Description

Watching television need not be a passive activity or simply for entertainment purposes. Television can be the site of important identity work and moral reflection. Audiences can learn about themselves, what matters to them, and how to relate to others by thinking about the implicit and explicit moral messages in the shows they watch. Better Living through TV: Contemporary TV and Moral Identity Formation analyzes the possibility of identifying and adopting moral values from television shows that aired during the latest Golden Era of television and Peak TV. The diversity of shows and approaches to moral becoming demonstrate how television during these eras took advantage of new technologies to become more film-like in both production quality and content. The increased depth of characterization and explosion of content across streaming and broadcast channels gave viewers a diversity of worlds and moral values to explore. The possibility of finding a moral in the stories told on popular shows such as The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, The Wire, and The Good Place, as well as lesser known shows such as Letterkenny and The Unicorn, are explored in a way that centers television viewing as a site for moral identity formation.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Foreword
Martin Shuster

Introduction: Television: What is it Good For?
Steven A. Benko

Chapter One: Sleeping with Fishes and Talking with Horses: Animality, Identity, and Vegetarianism in The Sopranos
H. Peter Steeves

Chapter Two: The Bigger the Lie, the More They Believe: Morality and Ethics in The Wire
John Hillman

Chapter Three: The Two Walters: Walt Whitman's Poetry and the Moral Vision of Breaking Bad
Douglas Rasmussen

Chapter Four: Check Your Settings: Change to a Democratic Framework for Feminist Subtitles
Leigh Kellmann Kolb

Chapter Five: "The Lord of War and Thunder": The Morality of Nemesis and Retributive Justice within Justified
James L. Shelton

Chapter Six: Law and Loyalty in Hellcats
Matt Hummel

Chapter Seven: Justice is Served: Bryan Fuller's Hannibal and the Evolution of Cultural Morality
Douglas L. Howard

Chapter Eight: What Made the Devil Do It?
Matilde Accurso Liotta and Martina Vanzo

Chapter Nine: Letterkenny: Tolerance Meets Tra

Product details

Published 25 Mar 2022
Format Ebook (PDF)
Edition 1st
Extent 352
ISBN 9781978754911
Imprint Lexington Books
Illustrations 5 b/w photos;
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

ONLINE RESOURCES

Bloomsbury Collections

This book is available on Bloomsbury Collections where your library has access.

Related Titles

Get 30% off in the May sale - for one week only

Environment: Staging