Pub Date : 2021-04-03DOI: 10.1080/01956051.2020.1832436
A. Young
Abstract: The influx of European émigré filmmakers into the US film industry during the mid-1930s led to an exilic critique in Hollywood films. This study analyzes Fritz Lang’s Fury (1936) to explore the relationships between exile and trauma, engaging with issues of displacement, memory, the victim/perpetrator duality, and the loss of “home.”
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Pub Date : 2021-04-03DOI: 10.1080/01956051.2021.1923325
Deniz Özyurt
old lady wed to a ne’er-do-well. All three are portrayed as “responsible for their own impoverishment” (133), i.e., as “undeserving” poor. They appear rarely, for to bring them on screen too much might suggest the comfortable middle-class life enjoyed by the Ricardos and Mertzes was not within everyone’s grasp (as indeed it was not: in 1950, nearly one in three US citizens endured poverty). Furthermore, the show implies that racism is no “barrier to obtaining middle-class status” (134) and makes light of gender inequality, though in real life both contributed heavily to poverty. Decades later, updated but equally false stereotypes of the “undeserving poor” plague the small screen, as Jessica H. Zbeida shows in her analysis of The First 48. In this reality-based crime show, the nice, hard-working, well-educated, middleclass investigators—whose perspective we share through the camera—“use a suspect’s biography and identity to establish his or her delinquency even when a suspect has no criminal record” (254). Viewers are silently prompted to judge suspects based on their physical appearance, which can include hiphop style attire and/or tattoos, and “street” vocabulary. Victims, too, are sometimes linked to ethnic and racial stereotypes which may dim viewers’ sympathy, suggesting the victims’ deaths are more “a consequence of their identity” than “a result of social problems” (253). Zbeida adds, however, that hiphop artists have critiqued First 48 and police departments in three major cities cut their ties with it, suggesting change is in the air. CBS’s hasty dropping of The Briefcase, a reality show that pushed struggling people to judge their own versus others’ “worthiness,” is likewise encouraging. Precisely how Briefcase failed on both narrative and ethical grounds is the topic of Owen Cantrell’s essay. Finally, in his study of urban education in The Wire, season four, Chad William Timm shows how Mr. P learns to honor his students’ “cultural capital” and incorporates it into newly meaningful lessons. This book could serve as a good supplementary text in upper-level US history, sociology, and humanities classes, and its theme is timely enough that one hopes many civicminded adults will read it, too. Highlights not cited above include Lyrica Taylor’s study of inspirations (religious, artistic, and personal) behind Henry Ossawa Tanner’s The Banjo Lesson and The Thankful Poor, and Erin Wuebker’s analysis of New Deal–era posters urging syphilis patients to get treatment—or else fall by the wayside. The book’s flaws are few, though I find it odd that Lenz gives a free pass to photojournalist Jakob Riis, who certainly did much to perpetuate ethnic stereotypes in his 1888 work How the Other Half Lives. I would have welcomed an essay on depictions of poverty in animated cartoons, ranging from Depression-era classics Christmas Comes but Once a Year and Little Match Girl to 1958’s Robin Hood Daffy (“I’ll rob him of his gold and give it to some poor unworthy
