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Critical Studies in Television

Journal Description

Critical Studies in Television

We are delighted to announce that effective the 4th September 2015, this title (previously published by Manchester University Press) will now be published by SAGE. For more information on the transfer of 10 titles from MUP to SAGE please click here.

Critical Studies in Television publishes articles that draw together divergent disciplines and different ways of thinking, to promote and advance television as a distinct academic discipline. It welcomes contributions on any aspect of television—production studies and institutional histories, audience and reception studies, theoretical approaches, conceptual paradigms and pedagogical questions. It continues to invite analyses of the compositional principles and aesthetics of texts, as well as contextual matters relating to both contemporary and past productions. CST also features book reviews, dossiers and debates. The journal is scholarly but accessible, dedicated to generating new knowledge and fostering a dynamic intellectual platform for television studies.

CSTonline is updated weekly to include industry and journal news, CFPs, event announcements (conference, symposia), as well as various blogs (where scholars reflect on various aspects of television studies). It also includes information about TV archives and resources, where to study and the latest research news.

Books for review should be sent by publishers to:

Amy Harris
Student Advice Centre
0.42 Clephan Building
De Montfort University
The Gateway
Leicester
LE1 9BH

This journal is a member of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

Journal Feed

  • From #AltErLove to #LoveIsLove: Transmedia formats, audience engagement and sexual diversity
    by Thalia Van Wichelen
    Critical Studies in Television, Ahead of Print. SKAM (2015–2017) and its Flemish adaptation wtFOCK (2018–2021) use several digital platforms to provide viewers with content, enabling different types of audience engagement. By means of a social media analysis, this study investigates how producers utilise transmedia tools to enhance viewers’ involvement with the depicted storyline and how viewers interact with the provided content on LGBTQ issues. An analysis of Instagram comments and posts illustrates three different ways audience members gather online: Instagram serves as (1) a platform to connect while co-viewing, (2) a safe environment against homophobia, and (3) a collective of […]
  • Pleasure’s ascendancy: Against queer youth panic
    by Timothy Gitzen
    Critical Studies in Television, Ahead of Print. This article explores both US and European streaming shows that feature a protagonist in scenes of queer youth sex, focusing on how the show treats and frames these scenes as constitutive of a broader representational narrative of queer youth sex(uality). By comparing US and European shows, I argue that queer pleasure supplants panic featured in each show by framing the scenes of queer youth sex as destigmatized and even mundane.
  • Book Review: Transnational Korean Television: Cultural Storytelling and Digital Audiences
    by Julia Stolyar
    Critical Studies in Television, Ahead of Print.
  • Book Review: Indie TV: Industry, Aesthetics and Medium Specificity
    by Tom Hemingway
    Critical Studies in Television, Ahead of Print.
  • Book Review: Public Television in Poland: Political Pressure and Public Service Media in a Post-communist Country
    by Phil Ramsey
    Critical Studies in Television, Ahead of Print.
  • Book Review: Period Drama
    by Shelley Anne Galpin
    Critical Studies in Television, Ahead of Print.
  • Culture as window dressing? A threefold methodological framework for researching the locality of Netflix series
    by Daphne R Idiz
    Critical Studies in Television, Ahead of Print. Considering the implications of Netflix’s role as a content producer for cultural diversity in Europe, this methodological article investigates how to define and measure the locality of Netflix Originals. We employ a threefold methodological study based on industry data analysis, audience reception research, and content analysis. This replicable and scalable methodological design provides a solid analytical framework for future studies examining Netflix Originals from the normative perspective of cultural diversity. Demonstrating the steps of our exploratory study, we also find that Netflix’s locally-produced but globally-oriented content uses culture as window dressing, warranting further […]
  • Editorial
    by Stephen Lacey
    Critical Studies in Television, Volume 19, Issue 1, Page 3-6, March 2024.
  • Binge-watching and mental illness versus comfort TV and mental health in WandaVision
    by Christopher L Moore
    Critical Studies in Television, Ahead of Print. WandaVision launched the Disney+ subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) platform by blending the sitcom and the superhero genres in a nostalgia-inducing fusion of Marvel comics, cinema and television. The series represents the canonisation of Marvel media into a single cohesive narrative ‘multiverse’, yet the story focuses on the personal experience of the character, Wanda, and her struggle with loss, grief, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In this article, we explore how WandaVision presents a unique examination of the tension between the role of screen media as comfort TV and the pervasive fears over the obsessive […]
  • Positive masculinity or toxic positivity? Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso as a capitalist utopia
    by Alexander Hudson Beare
