Films and Media: Television Series

In 1837, a diminutive, neglected teenager is crowned Queen Victoria and navigates the scandal and political intrigues of the Court, and soon rises to become the most powerful woman in the world.

A dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the evolution of sin -- exploring a world in which every human appetite, no matter how noble or depraved, can be indulged. Exploring what it means to be human, the series investigates the boundaries of an exotic world set at the intersection of the near future and the reimagined past.

The British Empire is in decline, the political world is in disarray, and a new era is dawning. Queen Elizabeth II is a 25-year-old newlywed faced with the daunting prospect of leading the world’s most famous monarchy while forging a relationship with legendary Sir Winston Churchill.

The Vietnam War tells the epic story of one of the most consequential, divisive, and controversial events in American history as it has never before been told on film. The series explores the human dimensions of the war through revelatory testimony of nearly 80 witnesses -- Americans who fought in the war and others who opposed it, as well as combatants and civilians from North and South Vietnam. The series includes rarely seen, digitally re-mastered archival footage from sources around the globe, stunning photographs, historic television broadcasts, evocative home movies, and secret audio recordings from inside the Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon administrations.

In 1989, the Buffalo Bills were a talented team full of big personalities, including future Hall-of-Famers Jim Kelly, Bruce Smith, Thurman Thomas and Andre Reed. Dysfunction and infighting ran as deep as the talent in their locker room, but the team known as "The Bickering Bills" would soon transform themselves into an elite force.

In the vicinity of New York’s Hudson River Valley, the Adirondack Mountains, Catskill Mountains, and the White Mountains of New Hampshire, a group of American painters led by British born artist Thomas Cole forged an artistic vision of the American wilderness. This was the first American school of landscape painting.

We all have opinions about the shows we watch, but television criticism is about much more than simply evaluating the merits of a particular show and deeming it 'good' or 'bad.' Criticism uses the close examination of a television program to explore that program's cultural significance and its place in a broader social context. How to Watch Television brings together forty original essays from today's leading scholars on television culture. Each essay focuses on a particular television show, demonstrating one way to read the program and our media culture. The essays model how to practice media criticism in accessible language, providing critical insights through analysis. The contributors discuss a wide range of television programs past and present, covering many formats and genres, providing a broad representation of the programs that are likely to be covered in a media studies course.

Television has taken firm hold of American life ever since the first flickering images replaced the disembodied voices crackling from the radio. In Not Remotely Controlled cultural critic Lee Siegel collects his musings on this most hybrid medium. Whether chronicling the history of the "cop" drama, revealing the inherent irony in Donald Trump's character on "The Apprentice," or shedding light on those gems that Neilsen ratings swept away prematurely, Siegel gives each episode, series, or documentary the attention and respect usually reserved for high-art. Going far beyond mere pans and praise, Siegel has given long-overdue attention to America's most pervasive art form.