How to watch television PDF
Preview How to watch television
HOW TO WATCH TELEVISION User’s Guides to Popular Culture Founding Editors: Ethan Thompson and Jason Mittell Bringing together dozens of tightly focused original essays from today’s lead- ing scholars on popular culture, User’s Guides offer accessible, engaging cul- tural criticism across a host of media, past and present. Designed to engender classroom discussion by placing popular culture in broader social and cultural contexts, User’s Guides demonstrate how to meaningfully engage what we con- sume the most. How to Watch Television Edited by Ethan Thompson and Jason Mittell How to Play Video Games Edited by Matthew Thomas Payne and Nina B. Huntemann HOW TO WATCH TELEVISION SECOND EDITION EDITED BY ETHAN THOMPSON AND JASON MITTELL NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York www.nyupress.org © 2020 by New York University All rights reserved References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared. Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Thompson, Ethan, editor. | Mittell, Jason, editor. Title: How to watch television / edited by Ethan Thompson and Jason Mittell. Description: Second edition. | New York : New York University Press, 2020. | Series: How to | “This revised edition includes 22 new essays that expand the scope of the book in a number of ways. All of the new entries come from authors who were not in the first edition (except new chapters from the two editors) . . . . The 18 essays that remain from the first edition were some of the most successful pieces according to faculty and students who used the book, and cover many programs that still remain well- known years later. It was difficult removing the other essays from the original, as they all added important perspectives on a range of programs; thankfully, NYU Press has made all of these first edition essays available on their website so that readers can still access them”— Preface to the second edition. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019029653 | ISBN 9781479890637 (cloth) | ISBN 9781479898817 (paperback) | ISBN 9781479837441 (ebook) | ISBN 9781479890668 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Television programs— United States. | Television programs— Social aspects— United States. | Television programs— Political aspects— United States. Classification: LCC PN1992.3.U5 H79 2020 | DDC 791.45/70973— dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019029653New York University Press books are printed on acid- free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. We strive to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books. Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Also available as an ebook Contents Preface to the Second Edition ix Introduction: An Owner’s Manual for Television 1 Ethan Thompson and Jason Mittell Part I. TV Form: Aesthetics and Style 1. Better Call Saul: The Prestige Spinoff 13 Jason Mittell 2. Empire : Fashioning Blackness 23 Racquel Gates 3. House : Narrative Complexity 32 Amanda D. Lotz 4. Looking : Smartphone Aesthetics 41 Hunter Hargraves 5. Mad Men: Visual Style 51 Jeremy G. Butler 6. Nip/Tuck : Popular Music 61 Ben Aslinger 7. One Life to Live : Soap Opera Storytelling 70 Abigail De Kosnik 8. The Sopranos : Episodic Storytelling 79 Sean O’Sullivan Part II. TV Representation: Social Identity and Cultural Politics 9. 24 : Challenging Stereotypes 91 Evelyn Alsultany 10. Bala Loca : Producing Representations 99 David Miranda Hardy 11. Being Mary Jane : Cultural Specificity 108 Kristen J. Warner vi Contents 12. Buckwild : Performing Whiteness 117 Amanda Ann Klein 13. Glee/House Hunters International : Gay Narratives 126 Ron Becker 14. Grey’s Anatomy : Feminism 135 Elana Levine 15. Master of None : Negotiated Decoding 144 Ritesh Mehta 16. Orange Is the New Black : Intersectional Analysis 153 Mary Celeste Kearney Part III. TV Politics: Democracy, Nation, and the Public Interest 17. The Amazing Race : Global Othering 165 Jonathan Gray 18. America’s Next Top Model : Neoliberal Labor 174 Laurie Ouellette 19. East Los High : Televised Empowerment 183 Mary Beltrán 20. The Eurovision Song Contest : Queer Nationalism 193 Anikó Imre 21. Fox & Friends : Political Talk 203 Jeffrey P. Jones 22. Full Frontal with Samantha Bee : Feminist Comedy 213 Amber Day 23. The Hunt with John Walsh : True Crime Storytelling 221 Amanda Keeler 24. Parks and Recreation : The Cultural Forum 230 Heather Hendershot Part IV. TV Industry: Industrial Practices and Structures 25. The Ernie Kovacs Show : Historicizing Comedy 241 Ethan Thompson 26. Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life : TV Revivals 250 Myles McNutt 27. I Love Lucy : The Writer- Producer 260 Miranda J. Banks Contents vii 28. Modern Family : Product Placement 269 Kevin Sandler 29. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills : Franchising Femininity 278 Suzanne Leonard 30. Roseanne : Programming Flow 287 Taylor Cole Miller 31. Tales from the Crypt : Content Regulation 297 Luke Stadel 32. The Toy Box : Transmedia and Transgenerational Marketing 307 Derek Johnson Part V. TV Practices: Medium, Technology, and Everyday Life 33. Battlestar Galactica : Fans and Ancillary Content 319 Suzanne Scott 34. Everyday Italian : Cultivating Taste 329 Michael Z. Newman 35. Gossip Girl : Transmedia Technologies 337 Louisa Stein 36. High Maintenance and The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl : Indie TV 346 Aymar Jean Christian 37. Monty Python’s Flying Circus : Layered Comedy 355 Philip Scepanski 38. NFL Broadcasts: Interpretive Communities 363 Melissa A. Click, Holly Willson Holladay, and Amanda Nell Edgar 39. Pardon the Interruption : Sports Debate 372 Ethan Tussey 40. The Walking Dead : Adapting Comics 382 Henry Jenkins Acknowledgments 391 About the Contributors 393 Index 401 Preface to the Second Edition The first edition of this book emerged from an idea that Ethan Thompson pitched to Jason Mittell back in 2011. Thompson wrote that there is “a real need for essays that model for undergraduates how scholarly television criticism and intellectual inquiry works by focusing on a particular program in accessible language, apply- ing existing scholarship, and suggesting a way of looking at it— without neces- sarily trying to break new ground in television studies.” In academia, this was a fairly radical idea: publishing original scholarship whose primary audience was not other scholars but rather undergraduate students and other educated readers interested in learning more about media. The first edition of the book realized this idea through the support and editorial guidance of NYU Press, publishing forty essays, each analyzing an individual television program through accessible language and focused argumentation. Nearly a decade later, this approach is still unusual within academia, even though “public scholarship” has become more acceptable as an approach. But we were gratified by the reception of the book from a wide range of readers, especially students who seemed excited to use the essays as models for their own critical writ- ing and analysis. We were excited that colleagues in the related field of videogame studies were inspired to create a spinoff of sorts, publishing How to Play Video- games in 2019. And we were inspired to continue this approach by editing a second edition of the book, which we’ve been calling How to Watch MORE Television. This revised edition includes twenty- two new essays that expand the scope of the book in a number of ways. All of the new entries come from authors who were not in the first edition (except new essays from the two editors), mostly in- viting scholars early in their academic careers to the book. We sought out essays that explored ideas and topics that were missing from the first edition, includ- ing intersectionality, disability studies, and interpretive communities. We targeted analyses of programs that were more global in origin, and more broadly repre- senting various genres and industrial formations. The result is a more diverse, inclusive, and wide- ranging assortment of essays that we believe will speak to to- day’s students better than the first edition. The eighteen essays that remain from the first edition were some of the most successful pieces according to faculty and students who used the book, and cover ix
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