Serial Television focuses on contemporary television drama, offering detailed accounts of hugely popular, influential and ground-breaking shows such as The Sopranos, Queer as Folk, Sex and the City, Twin Peaks, This Life, Prime Suspect, Cold Lazarus, The Kingdom, Holocaust, Heimat and Roots. The author argues that the demise of the single play has not meant the end of original, challenging and innovative television drama. Instead, he seeks to reveal how contemporary television drama is frequently more complex, radical and multi-layered than its historical predecessors. In particular, the book examines how serial dramas have breathed new life into representations of gender politics and refreshed genre formats while also re-considering trends such as ‘Art Television’, ‘Soap Drama’ and the power of the historical mini-series. The author gives a lucid and revealing account of some of the most watched, revered and original drama to come out of television in the last thirty years.