Precarious Locations: Streaming TV and Global Inequalities

Abstract

Combining methods from TV studies, ethnic studies/American studies, and critical geography, this essay analyzes the contradictory relationship between setting and location in three streaming shows: Watchmen, Los Espookys, and Vida. Foregrounding state programs to attract media makers that redistribute wealth upward, from poor people of color to Hollywood, I analyze how TV production intervenes in the politics of place, making visible histories of white supremacy and racial inequality, as well as the popular movements that oppose them.