How to watch television

417 Pages·2020·5.14 MB·English

by  Ethan Thompson (editor), Jason Mittell (editor)

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