Novas nuances na comédia seriada contemporânea: tristeza, complexidade e qualidade na televisão

Abstract

This research investigates the contemporary phenomenon of the so-called "sad comedy," an emerging category within English-language serialized comedy, characterized by elements of melancholy, emotional depth, and narrative complexity. The main objective is to understand the socio-historical conditions that enabled the rise of sad serialized comedy and the elements that define it in terms of style, tone, and narrative. The study begins with a historical contextualization of television, from the network era to the age of streaming (Lotz, 2007), and explores how technological changes, audience fragmentation, and the discourse of television quality contributed to the emergence of these works. Series such as The Bear, Barry, Fleabag, among others in the corpus, are analyzed using the methodology proposed by Borges et al. (2022), focusing on the creative process—namely, content level, expression level, and audiovisual message—highlighting genre hybridity and a tragicomic construction that challenges the boundaries between tragedy and comedy. By examining the protagonist’s arc, plot structure, style, and tone, the research also distinguishes sad comedy from traditional sitcoms and dramedies, emphasizing the intensity of trauma as a key marker. Concepts such as quality humor (Borges, 2014, 2015; Borges, Perobelli, Lima, 2016) and the discourse of cultural distinction (Bourdieu, 2008) are central to understanding how these shows gain legitimacy and audience engagement. The role of television genre in this context is also addressed (Bakhtin, 1997; Fechine, 2001; Machado, 2001, 2005; Gomes, 2011), as well as tragicomic influence (Costa, 2007; Cardoso, 2008) and narrative complexity (Mittell, 2012; 2015). Ultimately, the research concludes that sad comedy constitutes a contemporary television phenomenon that integrates social, historical, and aesthetic elements to portray the subjective dilemmas of our time. These narratives feature non-heroic, fragile, and introspective protagonists dealing with trauma, failure, and feelings of inadequacy. Historically, sad comedy emerges as a reaction against the traditional sitcom and the dramedy, breaking away from closed structures and escapist humor to offer hybrid, denser, and emotionally ambiguous narratives—conditions enabled by the streaming environment. The humor is not light or comforting, but rather stems from discomfort, relief, and moral contradictions, prompting reflection. With frequent use of metalinguistic devices, irony, and intertextuality, these series construct a sophisticated narrative experience in which comedy becomes a mirror of contemporary ways of feeling and being. The research also discusses the implications of this phenomenon in contemporary Brazilian television, marked by a decline in serialized comedies on broadcast TV and the rise of hybrid series on video-on-demand platforms.