Kategoria BISAC: Performing Arts >> Television - History & Criticism

Joss Whedon's Firefly is one of the most popular TV shows ever. Serenity was the wildly successful follow-up to the series. Here is a definitive guide to the series and the movie, offering an in-depth and comprehensive look at the TV phenomenon kept alive by the fans.

The brain child of Joss Whedon--of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel fame--Firefly ran for twelve hour-long episodes before being cancelled by the network. But this premature burial had a remarkable outcome: resurrection. The fans--self-named Browncoats--kept multiplying, the DVDs...

This is a radical book, which brings together the fields of political theory and television studies. In one of the first books to do so, Samuel A. Chambers exposes and explores the cultural politics of television by treating television shows--including Six Feet Under, Buffy, Desperate Housewives, The L Word, and Big Love--as serious, important texts and reading them in detail through the lens of queer theory.

Samuel A. Chambers makes the case for the profound significance of ""the cultural politics of television,"" the way in which a television...

Little Britain arrived on British TV in 2003 -- and was an instant hit. Matt Lucas and David Walliams wrote and performed, and their sharp satirical genius created this character-based sketch show -- Vicky Pollard, Dafydd ""I'm the only gay in the village,"" Ting Tong Macadangdang are hard to forget. Its huge popularity as cult-comedy on radio, then television, with its success as mainstream award-winning comedy and as a national and international TV phenomenon, have been tempered by criticism. It's pushed the boundaries of taste too far, some have claimed; it's grotesquely...

Quite simply, Last of the Summer Wine is the longest-running comedy programme in the world. It premiered 37 years ago, in 1973, and, after 31 series it finally came to an end last year - even though all its original protagonists - Compo, Foggy, even Nora Batty - are now dead.

Remarkably, for a series of such longevity and international appeal, it is all about elderly people, has little action or plot, and is set and filmed in and around the small Yorkshire town of Holmfirth.

Now, Andrew Vine, the deputy editor of Yorkshire's daily newspaper, has written the...

Before Saturday March 26th 2005, Doctor Who had been off the air as a regular, new TV series for more than fifteen years; until a production team led by Russell T. Davies re-imagined the program so successfully, so triumphantly, that it's become an instant Christmas tradition, a BAFTA winner, an international ""superbrand"" and a number one rated show. It's even been credited with reinventing family TV. This is the first full-length book to explore the ""new Who"" phenomenon through to the casting of Matt Smith as the new Doctor. It explores ""Doctor Who"" through contemporary...

Doctor Who has been on global television screens for nearly fifty years, and many of its most memorable protagonists have been its monsters, The Daleks, Cybermen, Slitheen, the Sonterans, Ood, Wiirrn, and others. Entertainingly and provocatively written, and introduced by Who scriptwriter Paul Cornell, The Doctor's Monsters takes a new look at these and many other creatures, and asks what inspired them and what lies behind them. If the Daleks are based on ideas of genetic purity, and the Cybermen on fears of transplant surgery, what about the Autons, the Zarbi, or the Weeping Angels?...

Based upon the successful Jeff Lindsay novel Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Showtime's Dexter continues to raise the bar on television drama, as it chronicles the grisly exploits of a police blood spatter expert who moonlights as a serial killer. But unlike other serial killers, Dexter only kills the bad guys, a distinction that sets up one of the primary ethical conflicts of the show. For fans who want to delve deeper into the fascinating complexity of this hit show, this guide offers a wide range of topics that will give bloggers, tweeters, and aspiring spatter experts a lot to...

Ever since the first scheduled television broadcasts began in the 1930s, newspapers and magazines took quickly to reviewing this revolutionary new medium. The task of television criticism in the public domain intially fell to radio critics and journalists, but the 1950s saw the rise of the dedicated TV critic. These critics, including Peter Black, Philip Pursor, and Clive James, played an important part in shaping the public discourse about television. This new book explores the evolution of television criticism in Britain, exploring different types of TV critics and reviewers, the form of...

Of all recent television science fiction series, the reimagined Battlestar Galactica is the most highly praised and consistently inventive and intelligent. Where the original show was a straightforward space opera, the new one is rich, strange and above all unpredictable. This book explores the new Battlestar Galactica from beginning to end, covering all of the show's principal themes, from the depiction of sexuality in an era of artificial people and downloaded memories to what it means to be a member of a military organization when the stakes are not victory or defeat but...

Since premiering in July 2007, Mad Men has won many awards and been syndicated across the globe. Its imprint is evident throughout contemporary culture--from TV advertisements and magazine covers to designer fashions and online debate. Its creator, Matthew Weiner, a former executive producer on The Sopranos, has again created compelling, complex characters, this time in the sophisticated, go-go world of Madison Avenue of the 1960s, with smoking, drinking, and the playing out of prejudices and anxieties of an era long neglected in popular culture. As Edgerton and a host of...