In order to interrogate patterns of seasonal television, this article looks at Halloween themed episodes of long-running American crime television programmes such as CSI, Bones and, in particular, Criminal Minds. It argues that Halloween on crime TV is predictably transgressive – offering conventional fantasies of masquerade and consumption, rather than subversive challenges to the genre’s status quo. On crime television, Halloween has harnessed the logic of the urban legend to present nostalgic visions of a festival which has become fundamentally televisual in nature. The thematic underpinnings of this televisual holiday are anxieties around children in public space and the ritual re-imagining of the risks they face when celebrating Halloween.
Steenberg, Lindsay
Faculty of Technology, Design and Environment\School of Arts
Year of publication: 2017Date of RADAR deposit: 2016-11-15