Drawing worldwide acclaim from critics and audiences alike, programmes like The Killing, Borgen, The Bridge and The Legacy demonstrate widespread fascination with Danish style, aesthetics and culture as seen through television narratives. This book uses familiar, alongside lesser known, case studies of drama series to demonstrate how the particular features of Danish production - from work cultures, to storytelling techniques and trans-national cooperation - have enhanced contemporary Danish drama's appeal both at home and abroad. The era of globalisation has blurred national and international television cultures and promoted regular cross-fertilisation between film and television industries. Important questions have emerged from this context surrounding, for example, the 'Americanisation' of foreign television formats, the meaning and practice behind the term 'quality television', and the purpose and efficacy of public service broadcasting. Beyond the Bridge tackles these issues in relation to Danish television, by examining the so-called 'scaffolded production processes' behind the making of quality serials and their thought-provoking content. Drawing on popular motifs from these celebrated dramas such as foreign politics, organised crime, global warming, and the impact of multinational corporations, this timely book provides crucial insight into the Danish dramas at the forefront of sophisticated, forward-thinking, fictional television.

Drawing worldwide acclaim from critics and audiences alike, programmes like The Killing, Borgen, The Bridge and The Legacy demonstrate widespread fascination with Danish style, aesthetics and culture as seen through television narratives. This book uses familiar, alongside lesser known, case studies of drama series to demonstrate how the particular features of Danish production - from work cultures, to storytelling techniques and trans-national cooperation - have enhanced contemporary Danish drama's appeal both at home and abroad. The era of globalisation has blurred national and international television cultures and promoted regular cross-fertilisation between film and television industries. Important questions have emerged from this context surrounding, for example, the 'Americanisation' of foreign television formats, the meaning and practice behind the term 'quality television', and the purpose and efficacy of public service broadcasting. Beyond the Bridge tackles these issues in relation to Danish television, by examining the so-called 'scaffolded production processes' behind the making of quality serials and their thought-provoking content. Drawing on popular motifs from these celebrated dramas such as foreign politics, organised crime, global warming, and the impact of multinational corporations, this timely book provides crucial insight into the Danish dramas at the forefront of sophisticated, forward-thinking, fictional television.

Sometimes, basic questions must be raised, and this is what this book does: What do we understand by a "medium"? How do we observe "communication"? What does it mean to say that communication is mediated? How should we interpret the idea of immediacy? The background for raising these questions is this important book which was published by Jay Bolter and Richard Grusin in 1999. Although it was published only a few years ago, revisions -- or, at least, reconsiderations -- already seem to be needed. The chapters represent a wide spectrum of different cases and media -- from television to computer, film and mobile phone. The main effort of the book is to put concepts like hypermediacy, immediacy, remediation, communication and the desire for the real into debate and practice. In nine articles, the last one written by Bolter himself, the writers are discussing and reconsidering these fundamental concepts.