Abstract:
This thesis focuses on “Quality” dramas from the current “Golden Age” of TV and explores the potential of the long-form drama as a vehicle for history. Television’s omnipresence and function as a “cultural hearth” warrants a closer examination of how it tells historical stories. Much scholarship has been dedicated to analysing and understanding historical feature films and documentary films, but TV, and the long-form drama in particular, has received scant attention. This is a critical omission, as the potential of television to engage with history and tell complex historical stories has grown in recent years. TV is a medium constantly in flux, adapting to keep up with rapidly evolving technology and meet the demands of shifting audience expectations and viewing habits. Changes within the television industry have had a significant impact on the kinds of historical stories that can be told on the small screen, as well as the way they are told. As HBO has been at the forefront of many TV industry advances its historical programming provides a useful entryway for examining how history is presented in long-from dramas. The HBO shows chosen for study are set during different periods in United States history and include one miniseries, Band of Brothers (HBO, 2001), and three serials: Deadwood (HBO, 2004–2007), Boardwalk Empire (HBO, 2010–2014) and Treme (HBO, 2010–2013). Each of the following body chapters focuses on one series and one element of televisual language in order to demonstrate exactly how history is crafted on TV and the diverse forms it takes. Building on Robert Rosenstone’s concepts of true and false invention, this thesis posits that in the case of TV serials, inventing historical characters, incidents, costumes, sets and sounds can, in fact, be a more effective way of relaying historical ideas and arguments than relying on facts and “true” stories. Looking beyond established ways of judging and evaluating written works of history reveals that television dramas are a form of history with much to offer. The aural and visual elements of history on screen, aspects that are respectively overlooked and criticised, are its strengths, having the ability to affect viewers in a bodily way, to show rather than tell, and to add to the argument of the text. Furthermore, criticisms commonly levelled at history on screen—that it presents a linear narrative glossing over the complexities of history, ignores opposing interpretations and fails to comply with rigorous standards of referencing—are also proven to be unfounded in long-form serials. While often diverging from the accepted path of written history, the historical TV series under examination in this thesis reveal a depth and complexity not often attributed to popular forms of history.