Here are 100 books that The TV Crime Drama fans have personally recommended if you like
The TV Crime Drama.
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My mother called me a “television junkie.” In graduate school, where TV was not yet considered a worthwhile scholarly endeavor, I became enthralled by Twin Peaks and Roseanne. Rebelliously, I thought both had so much to say about gender studies and theories of postmodernism. Absent of an official curriculum, I started reading and writing about television history, medium specificity, genre theory and seriality. I got my PhD and published articles on film, TV, and my book. Since 1992, I have developed several television studies courses for our small media studies department: Crime Drama, Reality TV, Gender and Genre on Television, Transmedia Adaptations, and Media Rituals.
It is not easy to find books in English about German television series, even if they are big hits on a globally accessible streaming platform. I love this book because it explores every facet of the rich audio-visual tapestry that is the period crime drama Babylon Berlin.
Given its complex narrative and allusion to specific events, the history buff in me wanted to know whether the specific atrocities (e.g., “Blood May”) were portrayed accurately, but I was similarly intrigued to read more about the pop music, club, and fashion scenes of Weimar era Berlin. The scholars’ different critical approaches enriched my viewing experience of the show’s third season immensely.
The essays in this collection address the German television series Babylon Berlin and explore its unique contribution to contemporary visual culture. Since its inception in 2017 the series, a neo-noir thriller set in Berlin in the final years of the Weimar republic, has reached audiences throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas and has been met with both critical and popular acclaim. As a visual work rife with historical and contemporary citations Babylon Berlin offers its audience a panoramic view of politics, crime, culture, gender, and sexual relations in the German capital. Focusing especially on the intermedial and transhistorical dimensions of…
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
My mother called me a “television junkie.” In graduate school, where TV was not yet considered a worthwhile scholarly endeavor, I became enthralled by Twin Peaks and Roseanne. Rebelliously, I thought both had so much to say about gender studies and theories of postmodernism. Absent of an official curriculum, I started reading and writing about television history, medium specificity, genre theory and seriality. I got my PhD and published articles on film, TV, and my book. Since 1992, I have developed several television studies courses for our small media studies department: Crime Drama, Reality TV, Gender and Genre on Television, Transmedia Adaptations, and Media Rituals.
I am a fan of Nordic noir, and whenever I am in the middle of a Norwegian, Danish, or Finnish series, I always want to know more about the local aspects that I am missing.
As one of the earliest books covering European crime dramas in English, the individual chapters helped me understand the genre’s appeal over other genres, what motivated the different cultural depictions of local and national tensions, and how this, in turn, impacted global distribution and reception of crime series.
On top of this, the intriguing case studies gave me new crime dramas to add to my ever-growing watchlist. A win-win.
This book is the first to focus on the role of European television crime drama on the international market. As a genre, the television crime drama has enjoyed a long and successful career, routinely serving as a prism from which to observe the local, national and even transnational issues that are prevalent in society. This extensive volume explores a wide range of countries, from the US to European countries such as Spain, Italy, the Scandinavian countries, Germany, England and Wales, in order to reveal the very currencies that are at work in the global production and circulation of the TV…
My mother called me a “television junkie.” In graduate school, where TV was not yet considered a worthwhile scholarly endeavor, I became enthralled by Twin Peaks and Roseanne. Rebelliously, I thought both had so much to say about gender studies and theories of postmodernism. Absent of an official curriculum, I started reading and writing about television history, medium specificity, genre theory and seriality. I got my PhD and published articles on film, TV, and my book. Since 1992, I have developed several television studies courses for our small media studies department: Crime Drama, Reality TV, Gender and Genre on Television, Transmedia Adaptations, and Media Rituals.
Growing up with the German Tatort (Crime Scene) and also with Columbo and Kojak, I always wanted to revisit these entertaining crime dramas from today’s perspective. How do they fare amidst the continuing proliferation of single white men as lead detectives on network and streaming platforms (Sugar, Lincoln Lawyer, etc.) and when compared to the more diverse representation in Dark Winds, Luther, and True Detective?
Hastie’s book provided rich fodder for my lingering curiosity in covering behind-the-scenes aspects, exploring what made Columbo resonate with network viewers trained on Dragnet, and why Peter Falk’s character became such an archetypical detective figure for global television.
For decades, generations of television fans have been enraptured by Lt. Columbo, played by Peter Falk, as he unravels clues to catch killers who believe they are above the law. In her investigation of the 1970s series cocreated by Richard Levinson and William Link, Amelie Hastie explores television history through an emphasis on issues of stardom, authorship, and its interconnections with classical and New Hollywood cinema. Through close textual analysis, attentive to issues of class relations and connections to other work by Falk as well as Levinson and Link, Columbo: Make Me a Perfect Murder sees American television as an…
Crossing is a vividly human re-imagining of the love, sacrifices, and accomplishments that two Chinese brothers - American Immigrants - experience as they travel to California to build the Transcontinental Railroad.
