Television: A Biography [Hardcover]

A large, lavishly illustrated, erudite, and richly analytical look at television and its influence. Thomson closely examines the mediums cultural impact by taking a largely thematic approach to revealing just how pervasive it has become in our lives.Thomson has written an enthralling and very necessary book about the complex medium of television [which he] considers almost as a life form. [He] loosely divides his book into McLuhan-esque halves, 'The Medium' and 'The Message,' [but] isnt doctrinaire about his construct, and were the better for it as he chats away, making thought-provoking and always entertaining observations about televisions explosive growth. Thomson has trained his singular vision on the dominant medium of our lives, our constant  if not always welcome  companion, tightening its hold on our culture and our minds with a proliferation of portable screens. What readers will take away [is that] you cannot love television and understand its preeminent role in contemporary life without contrary feelings of resentment, disappointment and even outright hatred.The eminent film writer offers a personal celebration of his particular fascinations and a provocative consideration of the ways in which the very mechanics of the medium affect the audience, both as individuals and as a mass culture. Thomson's insights are typically unsparing and acute, and while many of the implications of his argument are troubling, his love and admiration for the best of TV are palpable. A bracing, essential engagement with the ramifications of our lives before the small screen.The film critic brings his idiosyncratic, essayistic approach to this volume about the small screen. Dont expect a formal history; Thomson instead bobs and weaves his way through shows and themes, from The Donna Reed Show and I Love Lucy to Friends (as flimsy and essential as tissue paper) and Breaking Bad (like a novel by a master storyteller).A splendid, panoramic, multi-facetels,