老太太嫁给了一个碌碌无为的人。这三个国家都被描述为“对自己的贫困负责”(133)，即“不应该”贫穷。他们很少出现，因为过多地把他们搬上银幕可能会表明，里卡多夫妇和默茨夫妇所享受的舒适的中产阶级生活并不是每个人都能掌握的(事实上并非如此:1950年，近三分之一的美国公民忍受着贫困)。此外，这部剧暗示种族主义并不是“获得中产阶级地位的障碍”(134)，并对性别不平等轻描淡写，尽管在现实生活中，这两者都严重加剧了贫困。几十年后，正如杰西卡·h·泽贝达(Jessica H. Zbeida)在分析《前48人》(the First 48)中所显示的那样，关于“不值得拥有的穷人”的最新但同样错误的刻板印象困扰着小银幕。在这部基于现实的犯罪剧中，善良、勤奋、受过良好教育的中产阶级调查员——我们通过镜头分享他们的观点——“利用嫌疑人的传记和身份来确定他或她的犯罪行为，即使嫌疑人没有犯罪记录”(254)。观众会被悄悄提示根据他们的外表来判断嫌疑人，包括嘻哈风格的服装和/或纹身，以及“街头”词汇。受害者有时也与民族和种族的刻板印象联系在一起，这可能会削弱观众的同情，暗示受害者的死亡更多是“他们身份的结果”，而不是“社会问题的结果”(253)。然而，Zbeida补充说，嘻哈艺术家批评了First 48，三个主要城市的警察部门切断了与First 48的联系，这表明变化正在发生。哥伦比亚广播公司(CBS)仓促停播的真人秀节目《公文包》(The Briefcase)同样令人鼓舞，该节目促使挣扎中的人们判断自己与他人的“价值”。《公文包》究竟是如何在叙事和伦理两方面都失败的，这是欧文·坎特雷尔(Owen Cantrell)这篇文章的主题。最后，在《火线》第四季对城市教育的研究中，查德·威廉·蒂姆(Chad William Timm)展示了P先生如何学会尊重学生的“文化资本”，并将其融入到新的有意义的课程中。这本书可以作为美国历史、社会学和人文学科高级课程的很好的补充教材，它的主题非常及时，希望许多有良知的成年人也能读到它。上面没有提到的亮点包括Lyrica Taylor对Henry Ossawa Tanner的《班卓琴课》和《感恩的穷人》背后的灵感(宗教，艺术和个人)的研究，以及Erin Wuebker对新政时期海报的分析，这些海报敦促梅毒患者接受治疗，否则就会被抛弃。这本书的缺点很少，但我觉得奇怪的是，伦茨给了摄影记者雅各布·里斯一张免费通行证，后者在他1888年的作品《另一半的生活》中确实为延续种族刻板印象做了很多工作。如果能有一篇关于动画片中对贫困的描述的文章，我会很欢迎，从大萧条时期的经典作品《圣诞节一年只有一次》和《卖火柴的小女孩》，到1958年的《罗宾汉达菲》(“我要抢走他的金子，把它给一些可怜的不值得的懒汉”)，因为这些作品肯定也会影响许多美国人从小就对贫困的看法和理解。
{"title":"THE STRUGGLE BEHIND THE SOUNDTRACK: INSIDE THE DISCORDANT NEW WORLD OF FILM SCORING By Stephan Eicke. McFarland, 2019. 227 pp. $45.00 paper.","authors":"Deniz Özyurt","doi":"10.1080/01956051.2021.1923325","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01956051.2021.1923325","url":null,"abstract":"old lady wed to a ne’er-do-well. All three are portrayed as “responsible for their own impoverishment” (133), i.e., as “undeserving” poor. They appear rarely, for to bring them on screen too much might suggest the comfortable middle-class life enjoyed by the Ricardos and Mertzes was not within everyone’s grasp (as indeed it was not: in 1950, nearly one in three US citizens endured poverty). Furthermore, the show implies that racism is no “barrier to obtaining middle-class status” (134) and makes light of gender inequality, though in real life both contributed heavily to poverty. Decades later, updated but equally false stereotypes of the “undeserving poor” plague the small screen, as Jessica H. Zbeida shows in her analysis of The First 48. In this reality-based crime show, the nice, hard-working, well-educated, middleclass investigators—whose perspective we share through the camera—“use a suspect’s biography and identity to establish his or her delinquency even when a suspect has no criminal record” (254). Viewers are silently prompted to judge suspects based on their physical appearance, which can include hiphop style attire and/or tattoos, and “street” vocabulary. Victims, too, are sometimes linked to ethnic and racial stereotypes which may dim viewers’ sympathy, suggesting the victims’ deaths are more “a consequence of their identity” than “a result of social problems” (253). Zbeida adds, however, that hiphop artists have critiqued First 48 and police departments in three major cities cut their ties with it, suggesting change is in the air. CBS’s hasty dropping of The Briefcase, a reality show that pushed struggling people to judge their own versus others’ “worthiness,” is likewise encouraging. Precisely how Briefcase failed on both narrative and ethical grounds is the topic of Owen Cantrell’s essay. Finally, in his study of urban education in The Wire, season four, Chad William Timm shows how Mr. P learns to honor his students’ “cultural capital” and incorporates it into newly meaningful lessons. This book could serve as a good supplementary text in upper-level US history, sociology, and humanities classes, and its theme is timely enough that one hopes many civicminded adults will read it, too. Highlights not cited above include Lyrica Taylor’s study of inspirations (religious, artistic, and personal) behind Henry Ossawa Tanner’s The Banjo Lesson and The Thankful Poor, and Erin Wuebker’s analysis of New Deal–era posters urging syphilis patients to get treatment—or else fall by the wayside. The book’s flaws are few, though I find it odd that Lenz gives a free pass to photojournalist Jakob Riis, who certainly did much to perpetuate ethnic stereotypes in his 1888 work How the Other Half Lives. I would have welcomed an essay on depictions of poverty in animated cartoons, ranging from Depression-era classics Christmas Comes but Once a Year and Little Match Girl to 1958’s Robin Hood Daffy (“I’ll rob him of his gold and give it to some poor unworthy","PeriodicalId":44169,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF POPULAR FILM AND TELEVISION","volume":"23 1","pages":"127 - 128"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90518127","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-04-03DOI: 10.1080/01956051.2021.1923324