My mother called me a “television junkie.” In graduate school, where TV was not yet considered a worthwhile scholarly endeavor, I became enthralled by Twin Peaks and Roseanne. Rebelliously, I thought both had so much to say about gender studies and theories of postmodernism. Absent of an official curriculum, I started reading and writing about television history, medium specificity, genre theory and seriality. I got my PhD and published articles on film, TV, and my book. Since 1992, I have developed several television studies courses for our small media studies department: Crime Drama, Reality TV, Gender and Genre on Television, Transmedia Adaptations, and Media Rituals.
I love reading, rereading, and teaching with this book. Whenever I open it, I learn something new or remember crucial aspects that enhance my understanding of television as a medium, my enjoyment of specific shows or genres I watch, and find new ways of engaging with production, representation, and performance aspects.
I have now taught with it since his earlier 2011 volume (Critical Approaches) and am only sad that this one appears to be the final edition. It is chock-full of intriguing case studies and deft explanations of what makes television television.
For over two decades, Television has served as the foremost guide to television studies, offering readers an in-depth understanding of how television programs and commercials are made and how they function as producers of meaning. Author Jeremy G. Butler shows the ways in which camera style, lighting, set design, editing, and sound combine to produce meanings that viewers take away from their television experience.
Highlights of the fifth edition include:
An entirely new chapter by Amanda D. Lotz on television in the contemporary digital media environment. Discussions integrated throughout on the latest developments in screen culture during the…
Kimberly Potts is a TV and pop culture journalist and author who believes television is not only the ultimate entertainment medium, but is also the ultimate cultural common denominator. She has written for The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Vulture, The Hollywood Reporter, TV Guide, The Los Angeles Times, Yahoo, Variety, People.com, US Weekly, E! Online, Thrillist, Esquire.com, AOL, Movies.com, and The Wrap. Kimberly also co-hosts the Pop Literacyand #Authoring podcasts, and is a member of the Television Critics Association, Critics Choice Association, Authors Guild, and American Society of Journalist and Authors.
The most important aspect of television history is, of course, the shows. And though there have been hundreds, at least, more series that will need to be added to the book since it was published in 2015, it is a gorgeously designed collection of viewing suggestions. And like any great guidebook, it’s also just a fun way for any TV fan to revisit the best series of the past, arranged by decades, and including American and international programming.
The most groundbreaking and important must-see shows from the 1950s to today’s golden age of television. This latest addition to the best-selling and highly acclaimed 1001 series showcases the best programs produced for television from its inception to the bumper crop of great shows being produced in today’s era of original cable programming and digital streaming. Offering a critical evaluation of the most important and groundbreaking TV programs ever created, this book tracks television’s evolution through decades of social, cultural, and stylistic change. Included are shows that broke new ground, influenced the future, and left a lasting mark, ranging from…
I like understanding television as culturally situated. Television is constructed along a number of sites: cultural, institutional, ideological, historical, or via the different ways audiences understand it. Interrogating television and what it does as a medium was historically relevant because it was a mass medium. But how can we evaluate the medium in times of highly fragmented audiences? Because of this, exploring Netflix as a new form of ‘television’ has become so important to me. The authors all try to get to terms with how television has changed over its short existence. This helps us understand the medium better, as well as our current moment.
Dunleavy explores what complexity means for contemporary ‘quality’ TV. She focusses on the narrative structures, creative strategies, and style of contemporary television.
For me, what stands out about this book is how it explores the interrelationship between recent technological changes and what we understand as television. This results in a redefinition of television.
When writing the second edition of my book, I found the different ways people have conceptualized contemporary television especially important.
This book examines the creative strategies, narrative characteristics, industrial practices and stylistic tendencies of complex serial drama. Exemplified by shows like HBO's The Sopranos, AMC's Mad Men and Breaking Bad, Showtime's Dexter, and Netflix's Stranger Things, complex serials are distinguished by their conceptual originality, narrative complexity, transgressive lead characters and serial allure. As a drama form that continues to expand and diversify in today's television, HBO's Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones, Netflix's Orange Is the New Black and Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale provide further examples. Dunleavy investigates the strategies that underpin the innovations, influence and success of complex serial…
Almost Home is a fictional retelling of the last great tragedy of the Civil War.
In late April 1865, almost 2,000 newly freed Union prisoners of war are packed onto the steamer Sultana, in poor repair and with a listed capacity of 376 passengers. Among them are four Indiana soldiers…
Becoming a mother reshaped me in ways I’m still wondering at now, two decades on. I’ve had to find ways to resist the repressive cultural mythology surrounding motherhood—the pressure I felt to suddenly become a perfect, self-sacrificing vessel for my children’s optimized development. When I read stories about flawed mothers—women, queer and straight, struggling beneath the magnitude of the job, yet fiercely loving their children all the way through—I felt I could breathe a little bit, could handle the task with a little more good humor and forgiveness, for myself, my partner, and my kids. Read a book, bust a myth, go hug your mom.
