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television

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    12/29/2020

    The Life in "The Simpsons" Is No Longer Attainable

    In the 1990s, "The Simpsons" drew humor by putting bizarre dysfunction in the context of middle class suburban banality. Today it's the idea of homeownership paid for by a stable single income that seems outlandish.

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    12/3/2020

    The New Comedy of American Decline

    Two new comedy series revisit the trope of the American abroad; one works because it looks critically, if humorously, at the idea of American exceptionalism. 

  • SOURCE: Labor and Working Class History Association
    11/27/2020

    Wishbone of The Good Lord Bird

    by Mark Lause

    "In the end, The Good Lord Bird spins a worthwhile and entertaining yarn, but each episode starts with the unfortunate and misleading words: 'All of this is true.  Most of it happened'."

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    11/11/2020

    "The Crown" Takes the Shine Off Queen Elizabeth’s Reign

    In its sharp and splashy fourth season, the show finally criticizes Elizabeth for her ignorance, characterizing her as a ruler whose stubborn devotion to tradition makes her and her family out-of-touch fools caught off guard by change. 

  • SOURCE: The Nation
    11/3/2020

    Aaron Sorkin’s Inane, Liberal History Lesson

    by Charlotte Rosen

    Aaron Sorkin's Chicago 7 film strips away the radical, anti-imperialist, anti-racist, anti-capitalist politics of the 1960s New Left to make the defendants heroic defenders of liberal democratic politics. 

  • SOURCE: Made By History at The Washington Post
    10/13/2020

    Popular TV Characters Have Become a Part of the 2020 Campaign. Here’s Why

    by Oscar Winberg

    By the early 1970s, politics was moving to a focus on candidates over parties; New York Mayor John Lindsay sought help for his 1972 presidential bid from actor Carroll O'Connor, whose endorsement blurred the lines between the liberal O'Connor and his reactionary Archie Bunker character.

  • SOURCE: New York Times
    9/23/2020

    Go Live in Another Decade. I Recommend It.

    After 1960, much of history as many Americans experienced it — through popular culture on TV, on the radio and at the movies — is preserved and easily accessible online. With a few clicks around YouTube, history leaps into the present, often in ways that deepen and complicate the narrative.

  • SOURCE: The New Yorker
    9/20/2020

    Watching “Watchmen” as a Descendant of the Tulsa Race Massacre

    While the HBO series directed national attention to the Tulsa massacre, some Black descendants of the residents of the Greenwood district targeted by mob violence and arson were uncomfortable with their families' tragedy being mined for dramatic purposes. 

  • 9/13/2020

    How an American TV Mini-Series Helped the Germans Acknowledge the Holocaust

    by Robert Brent Toplin

    An American television minseries overcame initial skepticism by German authorities to rouse public conscience about the Holocaust and the complicity of ordinary Germans with persecution and genocide. Americans hesitant toward "political" popular culture should consider its contributions to truth and reconciliation.