ABSTRACT
This chapter try to find an answer to some questions such as why so many television series with antiheroes, and why are there currently so many antiheroes on American television. It shows that the spectator typically merely perceives the antihero as morally preferable due to several low-level effects: the long duration of television series capitalizes on the effects of partiality, and antihero series in particular often use this long-term alignment with the antihero to plead for excuses on his behalf. Both imaginative slumming as vicarious wish-fulfilment and the allure of the transgressive are easier to explain and appear less paradoxical and puzzling if seen as low-level intuitive responses. The spectator enjoys the antihero's transgressions through low-level bodily mechanisms and moral intuitions. The chapter focuses on merely a few related aspects, which are particularly relevant in order to explain the appeal of antihero series, namely the role played by narrative desires and by aesthetic appreciation of the morally transgressive.