V. H. Pennanen
Throughout a trim volume at 178 pages, Greven presents ample and useful chapter notes which include both extensive sourcing and compelling supplemental annotations, which will appeal to scholars in various disciplines including history, American studies, and media/communication, queer, and feminist studies. Early in the text, Greven notes that a central goal in this study is to take an apparently “lowbrow” popular text and treat it seriously in an attempt to reveal the multivalent meanings embedded in the series (9). In that effort, this book consistently fulfills its ambition. Michael McKenna Farmingdale State College Fordham University Michael McKenna teaches history at Farmingdale State College and Fordham University. His primary research interests are urban history, particularly New York City, and American popular culture, primarily television programming. He is the author of two books on the history of television: The ABC Movie of the Week: Big Movies for the Small Screen (2013) and Real People and the Rise of Reality Television (2015).
{"title":"POVERTY IN AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE. Ed. Wylie Lenz. McFarland, 2020. 274 pp. including index. $55.00 paper.","authors":"V. H. Pennanen","doi":"10.1080/01956051.2021.1923324","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01956051.2021.1923324","url":null,"abstract":"Throughout a trim volume at 178 pages, Greven presents ample and useful chapter notes which include both extensive sourcing and compelling supplemental annotations, which will appeal to scholars in various disciplines including history, American studies, and media/communication, queer, and feminist studies. Early in the text, Greven notes that a central goal in this study is to take an apparently “lowbrow” popular text and treat it seriously in an attempt to reveal the multivalent meanings embedded in the series (9). In that effort, this book consistently fulfills its ambition. Michael McKenna Farmingdale State College Fordham University Michael McKenna teaches history at Farmingdale State College and Fordham University. His primary research interests are urban history, particularly New York City, and American popular culture, primarily television programming. He is the author of two books on the history of television: The ABC Movie of the Week: Big Movies for the Small Screen (2013) and Real People and the Rise of Reality Television (2015).","PeriodicalId":44169,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF POPULAR FILM AND TELEVISION","volume":"1 1","pages":"126 - 127"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80576740","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-04-03DOI: 10.1080/01956051.2021.1871584
Jin Kim
Abstract: Black Mirror (2011–current), an anthology science-fiction television series, portrays how digital technologies reflect and shape our dreams and nightmares about the current media environment. The ways in which Black Mirror depicts the world where digital devices are strongly tied to human consciousness and bodies can be elaborated by focusing on three keywords: algorithmic intimacy, prosthetic memory, and gamification. There are two major arguments presented. First, Black Mirror provides critical perspectives on quantified relationships, artificial memory, and social ratings. Second, at the same time, the ways in which this science fiction text portrays current media environments renders these critical representations of digital technologies ironically normalized.
