The Aesthetics of Nostalgia TV

Nostalgia, Alex Bevan demonstrates, is a material practice that brings the past into the present and vice versa, in ways that are complex, contradictory, and deeply political. The Aesthetics of Nostalgia TV takes us on a wide-ranging tour of the materiality of contemporary television and how particular practices evoke, remake, and comment upon the past, be it through the recycling of sets in Desperate Housewives, the modernist furniture of Ugly Betty, or the shape and style of ice cubes, flatware, and shirt-dresses in Mad Men. Expertly weaving together fashion, design, and architectural history with interviews of those who supply the below-the-line labor of television's production, set, and costume design, The Aesthetics of Nostalgia TV expands and reimagines the possibilities of television criticism. * Grant Bollmer, Assistant Professor of Media Studies, North Carolina State University, USA, and Honorary Associate, Department of Media and Communications, University of Sydney, Australia * With its attention to below the line creativity, intergenerational modalities and the unstable nostalgia that governs so many representations of baby boomer culture, this book travels down many productive paths. In so doing, it offers an exceptionally holistic account of US television. * Diane Negra, Professor of Film Studies and Screen Culture, University College Dublin, Ireland *