the serial

When did it begin? A story that is told in bits and pieces, chronologically, unfolding piece by piece? We know where it has led --to the literary story magazines of early 1900s, to television series, to the 1001 Arabian Nights. Part of the fun of this story is how much is held back ("tune in next week for Batman's latest adventures!") and how much the audience is controlled by the dispensation. We talked about this a bit with graphic novels and audio-books, how much different platforms/media allow audience pacing and interaction. Television series provide this in an even more structured sense, giving the viewer very specific time slots in which to 'watch' the story unfold.

We didn't do that, though. I watched "Private Lives" and "Black Hole" through Hulu, but there are other website that provide the same way around the strucutre dispensation of these stories. Granted, you still have to wait until after the show has been aired, but then you can view at your leisure --completely impossible twenty years ago without TiVo or some such technology.

In the early days, Western comics were serialized, and many remain that way today (not Japanese comics, which, I am led to understand, did come in large volumes earlier, with much more story involved in one telling). Once a month (or whenever the collaborative-artists decide) you would run to the comic store and pick up the next continuation of your favorite story. Does this waiting and anticipation add to the drama of reading a comic? Make it more exciting? Or is it just that we don't feel like sitting down to an entire story in one sitting any more? Many books come with chapters, tv shows with episodes, comics and magazines with issues --even youtube has developed it's own 'waiting' culture. It is standard for viewers to expect two or three four-six minute youtube-ings from their youtubers every week, spaced evenly and promptly updated. Why?

Not to answer the question, these serializations make sure we don't get bored: we are given set characters who will hopefully grow and develop over time, but we are also given a new 'adventure'/plot for each serialization. The subplots are made from continuous threads, like how Chase is getting over his marriage or Wilson's past has made him incapable of buying furniture, making the show much more enjoyable and profitable to watch in order. But are the plots alll the same? Keeping in mind that I am not talking about originality, they are different for each episode -we won't see Miss Blogger in the next episode.