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The growth of the Latino population in the United States during the 21st century has attracted the attention of television professionals and scholars to this community. This article aims to study the inclusion of Latinx people in American TV series and the correlation between Latinx characters and Latinx showrunners and writers. A literature review on the Latino community in television media has been conducted. After this, a specific case study--Vida TV series--is examined following a qualitative methodology based on two theoretical approaches: media production and television aesthetic. These results show that Tanya Saracho has a creative and personal connection to her TV series as showrunner. In conclusion, the traditional stereotyped and limited representation of Latinx people in U.S. TV series is counteracted by hiring Latinx television professionals in the television production process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article builds further on research in gender/queer TV studies to understand how interpretive communities form around gender-diverse TV series on social media platforms, while questioning the influence a broadcaster/content provider may still have on the reception of LGBTQ characters. Since recent technological innovations have deeply upset normative definitions of television and of its 'identity', this article seeks to understand whether the inclusion of LGBTQ characters in TV series has a similar potential to encourage viewers to queer or challenge normative knowledges about human sexualities and identities. To this end, the article provides a qualitative analysis of discourses that have been published on the official Facebook page of two US serialised dramas: Sense8 (Netflix 2015–2018) and Billions (Showtime 2016–). This research reveals that conversations around Sense8 and Billions differ significantly, ranging from a tendency to deflect criticism and promote progressive readings of the show (Sense8), to more aggressive debates and frequent attempts to 'solve' gender ambiguities (Billions). Through a detailed analysis of comments and interactions on a popular social media platform, this article, therefore, argues that the nature of a particular content provider might still affect – though never determine – the formation of interpretive communities online, and the nature of comments published around a series featuring LGBTQ character(s). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines the importance of cultural similarities in the appeal of Turkish drama serials in Qatar. The cultural proximity theory is used as an analytical tool to identify the factors that facilitate the attraction and appeal of Turkish television dramas given the cultural and historical relationship between Arabs and Turks. The study centers on university students from various Arab backgrounds who are being educated at elite American universities within Qatar's Education City Campus and applies a mixedmethods approach of focus group discussions and online surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the most recent serial fiction the hero is markedly different. The main characters of the latest series almost always have a feature that is far from the classical virtuosity, an element of strangeness, often asocial. This article aims to show that in the U.S. television drama of the last ten years the hero progressively acquires new features that not allow the normal interaction with the world around him. The characteristics of this type of character, away from traditional narrative standards are diverse, but all of them are typical of the known as freak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to investigate the postmodern multimodal language of some contemporary American TV series and its gradual hybridization with the language (and practices) of social media. The paper begins with the analysis of popular television texts that have experimented with visual/musical/ narrative form in order to outline the main characteristics of their meaningmaking processes. Then, it will explore the concept of "expanded transmediality" according to which audiences participate in the co-construction of narratives (Stein and Busse 2012) to highlight the top-down/bottom-up ongoing exchange in franchise storytelling and it will focus on the textual features of some fangenerated artifacts that enter into these global narrations and where fans exploit postmodern diegetic and editing forms. Finally, the paper will return to the analysis of television to investigate how the on-screen emergence of social media networks has influenced postmodern TV series in terms of their semantic and semiotic realization and/or fruition processes, giving rise to a 'webridization' of postmodern television textuality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While a growing body of scholarship explores narrative beginnings, much less is known about narrative endings or narrative ‘deaths’. In this article I draw on media studies as well as gerontological and thanatological literature to explore the endings of US serial television, focusing on the criteria required for a ‘good textual death’. Situated in the notion that cultural objects have a biography or a life span much as individuals do, I ultimately explore the implications of a thanatology of media studies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article approaches some aspects of serial fiction television that, according to some scholars, features a complex narrative structure that demonstrates the formats innovation for the television serial fiction, especially those originated from U.S.A. The analysis takes in consideration fiction series based on a complex interpretation of the text television set from their materiality (historical, social, compositional), from production conditions and from the production of meanings. After this discussion, we observe the complex narrative in a serial production from Brazil through the analysis of some elements of Task Force (Globo TV). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, more specifically, its enormous popularity in the United States, Western Europe and Australia, and the absence of any reaction to the series in Serbia. By compari ng themes regarded as important in western societies to the current situation in Serbia, the analysis shows that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a series that could not have gained popularity in Serbia because it uses the language of fantasy to speak about reality and pose unpleasant questions, which the Serbian public does not wish to hear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]