‘Remembering What Will Be’: Prolepsis, Pre-sales, and Premediation in TVIII

Abstract

This chapter argues that in addition to transmedia expansion, temporal complexity can also be linked to the rise of transnational programming practices. To illustrate this point, it describes how major network series such as FlashForward and The Event, as well as original programmes produced for streaming services such as Sense8, are increasingly designed and pitched in order appeal to a global marketplace. While this form of global event television may imply a sense of temporal synchronicity (specifically in terms of distribution), this isn’t necessarily the case when it comes to narrative design. In relation to FlashForward, this chapter demonstrates how the series’ proleptic narrative format parallels the television industry’s own preoccupation with anticipating the future—in this instance, through foreign pre-sales as well as a more immediate anxiety around viewer inertia that manifests itself in the constant bombardment of bugs, watermarks and previews that characterise broadcast television. Finally, rather than portray temporal complexity as a mere consequence of technological (or industrial) determinism, this chapter situates this narrative mode in relation to television’s increasing tendency toward ‘premediation’ (Grusin 2004) since the events of 9/11.(Grusin in JCritic. 46:17–39, 2004)