therefrom, may be published without the author's prior, written consent. 2 | Page Hannah Ellison Abstract Over the five year period 2005-2010 the crime drama became one of the most produced genres on American prime-time television and also one of the most routinely ignored academically. This particular cyclical genre influx was notable for the resurgence and reformulating of the amateur sleuth; this time remerging as the gifted police consultant, a figure capable of insights that the police could not manage. I term these new shows ‘consultant procedurals’. Consequently, the genre moved away from dealing with the ills of society and instead focused on the mystery of crime. Refocusing the genre gave rise to new issues. Questions are raised about how knowledge is gained and who has the right to it. With the individual consultant spearheading criminal investigation, without official standing, the genre is re-inflected with issues around legitimacy and power. The genre also reengages with age-old questions about the role gender plays in the performance of investigation. With the aim of answering these questions one of the jobs of this thesis is to find a way of analysing genre that accounts for both its larger cyclical, shifting nature and its simultaneously rigid construction of particular conventions. Building on the work of Jason Mittell this thesis sets out to engage with the way genres manage to lay claim to diversity while maintaining an ineffable quality of recognisability. In order to do this the thesis in the main is a case study of six different shows from across the genre: Bones, Lie to Me, The Mentalist, Psych, Ghost Whisperer and Medium. Through narrative textual analysis of both the shows and their ancillary and para-texts a case is made for additions to Mittell’s work. I posit a theory based on a continuum of graduated articulation. This is a way of mapping conventions prevalent in a genre without reducing them to a selection of identical aesthetic or narrative tropes. As part of this the method re-centralises narrative in the understanding of television genre. 3 | Page Hannah Ellison Table of Contents Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..………2 Table of Contents……………………………………………………………………………………………..……...…3 List of Illustrations………………………………………………………………………………………………….……4 Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………………………………………....5 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………….……………..…6 Chapter One: Genre, Audience and the Development of the Psychic-Scientist Continuum………...…25 What Is Crime Drama?.......................................................................................40 Defining Boundaries: Method and Methodology of Text Selection…………..……46 Pre-texts and Contexts: Incorporating the Shows into the Established Genre Canon…………………….…………………………………….……..62 Chapter Two: Tune in Next Time: Promotional Material, Network Identity and Establishing Industrial Context……………………………………..……….77 Origins: Source Material as Authenticating and Situating Texts……………..……..83 Where, When, Why: Scheduling Data and Generic Formation……………..……….91 Next Week On…: Episode Trailers as Situating Texts……………………………………..98 Chapter Three: Psychics vs. Scientists: Crime Drama and the Intuition/Reason Binary…………….…....112 Reason and Intuition as Part of the Continuum…………………………………..……….118 Scientific Knowledge and the Crime Drama………………………………………..….…….123 Experiential Knowledge and Reason Masked as Intuition…………………………....137 Empathetic Knowledge…………………………………………………………………………….…..147 Opening Titles and the Relevance of Tone……………………………………………….…..155 Chapter Four: Consultant Procedurals and Masculine Identity………………………………………………….….168 Masculinity and Institutions of Authority in Crime Drama……….………………….177 Learned Behaviour, Pedagogy and its Role in the Development of the Masculine Consultant……….………………….….186 Family and Fatherhood……………………………………………………………………….…..….193 Bones and Masculine Female Identity…………………………………………….………..…199 Chapter Five: Consultant Procedurals and Feminine Identity………………………………………………………206 Feminine Protagonists and the Gothic………………………..………………………….…..208 Aesthetics……………………………………………………………………………………..………….…223 Motherhood and Biology……………………………………………………………………..….….231 Psychic Investigators as Daughters……………………………………………..…………...…234 As Wives and Mothers………………………………………………………..…………………..….238 Chapter Six: The Centrality of Symbolic Justice…………………………………………………………………..…..…243 Justice Across the Continuum…………………………………..……………………………....260 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………..