To what extent has Chris Bracanto impacted longform television in recent years?
Chris Bracanto is an American screenwriter and producer having worked on a number of popular TV series’ in the last couple of decades such as “X Files” and “The Godfather of Harlem”, it is however his work on the TV series “Narcos” that I believe has had a significant impact on longform television and especially drama in this era of streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. I also believe his interesting take on historical “period pieces” and mixture of archive and reconstruction will define the genre for years to come.
Modern day television has had a drastic shift in the last ten years as a result of the explosion of streaming services like Netflix, needing to be more palatable to the masses to “binge” on. Writers and producers like Chris Bracanto have noticed this shift and have tailored their projects accordingly and I believe that “Narcos” is a mark of this shift and is a sign to other writers and directors on how it should be done as the hour long episodes play out as if they were short films with one overriding plot. This technique is engaging audience on a higher level than any film and this engagement is leading viewers to commit themselves to ten-episode series’. One of the main ways this audience engagement is derived is through the unique use of archive footage alongside the true story the show is based on. Archive footage is a powerful tool to remind the viewer of the gravitas of the situations the characters find themselves in as they are often gory
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