Multiverse

Popular culture abhors a vacuum. In times of globalization and the reign of social media, each branch of popculture becomes an element of a larger ecosystem, in which distinctive fields diffuse, influencing each other. Modern TV shows are a part of such a wider universe, multiverse really: a realm, in which different media and inspirations, including video games, podcasts, anime, graphic novels, cartoons, books, press articles, twitter threads and feature films merge into one. Without the multiverse there would be no “The Last of Us”, “Andor” or “Game of Thrones”, TV shows that were extremely creative in its approach to the source material. On the other hand, a lot of works of popular culture would not exist if it wasn’t for the TV series that came first. In this section of our Festival we will have a look at the multiverse history, with its spin-offs, reboots and remakes, as well as at popular literary adaptations that became global hits. We will talk TV related phenomena, such as: binge watching, hate watching, fandoms and cancel culture, and the role of an audience member as both a recipient and the most ruthless TV critic. We will discuss various genres and their evolution and the newest TV trends and phenomena.