Works of Shonda Rhimes

Anna Weinstein is on the screenwriting faculty at Kennesaw State University, USA. She is Series Editor of the SCREEN STORYTELLERS book series and PERFORM: Succeeding as a Creative Professional book series. She is the author of Writing Women for Film & Television: A Guide to Creating Complex Female Characters (2023) and editor of Writing for the Screen (2017) and Directing for the Screen (2017).

• Preface: The Influence of ScreenwritersAcknowledgementsIntroduction: The Influence of Shonda RhimesAnna Weinstein (Kennesaw State University, USA)PART I: HOW SHE WORKS: Creating Television Series1. Scandal as a New Series ModelWilliam Rabkin (University of California, Riverside-Palm Desert, USA)2. The Art of Developing “Humanistic” Female CharactersRosanne Welch (Stephens College, USA)3. Crafting the Pilot: Someone ArrivesRani Deighe Crowe (Ball State University, USA)PART II: SIGNIFICANT WORKS: Normalizing Diverse Representation4. Color Aware CastingChriss Williams (William Paterson University, USA)5. Black Maternal Bodies on the Screen: Shondaland and the New Representational Paradigm of Black MotherhoodZsuzsanna Lénárt-Muszka (University of Debrecen, Hungary)6. Reworking the “Monstrous Mother” for the Modern EraLouise Coopey (Independent Scholar, UK)7. Respectability in Shondaland: Villainous QueeringsSébastien Mignot (University of Caen Normandy, France)8. From Family Shame to Doctor’s Pride: Shifting Trans Narratives on Grey’s AnatomyKara Raphaeli (Simpson College, USA)9. Restorative vs. Retributive Justice: Themes from How to Get Away with MurderSara Correia-Hopkins (Swansea University, UK), Cate Correia-Hopkins (Independent Scholar, UK)10. Hidden Fantastic Modalities of Shonda Rhimes’s Procedural DramasIda Yoshinaga (Georgia Tech, USA)11. Bridgerton: The Progressive Period PasticheShelley Anne Galpin (King’s College London, UK)PART III: RECENT WORKS: Building Shondaland 12. Ensemble Storytelling in How to Get Away with MurderE. Deidre Pribram (Molloy University, USA)13. Streaming Shondaland: Shonda Rhimes and Netflix—From Bridgerton and BeyondSheri Chinen Biesen (Rowan University, USA)14. Hey, Peloton! Say Yes!Stephanie O’Brien (University of North Carolina Asheville, USA)List of ContributorsBibliographyIndex

What a great collection to start the Screen Storytellers series. Anna Weinstein has pulled together an exciting and refreshing look at the role of the television series creator and writer, in this case with a focus on the ground-breaking Shonda Rhimes. What this book, indeed the whole series, does is reinforce the crucial role played by the television creator or writer, not only in an industry context but also for what they do for culture and society. This book and its wider series is a positive step forward in the global development of screenwriting studies.