The darkly comic series about the secret lives of Bree, Gabrielle, Lynette, Susan and the other ladies living on Wisteria Lane became an instant breakthrough hit when it premiered in the fall of 2004. Reading Desperate Housewives offers a wide-ranging critical assessment of one of the most talked about shows on American television, dissecting its appeal and tapping into early responses to the show and the controversy surrounding it. Essays consider such diverse issues as its representation of the war of the sexes and how it illuminates contemporary feminism, Republican politics and the...

HBO's hit series Sex and the City has a huge international fan base and has picked up major awards. This highly readable critical celebration of the life and times of Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha looks at the series as a new departure for television. It discusses the show's position in an increasingly complex television landscape, and pioneers innovative approaches to the study of contemporary television culture. The book explores, among many other issues, female fandom and fan culture; fashion and fashion journalism; male archetypes and the search for Mr. Right; third wave...

Praised for its unabashed portrait of the ""death care"" industry, HBO's Six Feet Under is less about the business of death than the art of living well. Created by the Oscar winner Alan Ball (American Beauty), this innovative, controversial show charts difficult territory--from death, dying and bereavement, to female and gay sexualities, to family obligation and relationships--laying bare in the process an American cultural consciousness. This book examines such predominant themes as the dead body, magic realism and the grotesque, American cultural politics, family...