Netflix, Dark Fantastic Genres and Intergenerational Viewing
Family Watch Together TV
Jessica Balanzategui author Djoymi Baker author Diana Sandars author
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd
Published:4th Jul '23
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Focusing on Netflix’s child and family-orientated platform exclusive content, this book offers the first exploration of a controversial genre cycle of dark science fiction, horror, and fantasy television under Netflix’s "Family Watch Together TV" tag.
Using a ground-breaking mix of methods including audience research, interface, and textual analysis, the book demonstrates how Netflix is producing dark family telefantasy content that is both reshaping child and family-friendly TV genres and challenging earlier broadcast TV models around child-appropriate family viewing. It illuminates how Netflix encourages family audiences to "watch together" through intergenerational dynamics that work on and offscreen. The chapters in this book explore how this "Netflixication" of family television developed across landmark examples including Stranger Things, A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, and even Squid Game. The book outlines how Netflix is consolidating a new dark family terrain in the streaming sector, which is unsettling older concepts of family viewing, leading to considerable audience and critical confusion around target audiences and viewer expectations.
This book will be of particular interest to upper-level undergraduates, graduates, and scholars in the fields of television studies, screen genre studies, childhood studies, and cultural studies.
“Even as streaming offers individual user accounts, the death of family viewing has been greatly exaggerated. Family Watch Together TV shows instead how Netflix’s embrace of dark telefantasy produced new intergenerational viewing cultures and transformed the way parents and children approach programming. It expertly reveals how Netflix has changed television, while more broadly reminding us of the complex, dynamic nature of genre.”
Professor Derek Johnson, author of Transgenerational Media Industries: Adults, Children, and the Reproduction of Culture, Professor of Media and Cultural Studies in the Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“A timely and very important contribution to the new reception and consumption contexts for streaming and platform services. The focus on ‘dark fantasy genres’ in the context of family viewing is well considered and incredibly fruitful, and one that offers an exciting entry point to understanding the datafication of viewing and its impacts upon the notion of the ‘family’ viewer. The authors anchor their innovative approach through the mutability of genre alongside a strong histography. The chapters often draw on the issue of fandom but from different perspectives: this is an intriguing, original ‘pivot’ since the book addresses these attachments through the idea of family relationships. This is a must have monograph in what is the new age of family viewing.”
Professor Sean Redmond, author of Liquid Space: Digital Age Science Film and Television, Professor of Film and Television, Deakin University.
“This is a totally original approach. The material is very timely, as this is a new categorization style for Netflix. The writing style is accessible and yet academically rigorous.”
Professor Kim Akass, Editor of Quality TV: Contemporary American Television and Beyond and Critical Studies in Television Online and Critical Studies in Television (Journal), Professor of Radio, TV and Film, Rowan University.
ISBN: 9781032121895
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 140g
232 pages