Over and Over
Performance, Time, and Resonance in Serial Television Drama
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Rutgers University Press
Publishing:14th Jul '26
£28.99
This title is due to be published on 14th July, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
How does serial drama earn, keep, and reward our attention for so long—over episodes, seasons, months, and years? While we know that characters are the focus of story and viewer interest in television fiction, scholars have for decades overlooked the way those characters are performed on-screen and the lure of performance as a key formal and thematic aspect of long-form television storytelling. In Over and Over, Elliott Logan offers close readings of performance in some of the most celebrated television dramas of the century, casting new light on the attractions and significance of the medium's seriality. The book shows how the patterning and expressive resonance of performers on-screen binds together otherwise unconnected episodes of shows like The Sopranos and Mad Men. In doing so, it highlights the provisionality of identity and meaning as crucial to their interest in the sustenance of human relationships over long periods of time. In accounting for the resonance of performance over time in serial drama, this book shows, we find the terms of our own attachment to its compelling depictions of human life
"Over and Over establishes Elliott Logan as one of our most perceptive, sensitive, and incisive critics of the screen arts. This book is a bold and powerful assertion of the value of appreciative criticism in the face of its marginalization within television studies and broader society." - Ted Nannicelli, author of Appreciating the Art of Television: A Philosophical Perspective
"With care and precision in every line, Logan deftly persuades the reader that human performance is the pinnacle achievement of television drama and central to understanding its power. Logan's fluent and expressive writing enriches the American masterpieces that he chooses, as critical eloquence illuminates acting prowess. This book is a triumph of television studies." - James Walters, author of Television and Repetition
"A superb contribution to television aesthetics. Through exquisite close readings of The Sopranos, Homeland, and Mad Men, Logan shows how a standing emphasis on serial accumulation needs to be counterbalanced by a recognition of provisionality: of transient narrative possibilities, of resonances that mutate over time, and of the human face as a perpetual 'object of mystery.'" - Alex Clayton, author of Funny How? Sketch Comedy and the Art of Humor
"We ought to express our gratitude for the satisfaction and comfort of art in ways that rise to the occasion that prompted it. Logan's wonderful and sensitive tracking of some of the finest performances on television is a model of that expression, with eloquence and intelligence that is compelling." - Jason Jacobs, author of Reluctant Sleuths, True Detectives
ISBN: 9781978816985
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 454g
208 pages