    Critical Studies in Television, Ahead of Print. Ted Lasso (2020-present) follows American Football coach, Ted Lasso, as he transforms the waning English Premier League team, AFC Richmond, through his relentless optimism and his mantra of ‘believe’. The show has been praised by critics for its emphasis on kindness and particularly for its exploration of ‘positive’ and ‘vulnerable’ masculinities. It is placed front and centre not just in promotion for Apple TV+ but also for the broader Apple brand which is heavily integrated into the show’s storyworld. Through a textual analysis of the series, this article critically examines Ted Lasso’s representations […]
  • Book Review: Moments in Television: Complexity/simplicity
    by Michael Samuel
    Critical Studies in Television, Volume 19, Issue 1, Page 125-129, March 2024.
  • Book Review: Their Own Best Creations: Women Writers in Postwar Television
    by Mary Irwin
    Critical Studies in Television, Volume 19, Issue 1, Page 121-125, March 2024.
  • Book Review: Geopolitics, Northern Europe, And Nordic Noir: What Television Series Tell Us About World Politics
    by Jaakko Seppälä
    Critical Studies in Television, Volume 19, Issue 1, Page 131-133, March 2024.
  • Book Reviews: Convergent Chinese Television Industries: An Ethnography of Chinese Production Cultures
    by Yajie Li
    Critical Studies in Television, Volume 19, Issue 1, Page 119-121, March 2024.
  • Book Review: Broadcasting for Wales: The Early Years of S4C
    by John Ellis
    Critical Studies in Television, Volume 19, Issue 1, Page 129-131, March 2024.
  • Deterritorialisation of Korean TV dramas in “Netflix Originals”: “We are living in the Squid Game world”
    by Hyejung Ju
    Critical Studies in Television, Ahead of Print. Squid Game’s phenomenal success calls attention to the local specificity of Netflix’s global expansion as it commissions original K-dramas. This practice has rich implications, both positive and negative, for Netflix’s production and distribution of Korean content. K-dramas classified as Netflix Originals have been riding its international market power to a wide range of transnational audiences, enabling national television creators to reimagine cultural spheres for both production and distribution that transgress the uneven circuit of transnational media. At the same time, the deterritorialisation of Netflix’s K-dramas raises concerns about its deep interpenetration of the […]
  • A modern version of restoration comedy? Double entendre, objectification, fearful men and rakes manqué in the television work of Benny Hill
    by Joseph Gibbs
    Critical Studies in Television, Ahead of Print. Benny Hill’s once globally popular (but controversial) television humour was often built around elements associated with Restoration comedy. These included double entendre; the objectification of women (which Hill in the 1980s intensified, to the detriment of his comedy and career); and themes involving men fearing women. Additionally, some of Hill’s characters had traits suggestive of those of Restoration comedy, although his men generally lacked the classic rakes’ social status and sexual success, and their frequent failures introduced into Hill’s comedy an ironic caricature of contemporary views of male sexuality and ego.
  • From traditional regionalism to national distinction: German television co-productions through time
    by Elke Weissmann
    Critical Studies in Television, Ahead of Print. This article offers a historical perspective on co-productions of high-end television drama in Germany. It argues that such co-productions have seen three distinct phases that although overlapping, are described by industry insiders and critics as distinct periods where one form of co-production is dominant at a particular time but then becomes residual as other forms take over. These three forms are, first, public broadcaster-led co-productions, second, ‘Europudding’ co-productions, and finally, distinctive co-productions in TVIV. This article shows that these phases are connected to stylistic as well as industrial changes, which do not always […]
  • ‘I miss when my problems were about nothing’: Millennial angst, neoliberal feminism, and paratexts in Search Party (2016–2022)
    by Sarah Lahm
    Critical Studies in Television, Ahead of Print. This article investigates the articulation of complex demands of neoliberal feminism, such as individualism, entrepreneurialism and self-management on the millennial woman in recent streaming series. The portrayal of a fractured female self and its entanglement with millennial angst will shed light on serial depictions of neoliberal individualism and female subjectivity. Search Party, a satirical, genre-bending, half-hour comedy-drama serves as an example through which the contradictory demands of neoliberal feminism are negotiated and questioned. In addition to assessment of the narrative and character framing, paratextual materials and specifically the series’ promotional posters work to […]
  • Awkwardness sells, but who’s buying? How students navigate awkward TV comedy series
    by Iván Kirschbaum
    Critical Studies in Television, Ahead of Print. Drawing on in-depth interviews, this study examines how students engage with awkwardness in television comedies. The article contributes to studies of awkwardness, its configuration in popular culture, and audiences’ response to awkward-comic texts. Our findings show typical sequences and resources for producing awkward scenes. Participants tend to evaluate awkward scenes in terms of ‘realism’, i.e., whether they could relate the scene to their personal lives and/or imagine themselves in that situation. Furthermore, awkward sequences and feelings of awkwardness from the characters increases the evaluation of scenes as realistic. Finally, in line with Kotsko’s […]