Seeing It on Television: Televisuality in the Contemporary US ‘High-End’ Series

About the Author Max Sexton is a lecturer at the University of Surrey, where he currently teaches film and television theory. After working in British television, he completed an MA History of Film and Visual Media and a PhD. He is currently interested in the links between aesthetics and technology, the de-stabilization of genre and inter-medial areas between film and television, including debates about the use of live performance and special effects. He co-authored Adapting Science Fiction to Television: Small Screen, Expanded Universe (2015) with Malcolm Cook.Dominic Lees is Associate Head of Department: Filmmaking at the University of the West of England, Bristol, UK. He is an experienced film and television director, with a career that has included directing 40 episodes of drama as well as the award-winning independent feature film, Outlanders (2008). Following a PhD in film at the University of Reading, UK, he has written for the Journal of Media Practice, Critical Studies in Television and Media Practice and Education, as well as leading interdisciplinary practice research into 'Deep Fakes' (digital face replacement) in television drama and film. Product Description Seeing It on Television: Televisuality in the Contemporary US 'High-end' Series investigates new categories of high-end drama and explores the appeal of programmes from Netflix, Sky Atlantic/HBO, National Geographic, FX and Cinemax. An investigation of contemporary US Televisuality provides insight into the appeal of upscale programming beyond facts about its budget, high production values and/or feature cinematography. Rather, this book focuses on how the construction of meaning often relies on cultural discourse, production histories, as well as on tone, texture or performance, which establishes the locus of engagement and value within the series. Max Sexton and Dominic Lees discuss how complex production histories lie behind the rise of the US high-end series, a form that reflects industrial changes and the renegotiation of formal strategies. They reveal how the involvement of many different people in the production process, based on new relationships of creative authority, complicates our understanding of 'original content'. This affects the construction of stylistics and the viewing strategies required by different shows. The cultural, as well as industrial, strategies of recent television drama are explored in The Young Pope, The Knick, Stranger Things, Mars, Fargo, The Leftovers, Boardwalk Empire, and Vinyl. Review “This is a highly impressive book that details the aesthetic and stylistic achievements of recent high-quality television dramas. Sexton and Lees's analysis of diverse shows such as The Young Pope, Stranger Things, and Mars among several others is both compelling, insightful and exemplary. Highly recommended for television studies scholars and students.” ―J.J. Jacobs, Professor of Film and Television Studies, University of Queensland, Australia“This book untangles the complexities of high-end US TV by focusing in detail on the evidence for stylistic quality in some of the most innovative dramas of recent years. The roles of leading showrunners, cutting-edge technologies and new variations on genre and narrative form are explored and evaluated in illuminating ways.” ―Jonathan Bignell, Professor of Television & Film, University of Reading, UK