Welcome to the final Question of the Day for this week. Sorry for missing yesterday, work commitments took over.
Today's Question of the Day comes from Linlighthouse who asks.
"If your teacher assigned you a paper on "Modern Popular Culture," which TV shows would you write about and why?"
Another great question. For me it would have to be LOST. We see so many references to Lost on other TV Shows, Dharma Logo's, the Numbers etc
The show itself have many references/links. Books/Authors like The Stand/S.King, Mark Twain, A Wrinkle in Time, Watership Down, Movies such as The Wizard of OZ, 20,000 Leagues under the Seas, TV Shows like The Prisoner, Survivor, Video Games such as Myst.
Lostpedia has a great list here
So what about you? Which shows and why?
Have a great weekend everyone!
Psych or Community because those two shows make it their job to spoof pop culture
ReplyDeleteLOST and Fringe. Both shows deal with complex themes and heavy symbolism. There's a lot there to work with! I know a few years ago Tufts University offered a LOST class. Had I not just graduated, I would have transferred! :D
ReplyDeletenot quite on the topic of "Modern Popular Culture" but I did once write a paper based around GREEK
ReplyDeleteI actually did make mention of The X-Files episode 'Fresh Bones' in a paper about perceptions of Vodun in popular culture for a Caribbean Lit. class.
ReplyDeleteWell, i actually wrote a paper for a college class that compared British and American television. I talked about a lot of shows. Some of the shows were: Doctor Who, Torchwood, Burn Notice, Lost, X-Files, The Office (UK & US), Heroes. Buffy, Firefly. There were others but these are the ones that i remember.
ReplyDeleteCarnivale, BSG, The Sopranos, Deadwood, Mad Men, Dexter, Sleeper Cell, maybe Nip/Tuck
ReplyDeleteSince it'd be about modern popular culture, it'd have to include a variety of trends both successful and unsuccessful: postmodern shows that include pop culture (community), mindscrews (Lost), light caper to fight off the economy's blues (plenty of choices here but I'd pick Castle and Burn Notice for being the best in their respective niches: comedic mystery with UST and tough guy with stunt - Season 1&2 of In Plain sight or Bones and even, for the most daring, Rizzoli and Isles would also qualify and in category 2 Leverage). It'd have to mention how teenagers' shows went from veri-similitude and angst to irrealistic (super rich or supernatural) and how female characters became more powerful. The way social classes and ethnic groups are depicted would have to be included (Grey's anatomy colorblind casting, for example; or the sudden inclusion of Indian-American characters in 2009 on.)
ReplyDeleteI would have to go with Modern family and CSI, and keeping up with the Kardashians
ReplyDeleteThe X Files is the show I'm currently watching and the myth arc is what i'd like to write about.
ReplyDeleteWhat is it about it that's so intriguing? What is it protecting? And how does it effect Fox and Dana? (hey, everyone else may call them on the last name thing, I prefer first name as to break the chain)
yes, excellent idea - CSI and the way technicity wove its way into out tvs and thus lives, with the reverse movement toward intuitive police work (the Mentalist comes to mind); and Modern Family, how could we forget comedies, especially when this one is so in touch with the zeitgeist?
ReplyDeletehaha, I'm a film student, so I write about movies and television shows all the time. I love when I get to use Supernatural in a paper.
ReplyDeletebreaking bad or lost, two of the most compelling narratives on television,
ReplyDeleteFirst off I would asking my teacher why they are stalking me more than a decade after I left their school!
ReplyDeleteOk, Moving on... I think I would write the paper on Dexter or True Blood.
Dexter would be interesting for me to watch over and over and analyze the ethical questions as they relate to today's society. Plus we all have facades we wear at times, times we feel as though we don't belong in a "normal" world and I think Dexter magnifies those feelings of not belonging and shows how everyone is a bit off if you scratch just beneath the surface.
True Blood would be fun for the obvious civil rights overtones. Substitute women or a minority or your choosing for vampires and it would do the work for you. The show has a knack for mocking pop culture exposing some bizarre accepted feeling, but then putting a twist on it and showing why it's wrong or how it could be better. From Xenophobia, religion, sexual mores to racism it covers a very wide range of issues that can be seen still today in society.
I love so many shows (Chuck, Psych, Community, and many more), but I'll go with my top 3:
ReplyDeleteLost
Fringe
24
Well considering the depth of my previous "Lost" addiction, and obsession, I think for the Grade I would have to go there. But it would be fun to do an in-depth on Fringe as well. Maybe an in depth analysis of Genre serial in general would be fun to "Research" I just would find it hard to have time to actually write it, but I guess if it were for a grade I'd find time.
ReplyDeleteFringe...because it has the most interesting theories and ideas of any series currently airing these days!
ReplyDeleteI would love to write about the X-Files as well, though it's not really "modern" anymore (except for the movies).
ReplyDeleteMy second choice would be Gilmore Girls. They are doing so many references all the time, that viewers have t keep up with it. That would be interesting. And GG had a lasting impact if you ask me.
Another show (this one is current) that I would like to write about is Parenthood and how it's not as popular as it should be, because of it's quality, because other genre's are more "IN" now.
Note: It's a coincidence, that Lauren Graham stars in two of my three choices^^
I would discuss how the Internet has changed TV, opening a new intimacy between viewer and TV creator, and would use Lost as a prime example. I would make the case that the show, with its heavy mythology and encouragement of scholarly reading would not have been a success if it were not for the activity of discussion forums, and Lindelof and Cuse reading them and responding via podcasts and YouTube.
ReplyDeleteI would mention the high degree of realism on today's TV, from the grossly graphic (The Walking Dead), to the profane (The Wire), to the blatant sex (well, I'd have lots to choose from).
Voyeurism is popular today. We've always had reality TV, but today we are letting cameras show us people sleeping, brushing their teeth, dressing, etc. (The Real Housewives, Project Runway, Last Comic Standing).
The politically opinionated taking over our TV news, and the spoofing of that (The Daily Show/Colbert Report).
Supernatural creatures walking among us (Supernatural, Lost, The Vampire Diaries, True Blood, The Walking Dead).
Already a long paper!
Defiantly lost and psych and supernatural and community.
ReplyDeleteI guess id just write about my fave shows coz theyre the ones I know the most about and enjoy talkig about the most
South Park - With the ability to alter episodes up to a few hours before airing, they're always on top of pop culture and societies issues as a whole.
ReplyDeleteModern Family, because of title itself. It's so reconizble
ReplyDeletebuffy ( + sc-fi shows) vs desperate housewives ( +drama show)
ReplyDeleteI would have to go with either Buffy or Lost.
ReplyDelete