From prime time to binge watching: the development of TV series

Abstract

The current spectrum of television seriality, or “third golden age of series”, which attracts increasingly numerous audiences and is the object of study from multiple theoretical approaches, is the product of the development of a series of formulas and production systems that, together with their audiences, have been evolving. This work consists of a compilation of the milestones in the development of series since its genesis in the serialized novel and the radio soap opera, which, upon reaching television, burst into popular culture in a forceful way and generated consumer practices that placed a premium on prime time, up to the current viewing of series on demand through streaming platforms that allows a consumption of television fiction without restrictions of place or time. The changes have affected not only the forms of consumption, but also the narrative paradigms, themes, formal elements and the relationship with a public willing to sign the narrative pact during the necessary seasons.