Psychoanalytic Seriality as Media Theory: From Freud's Couch to Yours

Abstract

It might pass as either a trite or trivializing observation to say that serial narratives cause trauma. The fact of the matter is, they do. At the time of this writing, one need only to think back at the audience uproar that the final season of HBO’s Game of Thrones incurred.1 In fact, to celebrate the series’ 10th Anniversary, HBO released a trailer celebrating its divisive eighth season. The initial announcement and release of the trailer was covered by The Hollywood Reporter , which had to shut down the comments section within 24 hours as the two-minute summary clip “seem[s] to have re-traumatized fans” who, again, demanded HBO remake the final season of the hugely popular show.2 Viewed this way, the series finale to Game of Thrones is less a definitive conclusion and more the designated site of an opened wound