Better Living Through TV

Steven A. Benko

doi:10.5771/9781793636195

Summary

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.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2022
ISBN-Print: 978-1-7936-3618-8
ISBN-Online: 978-1-7936-3619-5
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 342
Product type: Edited Book

1. Contents No access
2. Acknowledgments No access
3. Foreword No access
1. Personal Viewing Habits No access
2. From the Golden Age to Peak TV No access
3. Sincerity Peaked No access
4. The Plan of the Book No access
5. Notes No access
6. Bibliography No access
1. Introduction: Woke Up This Morning No access
2. The Pilot and “The Beast in Me” No access
3. The Beast Is Me: Communitarianism and Liberalism No access
4. Pass (Over) the Capocollo: Bada-Being What We Eat No access
5. Conclusion: Don’t Stop Believing No access
6. Notes No access
7. Bibliography No access
1. Notes No access
2. Bibliography No access
1. Walter White, Individualism, and Science No access
2. Walt’s Psychological Collapse No access
3. Conclusion No access
4. Notes No access
5. Bibliography No access
1. Breaking Bad No access
2. Sons of Anarchy No access
3. “Difficult Men” and the Persistence of Patriarchy No access
4. Focusing through a Democratic Lens No access
5. Notes No access
6. Bibliography No access
1. Notes No access
2. Bibliography No access
1. The Routine: Hellcats’ Story No access
2. The Stunt: Law in Hellcats No access
3. The Spotter: Marti’s Dilemma No access
4. The Flyer: Alice and the Ethics of Revenge No access
5. The Captain: Savannah’s Family and Self-Actualization No access
6. Law and Loyalty No access
7. Overlooked and Concluded No access
8. Notes No access
9. Bibliography No access
1. A Moment of Silence No access
2. Dungeons and Red Dragons No access
3. The Novel Approach No access
4. Of Death and Cancellation No access
5. REACHING THE PEAK No access
6. Notes No access
7. Bibliography No access
1. Introduction No access
2. Lucifer Morningstar No access
3. Amenadiel No access
4. Chloe Decker No access
5. Linda Martin No access
6. Free Will and the Blurred Border between Good and Evil No access
7. Conclusion No access
8. Notes No access
9. Bibliography No access
1. Notes No access
2. Bibliography No access
1. The Happy Interpretation No access
2. A Moral Theory of The Good Place No access
3. The Tragic Interpretation: The Series Finale as a Tragic End for Jason, Chidi, and Eleanor No access
4. Paradise Lost: Justifying the Ways of Human Beings to the Divine No access
5. Suicidal Ideation in the Good Place No access
6. The Good Place and the Era of Peak TV No access
7. Buddhism and Beyond No access
8. Conclusion No access
9. Notes No access
10. Bibliography No access
1. Seriality, Causation Relations, and Rationalization No access
2. Fatal Decisions: Subjunctive Alternatives No access
3. Behavioral Offers for Late-Modern Life Situations No access
4. Time Foundations and Collective Memory No access
5. Neo-Religious Cult Communities No access
6. Television as a Producer of Truth and Order No access
7. Television’s Power, Hubris, and the Last Community No access
8. Notes No access
9. Bibliography No access
1. Television and Map Making No access
2. Television and Mattering No access
3. A Decent Unicorn No access
4. Notes No access
5. Bibliography No access
1. Kantian Ethics: Respect in the Diverse Universe No access
2. Bounty Hunting: A Complicated Code No access
3. The Mandalorian Creed: The Nature of the Way No access
4. Overriding Principles: Moral Beskar No access
5. Do the Magic Moral Thing No access
6. Notes No access
7. Bibliography No access
1. Captain America after Steve Rogers No access
2. The Falcon and Systemic Racism No access
3. The Winter Soldier and the White Habitus No access
4. Isaiah Bradley and the Legacy of (Captain) America’s Racist Past No access
5. Conclusion No access
6. Notes No access
7. Bibliography No access
Subject Index No access Pages 325 - 330
Character Index No access Pages 331 - 334
Episode Index No access Pages 335 - 338
About the Contributors No access Pages 339 - 342