Television: The Medium of Infinite Possibilities by Dylan Trumble

A significant and compelling way we know and understand the medium of television is through the concept of infinity. Television’s infinite nature is two-fold: one is its form or structure and the other is its content. The infinity of television’s structure has to do with the quantity of programming on television. A seemingly infinite megatext of programming offers us infinite choice. The television guide magazine and its attempt to condense nearly all of these different choices into one physical text is an illuminating illustration of the infinity of televisual form. In her essay, “Guided by TV” Lynne Joyrich acknowledges television’s infinite form: “In its attempt to provide an exhaustive account of an inexhaustive medium, TV Guide makes a simple yet impossible promise” (216). On the other hand, content on television—that is television’s narrative forms—has different infinite qualities. An examination of current television programming shows that when combined with the concept of infinite choice, television’s infinite narrative reveals to us a specific knowledge—or a specific means of knowing and comprehending existence. Through its infinite nature television provides us with the potential for realizing forking possibilities—different circumstances, different outcomes—and therefore infinite lives and existences which television helps us visually and intuitively comprehend.

Looking closer at the concept of infinity we may recall Levinas’ definition for infinity from his essay “Infinity.” The definition contains two parts. The first part deals with quantity and is essential to the concept of television’s infinite form: “It is appropriate…to the number of series, none of which is the greatest—quanta making up a series” (53). The second part of Levinas’ definition is extremely relevant to the notion that the narrative of television is infinite. It states that the infinite is continuous and does not end or have interruptions: “But the term infinite is also appropriate to magnitudes of continuity—to extensive or intensive quanta continua” (53). The television serial has the capacity to express ongoing life—beyond the screen, beyond our visual interaction with the narrative. The idea of story and discourse developed by Margaret Morse in her essay, “An Ontology of Everyday Distraction: The Freeway, the Mall, and Television” is also helpful for understanding the concept of an infinite television narrative. The story of a television program is what is being told or what is happening. The discourse is what makes the different elements of the program seem homogenous, it is how something is being told. According to Morse, television “offers the road in the midst of idyll, reconstituting a virtual world of face-to-face relationships shared between viewer and television personalities displaced or teleported from elsewhere in the process, a fiction of the paramount reality of discourse. Thus discourse or represented acts of enunciation can be understood as a container for both the viewer and the personalities of television which provides protection from a world thereby constituted as beyond or elsewhere” (205). The story is separate from the discourse, which is television itself, and is therefore infinite. Story and discourse in combination with Levinas’ second definition for infinity form a definition for the infinite televisual narrative. A televisual narrative is infinite if the story of the narrative program is continuous, unbroken, and unlimited and the story gives us the belief that it exists separate from the discourse, from how the story is being told.

That 70's Show: "That 70's Finale"

The television series That 70’s Show allows us to examine an instance where the story can be experienced as separate from the discourse. This program is an example of episodic telefilm discussed by Jeffrey Scone is his essay, “What if? Charting Televisions New Textual Boundaries.” This particular narrative form of television involves a familiar cast of characters, the same standing set, and recognizable quirks. Upon its inception, episodic telefilm increased syndication of television episodes because it made sporadic viewing possible. The notion of sporadic viewing suggests that the lives of the teenagers from That 70’s Show continue even when we are not around to watch them. When we stop in to view we encounter the characters going about their daily lives. According to Sconce these types of programs “orchestrate a strong and complex sense of community while also leaving a certain diegetic fringe available for textual elaboration.” The separation of story and discourse, and the ability for textual elaboration, suggests the televisual narrative is continuous and therefore infinite. The specific clip I have included from That 70’s Show is a part of the final episode aired entitled “That 70’s Finale.” It is an example of the “circle” scene that has become synonymous with this program. The teenagers sit in a circle in Eric Foreman's basement and discuss things that are happening in the episode. The camera spins in a circle and each character speaks directly into the camera. Both the camera work and the conversation between the characters in this sequence reinforce the idea of an infinite story separate from the discourse. The camera spinning in a circle is a metaphor for continuity, and even though this is the final episode the character Michael Kelso states, “It’s like we never run out of things to talk about down here” which gives us the feeling that they probably never will. The scene ends with a count down to New Years—a new year, new things to come—which again gives us the idea that even though no new episodes of this program will be written the story will continue. The possibilities for the story, then, are endless and infinite, too.

