Miniseries topics reflect what’s on the audience’s mind

Miniseries are neat little windows into peoples’ current areas of interest. Because of their limited-episode format, they serve as bite-sized pieces of a bigger culture showing both what people want to seeand what’s going on in the world around them. 

The Los Angeles Times reports "visceral and at times frightening narratives ... running through our popular culture," and miniseries are just the place to find those narratives. According to the Emmys website, “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” won the Emmy for Outstanding Limited Series this year.  Other nominees included

• ·      “The Night Manager,”
• ·      “Roots,”
• ·      “Fargo”
• ·      “American Crime”

were the other nominees. Interestingly enough, out of the five miniseries listed, four are crime-based – mirroring the fact that police brutality and the unrest surrounding it are currently at the forefront of news.

In 2008, the Emmy nominees  were

• ·      “John Adams”
• ·      “The Andromeda Strain”
• ·      “Cranford”
• ·      “The Tin Man”

with “John Adams” taking home the award. Two of these were sci-fi, while two were historical dramas. Sci-fi especially is often considered “escapist fiction,” and 2008, not coincidentally, was when the U.S. recession got particularly ugly – according to The State of Working America, the U.S. labor market lost 8.4 million jobs between 2008 and 2009.

Going back a bit farther, nominees in 2000 were

• ·      “Arabian Nights,”
• ·      “Jesus,”
• ·      “P.T. Barnum,”
• ·      “The Beach Boys: An American Family”
• ·      and the winner “The Corner.”

Post-9/11, winners became more military-focused, such as “Band of Brothers” in 2002 and “Steven Spielberg Presents Taken” in 2003.

These obviously aren't the only examples - or the only years where national interest was reflected in the Emmy winner. But it's interesting to see how trends change as national attitudes shift.

by Megan Garnache