{"title":"Algorithmic Intimacy, Prosthetic Memory, and Gamification in Black Mirror","authors":"Jin Kim","doi":"10.1080/01956051.2021.1871584","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01956051.2021.1871584","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: Black Mirror (2011–current), an anthology science-fiction television series, portrays how digital technologies reflect and shape our dreams and nightmares about the current media environment. The ways in which Black Mirror depicts the world where digital devices are strongly tied to human consciousness and bodies can be elaborated by focusing on three keywords: algorithmic intimacy, prosthetic memory, and gamification. There are two major arguments presented. First, Black Mirror provides critical perspectives on quantified relationships, artificial memory, and social ratings. Second, at the same time, the ways in which this science fiction text portrays current media environments renders these critical representations of digital technologies ironically normalized.","PeriodicalId":44169,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF POPULAR FILM AND TELEVISION","volume":"152 1","pages":"109 - 118"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85392621","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-04-03DOI: 10.1080/01956051.2021.1923296
A. Sanna
{"title":"EXPLORING STAR TREK: VOYAGER: CRITICAL ESSAYS Ed. Robert L. Lively. McFarland, 2020. 278 pp. $39.95 paper.","authors":"A. Sanna","doi":"10.1080/01956051.2021.1923296","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01956051.2021.1923296","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44169,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF POPULAR FILM AND TELEVISION","volume":"123 1","pages":"121 - 122"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79601136","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-04-03DOI: 10.1080/01956051.2021.1923321
Michael McKenna
{"title":"THE BIONIC WOMAN AND FEMINIST ETHICS: AN ANALYSIS OF THE 1970s TELEVISION SERIES By David Greven. McFarland, 2020. 178 pp. $39.95 softcover.","authors":"Michael McKenna","doi":"10.1080/01956051.2021.1923321","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01956051.2021.1923321","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44169,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF POPULAR FILM AND TELEVISION","volume":"56 1","pages":"125 - 126"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80469687","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-04-03DOI: 10.1080/01956051.2020.1842315
Carlos Uxo
Abstract: This article analyzes the Cuban television production of police series between 1969 and 1981. It shows the relationship between the series, the cultural policy of the Cuban Revolution, and the primarily educational role of television after the 1959 revolutionary triumph. These series have been produced and developed, until today, under the strict supervision of MININT (Ministerio del Interior, Home Office) and the FAR (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias, Revolutionary Armed Forces), and perceived mainly as an invaluable means of propaganda and education. First, the article establishes the relationship between the sociopolitical context of the moment, Cuban cultural policies in the 1970s, and the decision to begin production of homegrown police dramas. Then, the series Sector 40 and Móvil 8 are examined. Both screened during prime time on alternating weekends for a decade (1969–1979), depicting the Cuban security forces’ fight against counterrevolutionary groups and common crime. Next, the article focuses on a number of series that depicted the work of Cuban agents who had infiltrated counterrevolutionary groups. Finally, the series El regreso de David is considered, to show how, by the time it was screened (1981), the Cuban sociopolitical context had undergone deep transformations, which rendered outdated the original formula.
{"title":"Cuban Television Police Series 1969–1981: A Weapon for the Revolution","authors":"Carlos Uxo","doi":"10.1080/01956051.2020.1842315","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01956051.2020.1842315","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract: This article analyzes the Cuban television production of police series between 1969 and 1981. It shows the relationship between the series, the cultural policy of the Cuban Revolution, and the primarily educational role of television after the 1959 revolutionary triumph. These series have been produced and developed, until today, under the strict supervision of MININT (Ministerio del Interior, Home Office) and the FAR (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias, Revolutionary Armed Forces), and perceived mainly as an invaluable means of propaganda and education. First, the article establishes the relationship between the sociopolitical context of the moment, Cuban cultural policies in the 1970s, and the decision to begin production of homegrown police dramas. Then, the series Sector 40 and Móvil 8 are examined. Both screened during prime time on alternating weekends for a decade (1969–1979), depicting the Cuban security forces’ fight against counterrevolutionary groups and common crime. Next, the article focuses on a number of series that depicted the work of Cuban agents who had infiltrated counterrevolutionary groups. Finally, the series El regreso de David is considered, to show how, by the time it was screened (1981), the Cuban sociopolitical context had undergone deep transformations, which rendered outdated the original formula.","PeriodicalId":44169,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF POPULAR FILM AND TELEVISION","volume":"451 1","pages":"81 - 91"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85853107","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-04-03DOI: 10.1080/01956051.2021.1923295
H. Humann
class, and racial contexts of sex and other intimacies they illuminate “black holes in our imagination” (29). These films reveal our own limited perspectives and help us to become aware of our inability to envision affective relations across difference and of our necessity to expand our imagination and literacies. Celine Parreñas Shimizu’s undeniable contribution to global cinemas is a fantastic read for film and cultural studies scholars and graduate students, as well as researchers in areas such as postcolonial, sexuality, and queer studies.
