Binge-Watching and Contemporary Television Studies

There is much useful material in this collection, with detailed case studies of series such as J´ulia Havas and Tanya Horeck’s feminist critique of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015-9) and Unbelievable (2019), Stevens’s discussion of fan responses to Starsky and Hutch (1975-79) and Orcun Can’s analysis of the narrative structure of Gilmore Girls (2000-7). The writing is clear and accessible; the evident hesitancy throughout in asserting boundaries and definitions helpfully symbolises the messiness of television and indicates understandable caution on the part of the authors, especially for concepts such as this that circulate outside of academia. -- Brett Mills * Critical Studies on Television *
This book is a welcome addition to research into binge watching. By connecting scholars with each other, it develops a complex picture of what really goes on: that Netflix both disrupts television with its bingeable texts and genres, but that its texts, press coverage and audiences also continue to shape Netflix as television as we know it. * Elke Weissmann, Edge Hill University *
This edited collection restores to binge-watching its full complexity as a phenomenon both historical and new, based on audience, fan and industry-driven practices, circulating transnationally and informing the narrative strategies of bingeable programming. The book argues that grasping binge-watching in its complexity is essential for understanding the pleasures and affordances of contemporary television. * Michael N. Goddard, University of Westminster *