Television Books

Book SynopsisAlison Wielgus is Professor of Media Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, USA.

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Book SynopsisAre there degrees of coincidence? Is it poor hygiene to "double dip" a chip? Is it appropriate to say "God bless you" to a woman who sneezes if her husband does not? If you named a kid Rasputin, do you think that would have a negative effect on his life? For nine seasons, the Seinfeld gang engaged in argument and debate over such weighty matters of etiquette, leaving no stone unturned, no double-dipped chip ignored, no exposed nipple on a greeting card unexamined. But Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer were hardly the first to do this. In fact, they built their comedy around the sort of discussions we can find in the greatest collection of texts in the Jewish religion: The Babylonian Talmud. Like the eminent Rabbis of ancient Israel and Babylon, the Seinfeld gang spent their days poring over the excruciating minutiae of every single event imaginable. Seinfeld is the Jewish Talmud of a new generation. Thus does Jarrod Tanny bring you the The Seinfeld Talmud – Seinfeld as analyzed by the Sages of the Near East who gave us the illustrious Talmud, which, depending on whom you ask, is either the most comprehensive body of Jewish law ever produced or thousands of pages about nothing. This parodic take on Seinfeld through the lens of Jewishness will appeal to Seinfeld aficionados and anyone interested in the remarkable role Jewish culture has played in shaping American entertainment. Come join the masters of Judaic Law on their quest to master Seinfeld's domain.

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Book SynopsisIn this book, Eli Carter explores the ways in which the movement away from historically popular telenovelas toward new television and internet series is creating dramatic shifts in how Brazil imagines itself as a nation, especially within the context of an increasingly connected global mediascape. For more than half a century, South America's largest over-the-air network, TV Globo, produced long-form melodramatic serials that cultivated the notion of the urban, upper-middle-class white Brazilian. Carter looks at how the expansion of internet access, the popularity of web series, the rise of independent production companies, and new legislation not only challenged TV Globo's market domination but also began to change the face of Brazil's growing audiovisual landscape. Combining sociohistorical, economic, and legal contextualization with close readings of audiovisual productions, Carter argues that a fragmented media has opened the door to new voices and narratives that represent a more diverse Brazilian identity. A volume in the series Reframing Media, Technology, and Culture in Latin/o America, edited by Héctor Fernández L'Hoeste and Juan Carlos Rodríguez.

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Book SynopsisAn Open Access edition of this book is available on the Liverpool University Press website and through Knowledge Unlatched.Well-known in science fiction for tomb-raiding and mummy-wrangling, the archaeologist has been a rich source for imagining ‘strange new worlds’ from ‘strange old worlds.’ But more than a well-spring for SF scenarios, the genre’s archaeological imaginary invites us to consider the ideological implications of digging up the past buried in the future. A cultural study of an array of very popular, though often critically-neglected, North American SF film and television texts–running the gamut of telefilms, pseudo-documentaries, teen serial drama and Hollywood blockbusters–Excavating the Future explores the popular archaeological imagination and the political uses to which it is being employed by the U.S. state and its adversaries. By treating SF texts as documents of archaeological experience circulating within and between scientific and popular culture communities and media, Excavating the Future develops critical strategies for analyzing SF film and television’s critical and adaptive responses to post 9/11 geopolitical concerns about the war on terror, homeland security, the invasion and reconstruction of Iraq, and the ongoing fight against ISIS.Trade Review'[A] provocative and fastidiously researched monograph... Invoking such heavy-hitters as Roland Barthes, Jean Baudrillard, and Homi Bhabha, Excavating the Future is best for scholars or advanced students already acquainted with a fair amount of theory. Nevertheless, Malley maps rich territory at the intersection of literature, media studies, history, and geopolitics.'Pedro Ponce, SFRA Review'This volume should prove to be of interest not only to SF scholars but to film, television, and general popular-culture scholars as well...Not only does this study convey SF’s enormous potential for social influence and criticism, but it also captures the zeitgeist of the early 21st century, when we are poised at a unique time in history for unthinkable change.'James Hamby, Fafnir-Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy ResearchTable of ContentsIntroductionPart 1: Battling BabylonChapter 1: ManticoreChapter 2: Stargate SG-1Chapter 3: Transformers 2: Revenge of the FallenPart 2: Of Artifacts and Ancient AliensChapter 4: Ancient AliensChapter 5: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal SkullChapter 6: SmallvillePart 3: Cyborg SitesChapter 7: Battlestar GalacticaChapter 8: PrometheusEnvoyWorks CitedIndex

