beccaelizabeth's dreamwidth journal

So, finished the book 'Something completely different', which seems to be about how actually US TV isn't completely different because it copies a lot of UK TV. And also shows a lot of it with a US wrapper on, like Masterpiece Theatre which had an introduction and stuff. Lots of chapters about the influence of UK TV. And arguing with the idea of cultural imperialism, because it's not complicated enough.

I like this book. Is full of theory stuff. Big thinking.

... I feel like I have significantly less than big thinking myself, but never mind, I have read it, that's an achievement right there. *nods*

Also shows me how very little I know about TV. I mean I'm not surprised I don't know US TV - and it was fascinating finding out about all these networks and affiliates and cable channels and how PBS was copying the BBC except for how it wasn't. But it was a bit of a surprise to find how few of the UK shows it talks about I'd heard of. I mean I'd heard of quite a lot, but then there's a ton more it's painting as a huge influence on US TV, and I hadn't heard of half of them.

There was a bit about the Avengers, and how it was really popular because US TV at the time mostly had women contained in the domestic sphere, and then suddenly there's this woman doing martial arts. And then they had to change women because she quit, only the new woman was more about being curvy and looked at than about doing, and that didn't work and that somehow surprised people. Containing women in the male gaze even if they couldn't keep them in the house. That was a neat section.

Also there was something on comedy that seemed to say that the UK invented political satire and the US had to import it. ;-p And then there was a lot about Monty Python and the carnivalesque. And quite a lot about Bakhtin that makes me think I should go read relevant stuff. So that's good.

Sometimes I read stuff and I feel kind of yaay that everyone's having this big thinking and I can join in. And sometimes I read stuff and feel like everyone's had the big thinking already and my small thinking isn't ever going to contribute a whole hell of a lot.


And quite often I finish a textbook and wonder if, really, that's going to help me write better Doctor Who / Torchwood / Buffy etc.

... actually I think yes, because if you see how things work you can make them work better. And all the meta about race and all the feminist critique and the whole toolkit of thinking about what things are saying and not saying and making natural and making odd and trying to paper over and trying to shut out... that all helps when you look back at something you've written and find all the bits that make you *facepalm*. And maybe help arrange your brain to make *facepalm* less likely, though I think it's part of the human condition sort of in general.

I'd read a lot of complaining about the US adapting things and missing the point. Well now I've read a book by someone from a US perspective saying why they adapted things and how some of them get really successful and what the point was to them. That's good to know too.

... frequently annoying, because the ideologies it stomps into things frequently are, but good to know.