Half Movie, Half Concept Serial Television as a Janus-Faced Medium

The article argues that the medium of serial television has the same matter as the medium of film, namely, moving images, but it does not have the same form, understood as the principle governing both the artist's manipulation of the matter and the audience's appreciation of the manipulated matter. It is argued that the medium of serial television shares with conceptual art a form that calls attention to underlying concepts whereby displays and episodes are constructed in conceptual art and serial television respectively. One might object that the episodes of a TV series, unlike the displays of a work of conceptual art, are ordered in a way that suggests that we should appreciate them as a whole narrative. The article replies that this does not prevent concept of a TV series from being the focus of appreciation but rather makes serial television conceptual in a peculiar way.