I devoured Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet (four novels that trace a lifetime friendship between two women living in a deeply patriarchal mid-twentieth-century Italy) in a single summer a few years back, and when I got to the end of those few thousand pages, I felt as though I wanted to start right over at the beginning again. Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay is the third novel in the series, and I name it here because it’s the novel in which Elena—the book’s protagonist, and a writer herself—becomes a mother. Elena has a modern marriage compared to her friend Lina’s, but still, she finds the expectations and demands of motherhood difficult to reconcile with her own creative ambitions. Ferrante represents that central struggle with arresting honesty—a captivating read.
I’m Victoria Twead, the New York Times bestselling author of Chickens, Mules and Two Old Fools and the Old Fools series. However, after living in a remote mountain village in Spain for eleven years, and owning probably the most dangerous cockerel in Europe, we migrated to Australia to watch our new granddaughters thrive amongst kangaroos and koalas. We love Australia, it is our home now. Another joyous life-chapter has begun.
Even before Archibald Edmund Filby embarked on his famous African expeditions, he took advantage of a government-sponsored scheme to migrate to Australia. It was 1921 and his daredevil nature soon had him performing reckless feats as a buckjumper in a popular circus rodeo. Whilst trekking through this vast continent, he embraced the opportunity to become a jockey, photographer, actor, pilot, car salesman, and pearl diver.
Not only was A E Filby a famous British explorer, but he was also my Uncle Archie. What a shame he never saw his memoirs published before his death in 1942.
Even before Archibald Edmund Filby (Victoria Twead's roguish uncle) embarked on his famous African expeditions, he took advantage of a government-sponsored scheme to migrate to Australia. It was 1921 and his daredevil nature soon had him performing reckless feats as a buckjumper in a popular circus rodeo.
Whilst trekking through this vast continent, he embraced the opportunity to become a jockey, photographer, actor, pilot, car-salesman and pearl diver. But Australia was just a stepping stone for Archie to explore many other colourful far-eastern countries including India, Singapore, Borneo, Java and China.
Horizon Fever II covers explorer A E Filby's early…
I am an African Australian author of several novels and fiction collections, and a finalist in the 2022 World Fantasy Award. I was announced in the honor list of the 2022 Otherwise Fellowships for ‘doing exciting work in gender and speculative fiction’. I have a master's degree with distinction in distributed computer systems, a master's degree in creative writing, and a PhD in creative writing. The short story is my sweetest spot. I have a deep passion for the literary speculative, and I write across genres and forms, with award-winning genre-bending works. I am especially curious about stories of culture, diversity, climate change, writing the other and betwixt.
The quality and production of this phenomenal hardcover of imposing size are mesmeric. Its metaphoric text on mental illness and accompanying artwork are visually appealing and poignantly immersive. Transformative text transports the reader, any reader—child, young adult, adult—to beauty and hurt, evolution and transformation. The perfect book for anyone living with psychosis or other illness, and for everyone else to understand the fragility of debilitating conditions.
Creativity, Teaching, and Natural Inspiration
by
Mark Doherty,
I have woven numerous delightful and descriptive true life stories, many from my adventures as an outdoorsman and singer songwriter, into my life as a high school English teacher. I think you'll find this work both entertaining as well as informative, and I hope you enjoy the often lighthearted repartee…
I’m Victoria Twead, the New York Times bestselling author of Chickens, Mules and Two Old Fools and the Old Fools series. However, after living in a remote mountain village in Spain for eleven years, and owning probably the most dangerous cockerel in Europe, we migrated to Australia to watch our new granddaughters thrive amongst kangaroos and koalas. We love Australia, it is our home now. Another joyous life-chapter has begun.
When I was a little girl, I remember being given this book, and I loved it. I read it from cover to cover, again and again, which fired my fascination for Australia. Seriously, who wouldn’t be enthralled by a bad-tempered pudding with impossibly skinny arms and legs, called Albert?
Perhaps The Magic Pudding had a large part in my choice to leave Europe and put down roots in the fabulous country of Australia. The book was first published in 1918 but that just proves how well it has stood the test of time.
The Magic Pudding - Being the Adventures of Bunyip Bluegum and his friends Bill Barnacle and Sam Sawnoff by Norman Lindsay.
The Magic Pudding: Being The Adventures of Bunyip Bluegum and his friends Bill Barnacle and Sam Sawnoff is an Australian children's book written and illustrated by Norman Lindsay. It is a comic fantasy, and a classic of Australian children's literature. The story is set in Australia with humans mixing with anthropomorphic animals. It tells of a magic pudding which, no matter how often it is eaten, always reforms in order to be eaten again. It is owned by three…
