![]() ![]() “The Sopranos” was challenging in the way classic literature is challenging, coded for “worthy ” the kind of entertainment that often proved difficult to consume, which was what made it deserving of respect. Something like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” which aired around the same time, was not. ![]() ![]() In contrast, reductive, “guilty pleasure” television embraced the romantic comedy - it was feminine, frivolous, and less important.Ī show like “The Sopranos,” Nussbaum offers, was cool. Television considered high-brow or transcendent was gritty, violent, masculine. The question at the heart of it is this: What types of television are taken seriously, and why? The answer she arrives at is, perhaps unsurprisingly, one revolving around gender. Woven through the collection is a thesis on television, one that both celebrates the medium and rips it apart. It has something for everyone: musings on presumed TV royalty a la “The Sopranos,” sitcom trailblazers like “Black-ish,” even pieces on “Sex and the City” and “Vanderpump Rules.” Nussbaum’s critical voice is all candor, flitting from playful to biting, self-deprecating to bluntly self-critical as she takes us through her world of the small screen. ![]() It’s a standard collection of essays, compiling some of Nussbaum’s best television criticism - from her earlier work at New York Magazine to her ongoing work as the television critic at The New Yorker. A t first glance, Emily Nussbaum’s “I Like To Watch: Arguing My Way Through the TV Revolution” feels familiar. ![]()
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