This document is downloaded from DR‑NTU (https://dr.ntu.edu.sg) Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Serial engagements : viewer allegiance and contemporary crime television Mani, Saravanan 2020 Mani, S. (2020). Serial engagements : viewer allegiance and contemporary crime television. Doctoral thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/143087 https://doi.org/10.32657/10356/143087 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution‑NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY‑NC 4.0). Downloaded on 26 Sep 2021 03:01:04 SGT SERIAL ENGAGEMENTS: VIEWER ALLEGIANCE AND CONTEMPORARY CRIME TELEVISION SARAVANAN MANI SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES 2020 Serial Engagements: Viewer Allegiance and Contemporary Crime Television SARAVANAN MANI School of Humanities A thesis submitted to the Nanyang Technological University in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2020 Statement of Originality I certify that all work submitted for this thesis is my original work. I declare that no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement. Except where it is clearly stated that I have used some of this material elsewhere, this work has not been presented by me for assessment in any other institution or University. I certify that the investigations were conducted in accordance with the ethics policies and integrity standards of Nanyang Technological University and that the research data are presented honestly and without prejudice. 7 August 2019 . Date Saravanan Mani Supervisor Declaration Statement I have reviewed the content of this thesis and to the best of my knowledge, it does not contain plagiarised materials. The presentation style is also consistent with what is expected of the degree awarded. To the best of my knowledge, the research and writing are those of the candidate except as acknowledged in the Author Attribution Statement. I confirm that the investigations were conducted in accordance with the ethics policies and integrity standards of Nanyang Technological University and that the research data are presented honestly and without prejudice. Authorship Attribution Statement This thesis contains material from 1 paper accepted to be published in an edited book, 1 paper accepted at conference and 8 blog entries in which I am listed as an author. Chapter 5 contains material from the forthcoming essay titled “Not So Black and White: Race, Police and Double Standards in The Shield” to be published in the essay collection Representations of African American Professionals on TV Series Since the 1990s edited by LaToya T. Brackett. McFarland (2020, forthcoming). Chapter 5 contains materials adapted from a conference paper titled “Cultures of Violence and Justice in The Shield” collected in Questions of Cultural Value: The London Film & Media Reader 5 (2017), edited by Philip Drummond. Chapter 2 contains material adapted from a series of longer posts discussing the history of TV Studies from the personal blog www.screenethics.com, titled “Previously on American TV.” Chapter 6 contains material adapted from a series of longer posts discussing the Rodney King video from the personal blog www.screenethics.com, titled “Rodney King Retrospective.” 7 August 2019 . Date Saravanan Mani ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I thank the Division of English, School of Humanities, NTU, for providing me with the opportunity to pursue research for the past four years. The stimulating intellectual environment, the various conferences to share and learn from peers, and the support to travel overseas to present papers have shaped my thinking about my role in academia. The continued support of the wonderful staff and faculty members made my experience at NTU a memorable one. Over the years, my teachers have nurtured my curiosity for literature and guided me to explore its many forms. I thank Prof. Britto Kumar, Dr. T. R. Joy, Dr. Claramma Jose, Dr. Vijayalan, Dr. Ananda Lal, and Dr. CJ Wee Wan Ling, who have challenged my thinking about literature and the world. Without them, my interest in prose and drama would not have extended to film and television. I thank my friends Justin, Huda, Sher Li, Nanda, and Sarah for reading the various drafts and providing me with helpful notes. Your attention to detail made my work a lot easier. My parents and my brother have always encouraged me to do my best, and I hope I have made them proud. My thesis advisory committee members, Dr. Liew Kai Khiun and Dr. Christopher Trigg have guided my thesis with timely feedback. Dr. Liew’s Television Studies course at Wee Kim Wee School of Communications and Information helped me bridge my passions for literature and TV. This project would not have begun without my first supervisor, Dr. Brian Bergen-Aurand. Thank you for laying the foundations of this project. This project finished on time thanks to my current supervisor, Dr. Kevin Riordan. Without your reading every line that I ever wrote, supporting me when I doubted myself and my project, and guiding me through my revisions, I would not have crossed the finish-line; thank you. And finally, thank you Kiara, my daughter, for being the brightest part of my day. Thank you Sangeetha, for being my wife, my constant companion, and my rock. i TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. i TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................ ii SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................... iv Chapter 1: The ‘Good’ of Watching TV .........................................................................1 TV as Text: a Literary Approach .................................................................................16 Watching, Interpreting, and Experiencing TV .............................................................30 A Brief Overview of TV Crime Drama .......................................................................34 In the Next Chapters… ................................................................................................45 Chapter 2: From Junk TV to Complex TV: Texts for Creative Reading .................49 Legacies of the Frankfurt School .................................................................................53 Creative Reading: The Viewers’ Work ........................................................................60 Limits of Quality TV ...................................................................................................69 Exceptional Authorship and Seriality ..........................................................................76 The Complexity of The Wire, The Shield and Breaking Bad ......................................82 Chapter 3: Antiheroes in American Crime TV ............................................................96 Viewer Allegiance and Remorseless Villains ............................................................105 “Al Capone with a Badge”: Vigilantism in The Shield ..............................................111 “The One Who Knocks”: Transformation in Breaking Bad ......................................129 Morality Plays in Reverse ..........................................................................................145 Chapter 4: Cops and Cameras: How we see the Police on TV .................................150 Screening Human Rights and Police Authority .........................................................160 Police Representation and Uneasy Realism ...............................................................173 Viewer Complicity with Police Brutality ..................................................................177 Evaluating Viewer Response to Police Power ...........................................................190 Chapter 5: Crime and Punishment: Police Procedure in Contemporary TV ..........194 The Valorized Police Code ........................................................................................200 Destabilizing Procedural Certainty ............................................................................208 Politics of Community Policing .................................................................................217 Self-Reflexivity and Character Evolution ..................................................................226 Between Narrative Pleasure and Criticism ................................................................237 ii Chapter 6: Conclusion: Thinking Through TV .........................................................240 Examining Production Narratives ..............................................................................244 The Viewer Writes Back ............................................................................................247 Texts, Contexts and Reflections ................................................................................250 TV’s Cultural Value ...................................................................................................256 Works Cited ...................................................................................................................259 iii SUMMARY What is the “good” of watching TV? Despite the many technological advancements, formal experiments, and narrative innovations over the past 70 years, TV texts are still treated collectively as passive, distracting, and distracted entertainment that bear little value for its viewers. Cultural