AMC's episodic drama Mad Men has become a cultural phenomenon, detailing America's preoccupation with commercialism and image in the Camelot of 1960s Kennedy-era America, while self-consciously exploring current preoccupations. The 12 critical essays in this collection offer a broad, interdisciplinary approach to this highly relevant television show, examining Mad Men as a cultural barometer for contemporary concerns with consumerism, capitalism and sexism. Topics include New Historicist parallels between the 1960s and the present day, psychoanalytical approaches to the show,...

American moviegoers have long turned to the Hollywood Western for reassurance in times of crisis. During the genre's heyday, the films of John Ford, Howard Hawks and Henry Hathaway reflected a grand patriotism that resonated with audiences at the end of World War II. The tried-and-true Western wasquestioned by Ford and George Stevens during the Cold War, and in the 1960s directors like Sam Peckinpah and George Roy Hill retooled the genre as a commentary on American ethics during the Vietnam War. Between the mid-1970s and early 1990s, the Western faded from view--until the Gulf War, when...

True Detective: Critical Essays on the HBO Series includes a breadth of scholarly chapters that cross disciplinary boundaries, interrogate a range of topics, and contribute to critical debates surrounding representations of gender, depictions of place, and narrative forms in the HBO series True Detective.

The BBC television series Downton Abbey (2010-2016) developed and produced by Academy Award winner Julian Fellowes, became a cultural barometer with American viewers harkening back to the days when televised serial dramas ruled the airwaves.