Television Drama in Spain and Latin America

Television Drama in Spain and Latin America addresses two major topics within current cultural, media, and television studies: the question of fictional genres and that of transnational circulation. While much research has been carried out on both TV formats and remakes in the English-speaking world, almost nothing has been published on the huge and dynamic Spanish-speaking sector. This book discusses and analyses series since 2000 from Spain (in both Spanish and Catalan), Mexico, Venezuela, and (to a lesser extent) the US, employing both empirical research on production and distribution and textual analysis of content. The three genres examined are horror, biographical series, and sports-themed dramas; the three examples of format remakes are of a period mystery (Spain, Mexico), a romantic comedy (Venezuela, US), and a historical epic (Catalonia, Spain).

Paul Julian Smith is Distinguished Professor at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. He was previously Professor of Spanish at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of twenty books and one hundred academic articles.

This work is an entertaining and engaging piece suitable for both television experts and fans, as well as non-expert readers in search of high-quality drama series. The cultural analyses Smith provides, along with material on the distribution and production of the series, make this work a valuable aid to understanding not only the complexities behind television’s markets but the cultural idiosyncrasies determining them. It gives the reader an informed and interesting panorama of local politics and cultures in Mexico, Venezuela and Spain that are reflected in their drama fiction.  (Critical Studies in Television)