FA+
Shop
TV Worth Reading
9 years ago
General
TV (THE BOOK) by Alan Sepinwall & Matt Zoller Seitz (Grand Central Publishing, 2016)
https://www.amazon.com/TV-Book-Experts-Greatest-American/dp/1455588199/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1475386916&sr=1-1&keywords=tv+the+book
reviewed by Roochak
"If you tell someone who's never watched it that a show called BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER is among the best TV dramas of all time, they will roll their eyes at you and change the subject to something less divisive, like immigration policy."
Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz get it. Television criticism isn't about nostalgia, or the numerical rankings of Great Shows, or any supposed "Golden Age of Television" -- though all of those things are present and accounted for in this entertaining book -- it's about persuasion. One thing good critics want (but not the only thing) is to persuade you that something you've dismissed, or perhaps never even heard of, is really worth your time, and Matt and Alan make some very persuasive arguments here; some 400 pages' worth, in fact.
I was hooked from the introduction, an online conversation in which the co-authors debated how to rank the top five (American) shows of all time. I couldn't care less about that ranking; it was the Talmudic rigor of their arguments, not to mention the civility of their tone, that had me practically swooning. Now THAT'S arts criticism. The entries on individual shows are both fun and intellectually rigorous, fascinating to read whether I enjoyed the show or not.
My only real disagreement with the authors is that I don't believe that there has been, or ever will be, any "golden age of television" -- there are only good shows, bad shows, and mediocre shows (mostly mediocre shows), then and now. British and other foreign TV shows aren't considered in this book, because what do Americans know about foreign TV, except for shows lucky enough to have made business deals with PBS?
https://www.amazon.com/TV-Book-Experts-Greatest-American/dp/1455588199/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1475386916&sr=1-1&keywords=tv+the+book
reviewed by Roochak
"If you tell someone who's never watched it that a show called BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER is among the best TV dramas of all time, they will roll their eyes at you and change the subject to something less divisive, like immigration policy."
Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz get it. Television criticism isn't about nostalgia, or the numerical rankings of Great Shows, or any supposed "Golden Age of Television" -- though all of those things are present and accounted for in this entertaining book -- it's about persuasion. One thing good critics want (but not the only thing) is to persuade you that something you've dismissed, or perhaps never even heard of, is really worth your time, and Matt and Alan make some very persuasive arguments here; some 400 pages' worth, in fact.
I was hooked from the introduction, an online conversation in which the co-authors debated how to rank the top five (American) shows of all time. I couldn't care less about that ranking; it was the Talmudic rigor of their arguments, not to mention the civility of their tone, that had me practically swooning. Now THAT'S arts criticism. The entries on individual shows are both fun and intellectually rigorous, fascinating to read whether I enjoyed the show or not.
My only real disagreement with the authors is that I don't believe that there has been, or ever will be, any "golden age of television" -- there are only good shows, bad shows, and mediocre shows (mostly mediocre shows), then and now. British and other foreign TV shows aren't considered in this book, because what do Americans know about foreign TV, except for shows lucky enough to have made business deals with PBS?
[1] There has been a general upward trend in the better stuff on TV for three reasons. First, there is some improvement in writing, (if for no other reason than having a more complete list of what not to do). Second, and more important, is improving production values. Finally, and most importantly, when you have as much TV a day now as there was a week then, (and a month for an earlier then), the very best few are the best 0.1% rather than the best 1%. More recently a fourth factor has come into play for things like dramas: You can assume people have seen every episode, which opens up options that earlier were only really open to limited market shows.
However, if these gentlemen, (and from your description of their discourse, I assume that they actually are), enjoy and profit from discussing the merits of various TV shows, well then, good for them. Personally, I hold that the golden age of television is sixteen, when you're too young to watch the "adult shows," but rebellious enough to watch them anyway.