Television serials typically come to us in one of three forms: the sequential narrative, such as The Crown or Mad Men; the anthology, such as Black Mirror or The Twilight Zone; or the episodic narrative, such as Jeeves and Wooster or Steptoe and Son.
The anthology offers a different story, with a different cast, each week; the episodic narrative features the same cast of characters, but engaged in a different adventure, one often not causally connected to the events of the previous episode. Bertie gets into a new mess each week, only to be eventually and ingeniously extricated by Jeeves by the end of the day.
Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month
Content from our partners
