L’art du teaser : les séquences prégénériques dans quelques séries fantastiques américaines des années 1990 et 2000

摘要

The teaser or pre-credit sequence is key feature of seriality. Situated before the credits, it constitutes simultaneously an entry into the fiction, a return to the familiar fictional world, and an opening to something entirely new. Playing with codes and reprisal effects, the teaser is constructed as an autonomous entity and as a moment of articulation between a before and an after, both on the scale of the episode and on the scale of the series. Television series from the years 1990–2000 particularly developed this form to draw out all of its narrative, structural, and aesthetic possibilities. Genre series, and especially fantasy series, found teasers to be fertile ground for the elaboration of their own generic codes. The article will thus analyze several examples of pre-credit sequences, within the framework of American fantasy TV series from the years 1990–2000.