Introduction

`Ashes to Ashes′ is a BBC produced drama series and a spin-off series of `Life on

Mars′. The last episode of season one has been aired a few weeks ago. Some people

may claim `Ashes to Ashes′ is a science fiction series others may say it is a police

drama series.

This essay will examine if it is maybe a hybrid of several television genres.

Therefore it will explain first how a genre is defined and will take Steve Neil′s and

Graeme Turner′s point of view into account. Steve Neil is a professor for Film Studies

at Exeter University and author of several books about genre. Graeme Turner is

Professor of Cultural Studies and Director of the Centre for Critical and Cultural

Studies at the University of Queensland, Australia.

Following this discussion this essay will concentrate on `Ashes to Ashes′ and

whether it confirms the genre of police series and science-fiction series. In order to

confirm this, the essay will compare both genres and show the similarities and

differences. In addition, it will argue that `Ashes to Ashes′ is not only a genre hybrid,

further, it is a hybrid between series and serial.

1

Genres and their hybridization

The word genre derives from French and means `type′ and `character′. Generally

speaking genres are rank schemata′s. Discussions about film genre are applicable to

television genres likewise. The genre term derived from literature and theatre in

approximately 1910, however, it did not establish itself until the end of the sixties. The

development of genres has primarily economical reasons. If a film or television series

has a huge commercial success with a new concept then other producers will adopt

some of its elements to tie in with the success. This imitation of proven and successful

archetypes entailed development of new genres. Steve Neale argues that genres are

best understood as

processes1

. According to him the

processlike nature of genres2

is

a relation between

the level of expectation

,

the level of generic corpus

, and the

level of

the `rules′ or `norms′3.

There are some essential features of genres. Firstly, genres assemble a certain rule

type or rather standards to which a director has to abide in order to deliver the viewers

expectations. It also helps the viewers to pre-select programs from which they expect

certain framework and features. So these frameworks, for example, dramaturgy, visual

and acoustical style, actors, costumes, become a firm element of genres. Major-

genres′ in film are Western, Melodrama, Comedy and Horror and `sub-genre′ are

romantic comedy and slapstick, for example.

If I transfer these categories into television genre it would mean that television

`major-genres′ would be drama, comedy, documentary, entertainment and news

programs and `sub-genres′ would be police series, action series, western series for

drama programs and reality-tv, music videos and late-night-shows for entertainment

programs, to name only a few. Steve Neale criticizes this genre research. He is

against the classifications of major- and sub-genre. He argues that "conventions of a

genre are always in play rather than being simply replayed" and "each new genre film

constitutes an addition to an existing generic corpus and involves a selection from the

repertoire of generic elements available at any one point in time" 4.

1 Neale, Steve (1995)

Questions of Genre,

p. 170.

2 Neale, Steve (1995)

Questions of Genre

, p. 170.

3 Neale, Steve (1995)

Questions of Genre

, p. 170

4 Neale, Steve (1995)

Questions of Genre,

p. 170.

2

I agree with Neale′s idea. Movies can not be categorized in straight genres. A movie

always has several elements from different genres in it. The same obliges to television

series. I intentionally concentrate here on television series because to discuss all

television programs here would overload this essay. "Television genres and

programming formats are notoriously hybridized"5. There are two kinds of hybrids a

series can be. The first kind is a genre-hybrid. `ER′, for example, is a hospital series

which has aspects of reality in it like documentaries and is action filled. Although the

focus of the show lays on the medical treatment itself, with the character

developments and its diversity it is more like "channel surfing without pressing a

button, as scenarios and stories" develop "through the ER room"6. The other hybrid is

a hybridization of narrative structures between the series and the serial. Series has an

episodic7

format. Although the characters and settings are the same in each episode,

the story always finishes in each episode.

The advantage for the broadcaster and viewer simultaneously is that one can join in

watching it any time. Broadcasters can show repeats and the viewer does not have to

see the previous episodes to understand the present one. This happens with a serial.

The storyline is ongoing through several episodes up to a whole season. In the

beginning of each episode the viewer finds a short recap of what happened in

previous episodes. In the end of an episode the viewer is hooked through a cliff-

hanger to watch the next show in order to find out what will happen next. One can find

easily examples for serial such as long-running soaps like `Coronation Street′ and

`Murder she wrote′ for a series. To come back to our previous example, `ER′ is also a

hybrid of serial and series. Each episode has several plotlines of casualties which

conclude within the episode. This feature of the show obviously puts it in the tradition

of a series. `ER′ also deals with relationships between the pediatricians working at the

County General Hospital, which provides ongoing plots over several episodes and

even throughout seasons and creates so the continuity which is distinctive for a serial.

Over the last two decades, I would imply, the genre of television drama series went

through a specialization by broadcasters to match the interest of the audience.

Broadcasters created channels focusing on one particular genre only, for example, a

`sci-fi-channel′ or `crime-channel′. Therefore they can target a specific type of

5 Turner, Graeme (2001) Genre, Hybridity and Mutations, p. 6

6 Lewis, Jon E. And Stempel, Penny (1999)

The Ultimate TV Guide

, p. 120.

7 Epstein, Alex on http://complicationsensue.blogspot.com/2005/09/episodic-vs-serial.html, accessed 30.05.08

3