television

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• SOURCE: UChicago News
  5/25/2021
  

  The Hidden History Of “Guerrilla Television”: UChicago Scholars Preserve Decades-Old Videos

  Technological innovation in the 1960s allowed more people to shoot video and push for community-based television. University of Chicago scholars are working to digitize and preserve "guerrilla television." 

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• 5/16/2021
  

  FDR's Indispensable Right-Hand Woman Portrayed Unfairly – Again

  by Kathryn Smith

  A new PBS series on the Norwegian Royal Family's contact with FDR at the outset of World War II takes some liberties with the facts, but is particularly unfair to Marguerite LeHand, who was Roosevelt's de facto chief of staff for years. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  5/6/2021
  

  The Epic Journey to ‘The Underground Railroad’

  Director Barry Jenkins struggled with the ethical implications of making entertainment out of the brutal events narrated in Colson Whitehead's novel "Underground Railroad." He discusses how he decided to go ahead with the miniseries adaptation anyway. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  4/22/2021
  

  Hank Azaria Apologized for Playing Apu on ‘The Simpsons.’ I Accept

  An Indian American actress reflects on the impact of 30 years of the character of Apu on the wildly popular show, arguing it enshrined a performance akin to minstrelsy as the dominant view of South Asians in American culture. 

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• SOURCE: TIME
  4/7/2021
  

  How a New Kung Fu TV Series Is Reclaiming Much More Than Just the Martial Arts

  The reboot of the 1970s series reflects a history of activism by Asian Americans for greater representation and control of their image in popular culture. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  4/6/2021
  

  Review: ‘Exterminate All the Brutes’ Rewrites a Brutal History

  The atrocities documented in Raoul Peck's HBO film series on colonization of the western hemisphere are not news. That's part of what fuels the anger driving the film. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  3/19/2021
  

  In ‘Genius: Aretha,’ Respecting the Mind, Not Just the Soul

  "The full scale of Franklin’s contributions to her own music has long been obscured. She was a gifted songwriter and a superb pianist. In the studio, she was a taskmaster, pushing herself and her collaborators until they captured the exact sound she heard in her head — not easy for a Black female musician of her time."

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  3/12/2021
  

  Ken Burns Still Has Faith in a Shared American Story

  "The most important thing about me talking about race now is to say that I am in a position where I have to be quiet. You have to be quiet. There are other voices that need to speak. The dismantling of white supremacy is not just white people continually talking about the dismantling of white supremacy. You have to shut up and listen."

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• SOURCE: Hollywood Progressive
  2/28/2021
  

  Reflecting on Capitalism Through "I Care a Lot"

  by Walter G. Moss

  The new Netflix film "I Care a Lot" features a protagonist who preys on the elderly as an appointed conservator, and reflects the dangers of a social safety net entrusted to the profit motive. 

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• SOURCE: Hyperallergic
  3/1/2021
  

  An Invaluable Black Public Broadcasting Archive Is Now Accessible Online

  The American Archive of Public Broadcasting is a repository of interviews and broadcast content dealing with the spectrum of African American history and political activism. 

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• SOURCE: The New Yorker
  2/17/2021
  

  The Original Shock of AIDS in “It’s a Sin”

  The British show "It's a Sin" reconstructs the emergence of AIDS in London through the story of a group of flatmates working to reconcile fear and affirmation. 

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• 2/7/2020
  

  Unforgettable Images, and Something New in TV News

  by Ron Steinman

  A month past the Capitol Riots, a veteran television news journalist observes that the coverage of the chaotic protest and breach of the Capitol relied on something new: masses of journalists and citizens (including the rioters) recording video on their phones where TV cameras couldn't operate, forming a rich and important composite of the day's events. 

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  12/29/2020
  

  The Life in "The Simpsons" Is No Longer Attainable

  In the 1990s, "The Simpsons" drew humor by putting bizarre dysfunction in the context of middle class suburban banality. Today it's the idea of homeownership paid for by a stable single income that seems outlandish.

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• SOURCE: USA Today
  12/5/2020
  

  Historians Fact-Check 'Mank': Who Really Wrote 'Citizen Kane?' And Does 'Rosebud' Have A Hidden Meaning?

  Film historians suggest the new Netflix drama overstates Frank Mankiewicz's influence over the final form of "Citizen Kane" and takes some other liberties with the facts. 

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  12/3/2020
  

  The New Comedy of American Decline

  Two new comedy series revisit the trope of the American abroad; one works because it looks critically, if humorously, at the idea of American exceptionalism. 

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• SOURCE: Labor and Working Class History Association
  11/27/2020
  

  Wishbone of The Good Lord Bird

  by Mark Lause

  "In the end, The Good Lord Bird spins a worthwhile and entertaining yarn, but each episode starts with the unfortunate and misleading words: 'All of this is true.  Most of it happened'."

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• SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
  11/12/2020
  

  ‘The Reagans’ Review: Challenging a Leader’s Legacy

  If the new Showtime documentary wishes to undermine the legacy of Ronald Reagan, one reviewer suggests it ultimately makes the 40th President more sympathetic and appealing. 

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  11/11/2020
  

  "The Crown" Takes the Shine Off Queen Elizabeth’s Reign

  In its sharp and splashy fourth season, the show finally criticizes Elizabeth for her ignorance, characterizing her as a ruler whose stubborn devotion to tradition makes her and her family out-of-touch fools caught off guard by change. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/12/2020
  

  ‘The Reagans’ Review: Making America Great Again, Round 1

  "The series provides a steady succession of parallels between Reagan and Donald J. Trump, none labeled as such but all difficult to miss."

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• SOURCE: Vox
  11/10/2020
  

  Everything About Netflix’s Hillbilly Elegy Movie Is Awful (Review)

  "It strips out Vance’s sociopolitical commentary entirely, which, however you feel about the commentary, leaves the story without an all-important ingredient: a political and sociological point."