Play All
A Bingewatcher's Notebook
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
“A loving and breezy set of essays” on today’s most addictive TV shows from “an incisive and hilarious critic” (Slate).
Television is not what it once was. Award-winning author and critic Clive James spent decades covering the medium, and witnessed a radical change in content, format, and programming, and in the very manner in which TV is watched.
Here he examines this unique cultural revolution, providing a brilliant, eminently entertaining analysis of many of television’s most notable twenty-first-century accomplishments and their not always subtle impact on modern society—including such acclaimed serial dramas as Breaking Bad, The West Wing, Mad Men, and The Sopranos and the comedy 30 Rock. With intelligence and wit, James explores a television landscape expanded by cable and broadband and profoundly altered by the advent of Netflix, Amazon, and other cord-cutting platforms that have helped to usher in a golden age of unabashed binge-watching.
“James loves television, he loves the winding stories it tells and that we share them together. Play All is a late love letter to the medium of our lives.”—Sunday Times
“Large-brained and largehearted, and written with astonishing energy.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Witty and insightful musing on popular and critically acclaimed series of the past two decades.”—Publishers Weekly
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Australian author James (Unreliable Memoirs) brings his sharp critical eye to TV's current golden age, providing witty and insightful musing on popular and critically acclaimed series of the past two decades. He posits that good television is an art form and a mirror for reflecting modern cultural concerns. Contrasted with the "relentless catalogue of mechanized happenings" of blockbuster films, it provides "something to discuss." Displaying a talent for apt description and pop culture recall, James declares Tony Soprano "a magnetic mountain" and Don Draper "Don Giovanni in a Brooks Brothers shirt." He places Mad Men in its historical context and takes Aaron Sorkin to task for The Newsroom's cardboard cutout characters. His commentary on the trope of the "irritating daughter" (and its subspecies, "the kidnapped irritating daughter"), in 24 is hilarious and spot-on. Some of his opinions are controversial he dislikes Breaking Bad's Walter White and calls his cohort Jesse Pinkman an "unbearable punk." His description of Game of Thrones' Daenerys Targaryen as "not especially stunning" will particularly irk some fans. As readers of James' prior work will expect, this is a cerebral piece of work. "For the subtleties," he writes, "we still need books." Jokes about Marcel Proust's mother aside, however, his book is far from inaccessible.
