Whose Century? Narrative Power in Streaming Alternate-History Television. Issue 4 (2nd October 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Osur, Summit P.
• Is Part Of: Journal of popular film and television. Volume 50:Issue 4(2022)
• Page Start: 156
• Page End: 167
• Publication Date: 2022-10-02
• Subjects: alternate history -- parallel worlds theory -- popular culture -- television studies -- time travel; Motion pictures -- Periodicals; Television broadcasting -- Periodicals; 791.4305
• DOI: 10.1080/01956051.2022.2145454
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0195-6051

Abstract

Abstract: Although alternate histories have been present since the early days of televised science fiction, the genre didn't take off until the streaming era of television began. Direct-targeted advertising, a glut of content, the maturation of the genre, and the historical instability of the twenty-first century intersected in the alternate-history genre, making it not only an important artistic genre but an important political one as well. Traditionally, the alternate-history genre, on a whole, has been criticized for its closed narratives that support the Great Man theory of history through an overemphasis on battles and royalty. A case study of six recent televised alternate histories— Russian Doll, Undone, Bandersnatch, Loki, Watchmen, and For All Mankind —shows that the televised version of the genre has matured into a revisionist genre that is focused on the natural determinism and personal agency as well as on the social factors that impact both. Taken together, these six shows suggest a unique maturity in the alternate-history genre, one that questions Anglo-Saxon spheres of narratological power and the very linearity of Western history.