This article analyses the adaptation process from the Danish relationship drama television series ‘Nikolaj and Julie’ (2002–03) to Love Is a Four-Letter Word, the NBC pilot and remake attempt (2015). This comparison is a prime example of autobiographical adaptation, in which the adaptation process can be closely intertwined with a desire to tell autobiographical stories. Using production studies and textual analysis, the article illustrates how Diana Son, the showrunner responsible for adapting the original format into the NBC version, rewrote the original script using a location, themes and characters largely inspired by her personal life and surroundings. The article ultimately argues that in format adaptation, research combining established theoretical frameworks and approaches with the idea of autobiographical adaptation is likely to be a fruitful endeavour in a great many cases.

The abstract is published online only. If you did not include a short abstract for the online version when you submitted the manuscript, the first paragraph or the first 10 lines of the chapter will be displayed here. If possible, please provide us with an informative abstract.This chapter studies the ways in which Nordic noir classic Forbrydelsen (DR 2007(DR -2012 was remade in the USA as The Killing (AMC/Netflix 2011-2014). The chapter argues that looking to the production and especially the adapting showrunner on the remake provides perspectives that have been overlooked in existing research on this particular adaptation process, and that using such a strategy may be key in studying other television series remaking processes as well. Concretely looking to the adapting showrunner's experiences and preferences may explain changes from character to plot level, including shedding new light on what has been read as "American" obsessions with psychological explanations and culturally based hostility toward bad motherhood. KeywordsAdaptation Remake Showrunner Authorship Forbrydelsen 1✉ 1 26/03/2020 15.45 e.Proofing | Springer Side 2 af 21 https://eproofing.springer.com/books_v3/printpage.php?token=OFYMQPOcnq_7clwifNhUXE-ts_kfSIGP0_CSd1iN4EReZhUNNsULnj1lUzFmfhmVThe killing This chapter studies the ways in which the Nordic noir classic Forbrydelsen (DR 2007(DR -2012 was remade in the USA as The Killing (AMC/Netflix 2011-2014). As a form of adaptation, the remake depends on the engagement of a key creative practitioner, who sees in the material potential for translation that will address a new audience. This chapter argues that the role of the showrunner is a role in which such engagement is meaningful. But the showrunner and his or her vision have been overlooked in existing research on the television adaptation process. Close analysis of the adapting showrunner's experiences and preferences may illuminate salient textual changes between texts. In the adaptation of Forbrydelsen to The Killing, such analysis helps explain changes in character and plot, while shedding new light on what has been read as an "American" obsession with psychological explanations and culturally based hostility toward bad motherhood (Hellekson 2014;Akass 2015). Further, the methodology and interpretive approach employed here may be suggestive for the study of other remake processes.

Interrogating two transnational television dramas – Crossing Lines (2013, 2014, 2015, the first season) and The Team (2015, 2018, the second season) – and employing critical, textual and production perspectives, this article investigates representations of national and European identity in the series. In this article, I argue that the series on the one hand picture a diverse Europe uniting when challenges arise, embodying the dominant European narrative of ‘unity in diversity’ and, seen from a certain point of view, facilitate a mediated cultural encounter. On the other hand, the diversity depicted is based on the use of a wide range of well-known cultural stereotypes that may be familiar to the audience, and which may facilitate smooth storytelling, but that does little to broaden the actual cultural knowledge and understanding of the viewer, resulting in stereotypical diversity. The series have different strategies regarding representations of nation states, cultures and languages. The implications of these strategies are analysed. Common ground is often found in ‘American’ crime drama genre tropes associated with a team of often-antagonistic specialists who are put together to solve a problem, including such iconic US series as The A-Team (1983–87), the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation franchise (2000–15) and Scorpion (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017). The contribution ultimately finds that meaningful mediated cultural encounters are a challenge to transnational television drama, and that when it comes to television, ‘European’ and ‘transnational’ means little without ‘national’.

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