Enquêteurs (non) familiers : Qui mène les enquêtes dans les séries télévisées égyptiennes ?

Abstract

The chapter analyses the ubiquitous presence of crime investigations in contemporary Egyptian television drama, away from genre definitions of crime drama. By focusing on who conducts these investigations, the chapter maps the typologies of investigators on the small screen. The ‘conventional’ investigators of global crime drama are an extremely rare occurrence on Egyptian television, and even when they exist in the original work they tend to be marginalised in the adaptation. A host of ordinary citizens, on the contrary, are extremely busy carrying out investigations on the Egyptian small screen. The chapter considers the struggles that these ‘non-conventional’ investigators encounter, and what expectations these representations may generate in viewers.