Towards an historical-cultural contextualization of "Brigada Central" (TVE 1: 1989): reading the Spanish transition to democracy in quality television drama and detective genre

Abstract

The present paper is an introduction to the historical and cultural context of the Spanish TVseries Brigada Central (TVE 1: 1989). The three main aims of this article are, firstly, to analysethe series according to the characteristics of quality television drama (Thompson, 1996);secondly, to examine the image of the police in the social context of the period and toplace the series within the historical production of the detective genre in Spanish television;and finally, to study how ethnic, geographic and social identities are represented in thisfiction and to establish the links between the series and the Post- Franco Era.

A qualitative methodology based on textual analysis will be used in this paper. Besides, wewill use a model of data reading close to Cultural Studies academic field in order tocontextualize the object of study.

This analysis of Brigada Central highlights that the series is a precursory quality televisiondrama in Spain that followed the trail of Hill Street Blues (NBC: 1981-87). It also has asceptical look at Spanish police, which wouldn’t be changed until late nineties. Finally, weconclude that the series represents somehow the so-called disillusion with the SpanishDemocratic Transition, which can be seen singularly in Inspector Flores’ character arc.