Television Cultures: Geographies

This week, on TV Cultures…

So, geography and transnationalism today – concepts I can’t say I’m an expert on, but I’ll give it a go! My understanding on this lecture’s key issue was helped by relating it back to the question of national identity, and television’s role in it. While this week we’re dealing with a broader issue, the question of how television has produced “a global imaginary and our sense of place within it” is an interesting one. Just a few comments on some of the topics from the lecture:

– I haven’t borne witness to many examples of transnational television while in Australia, but overseas examples are numerous. CNN, BBC and Sky News broadcast around the world, while I even worked on a co-production between Germany and Australia, utilizing both country’s cast and crew, being broadcast in each country’s respective language.

– I enjoyed the discussion of ‘space’ in this week’s lecture, given that it’s an abstract concept that I don’t fully understand. What I found particularly intriguing was the explanation that ‘space’ is “something actively produced” – it’s a construct that we create.

Now, onto the screening! An example of the increasingly popular genre of Scandinoir, The Bridge, or Bron/Broen is the very definition of a transnational television production. As a joint production between Sweden and Denmark, the very title reveals how the series crosses cultural borders (Bron and Broen are the respective Swedish and Danish translations for ‘bridge’). The opening credits are rendered in both languages, the show’s dialogue is delivered in both Swedish and Danish. The opening shots of the episode are of the eponymous bridge, serving as a literal connection between Copenhagen and Malmo.

However, it isn’t just the literal geographies within the series that are examples of the series’ transnationalism. The genre itself, Scandinoir (Scandinavian Noir) is one that has been exported to the world – America, particularly, seems to hold a steady fascination with it. Girl with a Dragon Tattoo, Wallander, The Killing – all have been remade for a Western audience, and Bron/Broen is no exception – an American FX remake has just run its second season. There is clearly something distinctly global within these series. Perhaps it is the very idea of the cultural clash that fuels Bron/Broen. Sweden and Denmark have been substituted for the United States and Mexico in the US series, and England and France in The Tunnel, clearly there is something universally appealing in the prospect of seeing different cultures work together.

Maybe it is ‘Scandinoir’ itself that appeals across the world, and the hallmarks of the genre. They’re certainly evident in Bron/Broen. The realistic, stripped down world – free of artifice and pretense. These characters are not glamorous or idealized – Martin limps and struggles after a vasectomy, while Saga is cold and abrupt. It could be the muted colour scheme, or the literal and thematic darkness of the genre. Perhaps it is elements of the police procedural that lend the series its enduring popularity, or the serialized format of the show.

I think that all of these individual elements lend the show a sense of global appeal. To borrow a phrase from Brian, they ‘transcend cultural specificity’. We don’t have to live in Sweden and Denmark to appreciate that the bridge is a metaphor for issues between the countries, we understand and respond to it implicitly – which is why, I gather, so many countries are so keen to have their own version.