As commenter

• In Media Res
  Re: “Yes we can, even though we say Knope”

  Placing The Middle

  By

  Christine Becker University of Notre Dame

  Wednesday, June 6, 2012 — 10:18 am

   Sue Heck does seem like a budding Leslie Knope-- in Indiana, no less. In fact, each show cited is set in rural/suburban places and puts working or lower middle class life at the forefront (though Parks & Rec in a different way than The Middle). Perha ...
• In Media Res
  Re: Leslie Knope - My Feminist Heroine

  Poehler

  By

  Christine Becker University of Notre Dame

  Wednesday, June 6, 2012 — 10:22 am

   That's a really interesting point, Amanda. We all know the story of P&R's rocky S1 start, that the show didn't hit its stride until the writers figured out how to properly calibrate Leslie Knope. Perhaps part of that was seeing what th ...
• In Media Res
  Re: Ron Swanson: Working (Or Not) From the Inside

  Bad government

  By

  Christine Becker University of Notre Dame

  Wednesday, June 6, 2012 — 10:24 am

   Great description of the show's idealistic yet nuanced portrait of government. " Good government isn’t about one or the other, it’s about working together. "  *Checks today's political headlines* Sigh... ...
• In Media Res
  Re: The Trouble with Context in Archiving Soaps' Pivotal Moments

  Similar to Teaching Challenge

  By

  Christine Becker University of Notre Dame

  Thursday, February 16, 2012 — 3:51 pm

   Excellent points here, Sam, and the archiving challenge seems similar to the teaching challenge. While I think it is important to teach soaps as part of classes on broader TV Studies topics, it is nearly impossible to have the students "get" so ...
• In Media Res
  Re: Soaps Online: The Revolution That Wasn't?

  Telenovela Comparison

  By

  Christine Becker University of Notre Dame

  Friday, February 17, 2012 — 10:26 pm

   One soap form that hasn't come up yet this week is the telenovela, and the ones on Univision are doing great these days, even leading to versions with English subtitles to broaden their appeal. I've never watched one, I've only seen clips, ...
• In Media Res
  Re: Can This Soap Be Saved?

  Characters & Sexuality

  By

  Christine Becker University of Notre Dame

  Tuesday, February 14, 2012 — 2:47 pm

  I now return the compliment to you, Elana. That is one amazing clip. And I really like how your post captures two key aspects of soap greatness, depth of character reference and social relevance. In regard to the former, OLTL did take some fan criticism i ...
• In Media Res
  Re: Can This Soap Be Saved?

  EastEnders

  By

  Christine Becker University of Notre Dame

  Tuesday, February 14, 2012 — 5:06 pm

  I 'm really glad you and Sandy brought up EastEnders (which I've watched some of; I'm not really familiar with Coronation Street, only watched a handful of episodes of Emmerdale). The half-hour running time is a very significant difference ...
• In Media Res
  Re: Cynicism Takes a Beach Trip: The Audience-Network Contract of Summer TV

  Summer Life & Death

  By

  Christine Becker University of Notre Dame

  Wednesday, July 14, 2010 — 7:09 pm

  I love the idea of the season having a programming zeitgeist. Of course, as I'm writing about for Friday, some of us are catching up on the weightier shows on dvd during summer. Perhaps there's a difference between how we react to what we choose ...
• In Media Res
  Re: Summer Binging: What will it make you do?

  The Clip & Season

  By

  Christine Becker University of Notre Dame

  Friday, July 16, 2010 — 4:55 pm

  @Kelli: Picking a clip can be the hardest part of composing these posts, but as soon as I saw this promo, I knew that was the one. I even changed what I was going to write about to better fit with it. Maybe we should organize a whole IMR week around it.:- ...
• In Media Res
  Re: Westen Meets Lawson: Formula as Brand and the Potential of a USA Network Genre

  Network as Genre

  By

  Christine Becker University of Notre Dame

  Monday, July 12, 2010 — 3:56 pm

  There’s such an intriguing set of terms and relationships here: channel, brand, genre, franchise. Piecing out how those elements operate in the cableverse today across programming and marketing would make for a great article. It’s also fun to think of  HB ...

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