Entourage: "Return to Queen's Boulevard"

Another example of a television program with a story that is continuous and able to exist separate from the discourse is the HBO serial program Entourage. Entourage follows the life of fictitious movie star Vincent Chase and his three closest friends. Through this program we get to participate in the excitement, envy, and glamour of living in Hollywood with a movie star. I have selected a clip from “Return to Queens Boulevard”, the fifth season finale that offers a revealing look at how the highs and lows of a television drama can create continuity in the story and thus the impression of an infinite televisual narrative. In season five Vince has been down on his luck—he is out of the limelight, his most recent movie was terrible, and his career is struggling. Naturally we share the pain and disappointment he has been going through. In this particular clip Vince is at home in Queens, NY for a vacation when he gets a surprise visit from his agent Ari Gold. Ari puts Vince on the phone with the famous director Martin Scorese who offers Vince a part in his new movie. Immediately the feeling of the season goes from sorrow to excitement. We cannot wait to join Vince and the “entourage” on their new promising adventures in Hollywood. Towards the end of the clip (3 minutes, 26 seconds), Vince’s agent Ari asks the main characters: “Are you guys ready for what’s coming? It’s going to be big!” In this instance it almost seems like Ari is speaking directly to the audience. This works to continue the build up of excitement and support the continuous nature of this story.

Entourage also has what one could characterize as a cult following even though it is not the same type of following as those associated with traditional fiction-fantasy cult series such as Star Trek. Everyone wants to be a movie star and participate in the everyday life of Vincent Chase. This desire gives life to the story and has the potential to separate it from the discourse, that is, the story can live beyond the screen (much like the stories in cult shows do in fan literature that expand the story beyond the boundaries of the discourse). In her essay, “The Sex Lives of Cult Television Characters,” Sara Gwenllian Jones suggests that “Fictional worlds are inherently incomplete and the metaverses of cult television series always extend far beyond what is visible on the screen at any given moment of in any given episode” (85). Our desire to take part in this show and live with these characters separates the story from the discourse and creates the continuity that exemplifies or incites its infinite nature.

Malcolm in the Middle: "Bowling" (Clip 1)

I would like to look at one additional television example before coming to a conclusion about the knowledge that we are presented with as a result of the infinity of television's narrative content. Malcolm in the Middle follows the main character Malcolm and his family of six through their daily lives. I have chosen to examine two separate

clips from the episode “Bowling.” In this episode Malcolm and his older brother Reese are going bowling. The episode is unique because it follows two separate plot lines or realities, one where their father takes them bowling and one where their mother does. The events that transpire twist, turn, and overlap leading to an unexpected outcome. In the first clip Malcolm and Reese ask which of their parents can drive them to the bowling alley, and this is where the alternate realities or stories begin. The screen splits into two frames which illustrates the two different paths that the episode takes. It becomes immediately obvious that this is going to be a drastically different experience with each parent.

Malcolm in the Middle: "Bowling" (Clip 2)

The second clip is from the conclusion of the episode. The screen is once again split as Malcolm and Reese return home from the bowling alley after a much different experience with each parent. The episode concludes with Malcolm’s parents saying simultaneously, “Next time, you take them!” The initial story diverged into two paths that was illustrated in a unique way only the discourse of television could perform and in the end both of these paths managed to converge on the same final conclusion. This illustrates the infinite possibilities of one infinite story behind the single discourse. Jorge Luis Borges writes about this phenomenon in “The Garden of Forking Paths”: “The Garden of Forking Paths is an incomplete, but not false, image of the universe as Ts’ui Pen conceived it. In contrast to Newton and Schopenhauer your ancestor did not believe in a uniform, absolute time. He believed in an infinite series of times, in a growing, dizzying net of divergent, convergent and parallel times” (61).

Through television an infinite quantity of choice has confronted us. An infinite quantity of infinite narrative stories then reveals to us television’s truly infinite nature. Through this we can then gain an understanding of our desire for possibilities and its role in our lives. Possibilism is based on the philosophical idea “modal realism” which holds that all possible worlds other than our own exist—similarly to television’s ability to create all possible worlds as real worlds. Borges suggests, “This network of times which approached one another, forked, broke off, or were unaware of one another for centuries, embraces all possibilities of time” (62). Television makes it possible to experience different worlds other than our own and television continually supports our belief that our life could take any of a variety of different paths.