{"id":189,"date":"2012-01-27T12:46:12","date_gmt":"2012-01-27T17:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/?p=189"},"modified":"2012-01-27T12:46:12","modified_gmt":"2012-01-27T17:46:12","slug":"a-culture-of-non-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/?p=189","title":{"rendered":"A culture of non-camp"},"content":{"rendered":"

I said in class on Wednesday that I don’t think Doctor Who <\/em>would fly on American TV, especially American network TV. I had a hard time putting a finger on exactly why I thought that was, but I think an important element of it is the tone of the show.<\/p>\n

The tone of Doctor Who <\/em>is hard to put a nail on precisely as it tends to be quite mercurial from episode to episode. However, I think the show does an excellent job of mixing camp, grit and sentimentality to create a compelling story, well-developed characters and a vast range of narrative options. \u201cBlink\u201d and \u201cVincent and the Doctor\u201d may not be the best examples of it, but any show that centers its action on fighting aliens and other extraterrestrial creatures has a serious element of camp to it. This is likely greatly rooted in the series\u2019 history as a children\u2019s or family TV show, but even now in its more sophisticated form, a viewer must buy in completely to the conceit that these bizarre aliens exist and that the Doctor must always defeat them, without ever killing them.<\/p>\n

In America, that would work fine on a show strictly designed to entertain children. But add in the great and, one could argue, horror of an episode like \u201cBlink\u201d or the truly moving emotional arc of \u201cVincent and the Doctor\u201d and suddenly, Doctor Who <\/em>isn\u2019t just playing for one target audience anymore.<\/p>\n

I think it was Prof. Becker who said that American TV is much more niched than a show like Doctor Who<\/em> is.<\/p>\n

But even more than breaking the niche, I think most American audiences would have a hard time connecting with the camp of Doctor Who<\/em>. When we have campy shows aimed at adults, we Archer<\/em>, Arrested Development <\/em>or maybe even It\u2019s Always Sunny<\/em> \u2013 campy but always cynical.<\/p>\n

Doctor Who<\/em>, on the other hand, asks the viewer to accept camp in order to be about something really good<\/em>, be it the goodness of humanity or a heartfelt message about the uselessness of violence.<\/p>\n

I think part of the reason I really like Doctor Who <\/em>is because of just that \u2013 it\u2019s a really compelling, well-made TV series that remains endlessly positive and makes one appreciate humanity rather than rolling eyes at it. And there really isn\u2019t anything like that on American TV right now.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I said in class on Wednesday that I don’t think Doctor Who would fly on American TV, especially American network TV. I had a hard time putting a finger on exactly why I thought that was, but I think an … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":559,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/559"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=189"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":190,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions\/190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/yankswatchingtelly\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}