ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book investigates the institutional and industrial contexts, conception and authorship, narrative strategies and stylistic tendencies that together distinguish it within the totality of American TV drama. It concludes that it has been most pivotal to the emergence, expansion and innovation of the complex serial drama form. It deals with relevant features of the multiplatform environment and with the authorship of complex serial drama. The book foregrounds the textual distinctions of complex serial dramas, focusing on their narrative and stylistic characteristics. Notwithstanding the continuing aesthetic differences between cinema and television, the book examines the aesthetic and stylistic tendencies of complex serial drama highlighting its contributions to perceptions of increased "cinematization" in television. The label 'complex serial' identifies a specific type of TV drama. Two initial characteristics of this form attest to its deviation from longstanding narrative tendencies in American TV drama.