……………….…...268 Genre Theory………………………………………………………………………………………….…..276 Appendix…………………………………………………………………………………………………….………..…284 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………………………..………..285 4 | Page Hannah Ellison List of Illustrations Figure 1: Screenshot from syfy.com…………………………………………………………….……..96 Figure 2: Screenshot from Lie to Me promo………………………………………………………..100 Figure 3: Screenshot from Lie to Me promo………………………………………………………..101 Figure 4: Screenshot from Lie to Me promo………………………………………………………..101 Figure 5: Screenshots from Bones Promo…………………………………………………………….102 Figure 6: Screenshots from Bones Promo…………………………………………………………….103 Figure 7: Screenshots from The Mentalist Promo…………………………………………….….104 Figure 8: Screenshots from Psych Promo………………………………………………………….….106 Figure 9: Screenshots from Ghost Whisperer Promo……………………………………….…..107 Figure 10: Screenshots from Medium Promo……………………………………………………….108 Figure 11: Screenshots from Bones……………………………………………………….……………..129 Figure 12: Screenshots from Lie to Me…………………………………………………………….…..129 Figure 13: Screenshot from Bones……………………………………………………….……………….130 Figure 14: Screenshot from Psych……………………………………………………….………………..140 Figure 15: Screenshots from Psych……………………………………………………….………….…..142 Figure 16: Screenshots from Bones Title Sequence……………………………………………….157 Figure 17: Screenshot from Bones Title Sequence……………………………………………..….157 Figure 18: Screenshot from Lie to Me Title Sequence…………………………………….……..158 Figure 19: Screenshots from Lie to Me Title Sequence…………………………………………..158 Figure 20: Screenshot from Lie to Me Title Sequence…………………………………….……..159 Figure 21: Screenshots from The Mentalist Title Sequence…………………………….……..160 Figure 22: Screenshots from Psych Title Sequence…………………………………….…………..161 Figure 23: Screenshots from Ghost Whisperer Title Sequence……………………………....163 Figure 24: Screenshots from Medium Title Sequence…………………………………….….…..164 Figure 25: Screenshot of the kitchen in Medium………………………………………………..….224 5 | Page Hannah Ellison Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to thank my family for their support in every possible way. I could not have done this without them. Sorry for the lack of serifs, ma. I would also like to thank Prof Yvonne Tasker for her invaluable supervision and for helping me understand exactly what it was I was trying to do here; additionally, Dr Su Holmes for her insights. Finally, I want to thank my friends. Firstly, the people of TAMSoNH for listening to me go on about crime shows when they had their own stuff to think about and keeping me afloat through this whole process. Secondly, the people at Cin City, you guys helped me give my brain a break just when it needed it. “There’s a button to your left”. 6 | Page Hannah Ellison Introduction The scene is an all too familiar one; a jogger out for his morning run stumbles on something and falls. As he looks down the camera follows his view and finds not a stray branch or some broken paving but a corpse. The US procedural crime drama has become such a staple of the television landscape that even via UK freeview broadcast there are at least four different shows on offer every day. Lunchtime repeats of the Mentalist(CBS, 2008-present) are followed by evening showings of one if not more of the CSI(CBS, 2000-present)franchise. The same can be said for the original US market where during the years 2005-2010 every network had at least one procedural in their roster. The airing of procedural dramas has become as commonplace as soap operas and quiz shows. We have become so familiar with the tropes and conventions of the procedural that they have become the butt of jokes; from MadTV(Fox, 1995-2009) sketches about the nature of cases solved on Ghost Whisperer (CBS, 2005-2010)1to Family Guy (Fox, 1999-present)referencing Bones’(Fox, 2005-present) use of bones2. Yet despite the genre’s ubiquity relatively little has been written about it. There are a handful of works on the CSI franchise, but considering the sheer number of texts in the genre this presents little more than a drop in ocean. It is this lack of academic interest in an area so vast and popular that I plan to redress. In doing so this thesis will investigate both the workings of the contemporary crime procedural and as part of this case study present a reworking of current methodologies for the study of television genre. I will be doing this in a US context despite residing in the UK. Though there are limitations to living outside of the market being studied, the internet offers multiple avenues for the consumption of US