The New Audience for Old TV
Considering the Resurgent Popularity of The Sopranos
- 152 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
In 2020-21, the classic HBO show The Sopranos (1999-2007) saw a rapid increase in viewership and was proclaimed to be one of the "hottest shows of lockdown" by outlets like The Guardian and GQ. This resurgent popularity of The Sopranos raises important analytical questions for media scholarsāhow do audiences understand a complex text like The Sopranos in a radically different televisual and cultural context? Did they adapt the show to fit the particularities of the present moment or was it simply a nostalgic escape from the bleak conditions of the pandemic? Perhaps most importantly though, did the distinct televisual environment of the 2020s bring with it markedly new ways for audiences to understand 'old' shows?
The New Audience for Old TV is the first book to investigate how audiences re-read and re-interpret resurgent shows when watching in new cultural contexts. Based on a series of original research interviews with young fans, it considers how new contexts of interpretation, including the COVID-19 pandemic, Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD), and post #MeToo gender politics, informed the unique experience of watching. Using the metaphor of the anamorphic painting, it introduces the analytical framework of a 'retrospective reading' to reveal the new meanings that are being made available for 'old' TV.
Ultimately, The New Audience for Old TV uncovers fresh insights into audiences' experiences with 'prestige' TV and the new avenues of meaning-making in the age of streaming.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half Title
- Series
- Title
- Copyright
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Whatās With All the Tony Soprano Memes? The Sopranos Experience in 2020
- 2 āItās Called Streaming, Tā: Shifting Interpretive Contexts and The Sopranos As a āNewā Text
- 3 The Sopranos As a Slow-Moving Apocalypse During the COVID-19 Pandemic
- 4 āAdriana Reminds Me So Much of Fergieā: Nostalgia, Pandemic, and No Tony
- 5 āLet Them Tear Each Otherās Throats Outā: Reconsidering the Feminist Cultural Work of The Sopranos
- 6 āItās Like a Fight Club Situationā: Audience Understandings of Gender in The Sopranos
- 7 Conclusion
- Index