ABSTRACT
In this introduction, McCollum and Monteverde provide the initial and continuing impetus for this edited collection, arguing that by offering informed speculation about the intersection of popular culture’s social and political underpinnings – with its aesthetic range and critical promise – we achieve a deeper and more rooted understanding of the dominant set of ideals and beliefs that motivate the actions of a society in our time. The co-editors, who are situated in Northern Ireland, where ground-breaking fantasy series Game of Thrones has had a very real (economic) impact, draw on HBO’s current legacy (its market positioning, political economy, style and technology), tracing the network’s humble beginnings to its present status as the small screen’s biggest player. The co-editors situate the recent HBO shows discussed within this collection, such as Game of Thrones (2011+), Girls (2012–2017), Insecure (2016+), Looking (2014–2015), The Comeback (2005, 2014), The Leftovers (2014–2017), True Detective (2014–2015), Silicon Valley (2014+), Veep (2012+) and Vinyl (2016), within the renowned and hotly-contested terrain of ‘quality television’, all the while cautioning that not all ‘quality TV’ makes for ‘good’ television.
How can we ignore, McCollum and Monteverde query, the gratuitous and heavy-handed rape scenes in HBO’s prestige, top-tier drama series Game of Thrones, especially in an era in which a candidate President of the United States becomes president despite recordings of him bragging about ‘grabbing’ women? In an election cycle that saw Hillary Clinton branded a ‘nasty woman’, the co-editors argue, Selina Meyer, the ultimate nasty woman of HBO’s political comedy, Veep, becomes especially worthy of serious study. At a time when Neo-Nazis and white nationalists openly march in the streets, McCollum and Monteverde stress, we must sharpen our focus on representations of race in critically acclaimed dramas. This book aims to counter the frustration some may feel with contemporary – and albeit surreal – politics, by delving deeper, looking harder, and really taking seriously the cultural politics of TV (and particularly the ‘quality’ TV pioneered by HBO). McCollum and Monteverde provide a road map to the book parts of HBO’s Original Voices (Part I: Authorship, gender, reception, Part II: Race, place, power, risk and Part III: Consumption, criticism, fandom) drawing on the internationally recognised expertise of senior academics, and on the particular specialisms of emerging scholars, arguing that the critical, contextual and cross-disciplinary examinations of HBO shows within this collection, position popular culture, once more, as a significant site of cultural politics.