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Book SynopsisPeter Capaldi’s Doctor Who – unpredictable, embattled, mercurial - has raised many fresh issues for followers of the Time Lord. In this book, the first to address the Capaldi era in depth, international experts on the show explore Capaldi's portrayal of the Doctor, and Steven Moffat's role as show writer and executive producer. They evaluate the effect of Capaldi’s older age on the series’ pace and themes; his Scottishness and representations of Scotland in Doctor Who’s history, and the roles of the Doctor’s female companions, particularly Clara Oswald as played by Jenna Coleman. The politics of war are addressed, as is the development of the alien-fighting military organisation UNIT in the show, as well as controversial portrayals of the afterlife and of immortality. There’s discussion of promotional discourses, the imagining of the Twelfth Doctor in fan fiction and fan art, fan responses to the re-gendering of the Master as female, and of Christmas television and the uncanny. For fans, scholars and students alike, this book is a fitting tribute to and assessment of Peter Capaldi’s Doctor Who.Table of ContentsList of Figures Contributors Note on Terminology Acknowledgements Introduction, Andrew O’Day Part One: The Doctor and His Companions 1. A Young–Old Face: Out with the New and in with the Old in Doctor Who, Richard Hewett 2. ‘I’m Scottish … I can really complain about things now’: Discourses of Scotland and Scottishness in Doctor Who, Douglas McNaughton 3. Clara’s Choice: The Political Lunarscape of ‘Kill the Moon’, Sonia Michaels Part Two: Further Politics and Themes 4. A Good Man Goes to War? The Twelfth Doctor and the Politics of Conflict, Robin Bunce 5. ‘Chap with wings there, five rounds rapid’: UNIT and the Politics of Doctor Who, Eric Leuschner 6. Heaven Sent? The Afterlife, Immortality and Controversy in the Steven Moff at/Peter Capaldi Era, Andrew Crome 7. Comfort and Joy? The Steven Moffat/Peter Capaldi Christmas Specials, David Budgen Part Three: Promotional Discourses 8. ‘Please welcome the Twelfth Doctor’: The Paratextual Branding of Peter Capaldi’s Tenure, Matt Hills 9. The Transcultural Fan: Branding Series 8 of Doctor Who in the US, Paul Booth Part Four: Fandom 10. ‘Doctor Who belongs to all of us’: Fan Texts and Fans’ Imaginings of the Future Twelfth Doctor, Brigid Cherry 11. Hit or Miss? Fan Responses to the Regenderation of the Master, Dene October Appendix: Audience data List of Episodes: The Steven Moffat/Peter Capaldi era Index

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Book SynopsisAll is not well in the beautiful county of Midsomer. On the eve of its first Villages In Bloom competition, a man lies dead, smelling of damson jam. Who could have done it?Well, that's where you come in. Step into the shoes of Midsomer CID's newest recruit, choose your own path and decide which way the story goes.Will you get to the bottom of the mystery? Will you bring the perpetrator to justice? And perhaps most importantly of all, could you avoid an untimely, and possibly bizarre, death... will YOU survive Midsomer? Your task is to make the right choices, solve the case and - most tricky of all - stay alive!... Good luck.An official Midsomer Murders Interactive novel set in ITV's most celebrated and murderous county.

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Book SynopsisThis book argues that in addition to seismic shifts in social justice, Black Twitter's activism fueled a representation revolution in television. Sherri Williams explores how Black social TV -- a subset of Black Twitter -- successfully got shows blocked from airing, taken off the air, and even revived as a result of its digital activism.

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Book SynopsisTabassum Ruhi Khan is Associate Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at University of California, Riverside.

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