{"title":"AMERICAN BLOCKBUSTER: MOVIES, TECHNOLOGY, AND WONDER By Charles R. Acland. Duke University Press, 2020. 400 pp. $29.95 paper.","authors":"H. Humann","doi":"10.1080/01956051.2021.1923295","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01956051.2021.1923295","url":null,"abstract":"class, and racial contexts of sex and other intimacies they illuminate “black holes in our imagination” (29). These films reveal our own limited perspectives and help us to become aware of our inability to envision affective relations across difference and of our necessity to expand our imagination and literacies. Celine Parreñas Shimizu’s undeniable contribution to global cinemas is a fantastic read for film and cultural studies scholars and graduate students, as well as researchers in areas such as postcolonial, sexuality, and queer studies.","PeriodicalId":44169,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF POPULAR FILM AND TELEVISION","volume":"19 1","pages":"120 - 120"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78672372","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-04-03DOI: 10.1080/01956051.2021.1923291
Paula Talero Álvarez
{"title":"THE PROXIMITY OF OTHER SKINS: ETHICAL INTIMACY IN GLOBAL CINEMA By Celine Parreñas Shimizu. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020. 264 pp. $39.95 paper.","authors":"Paula Talero Álvarez","doi":"10.1080/01956051.2021.1923291","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/01956051.2021.1923291","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44169,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF POPULAR FILM AND TELEVISION","volume":"134 1","pages":"119 - 120"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75844897","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-04-03DOI: 10.1080/01956051.2021.1923309
K. Flanagan
T his highly focused book works through British television’s engagement with the police procedural genre, a mainstay of many national traditions. Ben Lamb makes careful distinctions about the genealogy he is tracing, noting that crime in general and detective traditions more specifically are not quite what he has in mind. Instead, he notes “I have chosen for analysis here series that regularly depict the routine work of police constables and detectives” (3). Whatever the correspondences to related traditions (Sherlock Holmes adaptations, for instance), Lamb is looking at the hard core of police television series over several decades, from Dixon of Dock Green (BBC, 1955–1976) to Broadchurch (ITV, 2013–2017). While this is a potentially limiting choice, his methodological choices make up for some of the inherent restrictions in the premise, in that the series under consideration mutate over time such that they come to embrace other genre traditions as a matter of course. First, a word of caution. The book does not do an especially comprehensive job of contextualizing British series in relation to other national television traditions until the end. The first half of the book is very specifically focused on the British television context, such that there is little room for comparison to the genre elsewhere, especially the United States. While reading the chapter on the 1980s, which (to be fair) does provide a fascinating exploration of feminist thought in such series as Juliet Bravo (BBC, 1980–1985) and The Gentle Touch (ITV, 1980–1984), I could not help but think about how these slow, methodical, and somewhat cramped/interior-focused series compared to the cinematic sweep and serialized plots of American series like Miami Vice (NBC, 1984–1990) or Crime Story (NBC, 1986–1988). I would have especially liked to hear about the reception of US series by British audiences, given the major differences in approach. Lamb gets better at this sense of comparative contextualization later in the book, though, in situating 2000s tech and sci-fi inspired series in relation to American counterparts such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS, 2000–2015). The chapter on the series of the 2010s is even better in this regard, with Broadchurch and Happy Valley (BBC, 2014–) being discussed in terms of the boom for Nordic Noir, which has had a global resonance through remakes and re-imaginings, and whose focus on landscapes connects readily to the British tradition. Lamb’s approach throughout is to do close readings of a few series that form representative examples of the trends of a given decade. While there is some sense of the larger scope of cop-show series that were running during a given time frame, the book instead jumps quickly into close readings of the chosen series. Truth be told, I wanted a bit more mention of some of the other series, as many are unfamiliar to readers outside of the UK, and I left the book without feeling like I’d fully fleshed out a sense o
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