{"title":"‘You’re not progressive enough for this’: Pre-woke nostalgia and queer disruption in HBO revival And Just Like That …","authors":"Kate McNicholas Smith","doi":"10.1177/17496020261474827","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17496020261474827","url":null,"abstract":"Recent years have seen a trend for televisual remakes and revivals. Such shows must update themselves for contemporary audiences whilst maintaining nostalgic appeal. <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">And Just Like That…,</jats:italic> HBO’s <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">Sex and the City</jats:italic> revival <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">,</jats:italic> does so by diversifying and engaging with ‘woke TV’, but also with reactionary discourses. The series reveals the tensions of contemporary returns to the past, where nostalgia might extend beyond a <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">narrative</jats:italic> world to a <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">social</jats:italic> world. Thus, this article identifies ‘pre-woke nostalgia’: a regressive draw to imagined ‘pre-woke’ times. This is both epitomised and complicated in newly queer Miranda and controversial new character, Che Diaz.","PeriodicalId":51917,"journal":{"name":"Critical Studies in Television","volume":"61 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2026-08-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148709607","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Innovating the transnational TV: Cultural roots and affect in the production design of MasterChef Spain","authors":"Andoni Iturbe Tolosa","doi":"10.1177/17496020261468633","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17496020261468633","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines how production design functions as a mechanism of cultural adaptation in transnational television formats through a case study of <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">MasterChef Spain</jats:italic> . It argues that innovation emerges not only through technological or narrative change, but through the spatial reconfiguration of televisual experience. Through comparative analysis with the UK, US and Australian editions, the article demonstrates how <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">MasterChef Spain</jats:italic> reshapes the global format according to the expressive and ensemble-oriented conventions of Spanish television and theatrical traditions. Production design therefore emerges as a central site through which global formats are culturally re-signified and affectively anchored.","PeriodicalId":51917,"journal":{"name":"Critical Studies in Television","volume":"461 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2026-08-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148693269","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Talismanic posthuman childhood in Tales of Arcadia","authors":"Jane Hanley","doi":"10.1177/17496020261468637","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17496020261468637","url":null,"abstract":"The conceptual fluidity of narrative in the children’s contemporary fantasy television series <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">Trollhunters</jats:italic> , from the Tales of Arcadia universe, emerges from techno-magic and non-human modes of being. Uncontainability and monstrous and object-mediated transformation define both aesthetic and subject matter. Creaturely humans, humane trolls, porous worlds and malleable realities, as well as magical objects transform that with which they come into contact. Contemporary iterations of established fantasy tropes, particularly the catalytic ‘thing’—offer useful insights into key aspects of posthuman childhood. Objects represent our affective orientation towards the world, and their talismanic quality foregrounds relational potential rather than depositing fixed meaning.","PeriodicalId":51917,"journal":{"name":"Critical Studies in Television","volume":"41 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2026-08-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148693285","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Seemingly mundane yet important: The forest’s role in Netflix’s Young Royals","authors":"Isabelle Strömstedt, Emelie Fälton","doi":"10.1177/17496020261463966","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17496020261463966","url":null,"abstract":"This article demonstrates how the seemingly mundane Swedish forest functions as a key spatial frame driving the narrative in a Swedish youth drama. Even though the forest is an uncommented part of the characters’ lifeworlds, it still affects the storyline by enabling key developments that would be improbable in other spatial frames. We demonstrate how the forest can be understood as a subtle border, a safe space, a place for unexpected meetings, and a venue for well-being. By tracing these themes, we argue that the forest is an uncommented spatial frame that advances plot and exposes tensions about class and identity in contemporary teen TV.","PeriodicalId":51917,"journal":{"name":"Critical Studies in Television","volume":"21 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148321822","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Identity, place and belonging in Shetland","authors":"Duncan Petrie","doi":"10.1177/17496020261464035","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17496020261464035","url":null,"abstract":"First broadcast on BBC One in 2013, <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">Shetland</jats:italic> has become the most high-profile and successful networked Scottish TV drama of recent years. In this article I examine the ways in which the show uses the conventions of crime drama to explore the specificity of Shetland as a place and a location, how it informs the plot lines and its relation to the main protagonist, DCI Jimmy Perez’s, sense of identity and belonging. This in turn indicates the importance of <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">Shetland</jats:italic> to both the vitality of this perennially popular genre and to questions of national representation and identity in post-devolutionary Scotland.","PeriodicalId":51917,"journal":{"name":"Critical Studies in Television","volume":"156 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148321823","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Decoding the political allegory in the Syrian comedy al-Kherba","authors":"Malek J. Zuraikat","doi":"10.1177/17496020261462005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17496020261462005","url":null,"abstract":"The Syrian television sitcom <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">al-Kherba</jats:italic> (‘the Ruin’, 2011-present) can be viewed as a political allegory that dramatises the authoritarian Ba’th regime in Syria (1971–2024). Analysing the village-setting and character dynamics in numerous scenes distributed throughout the entirety of the <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">musalsal</jats:italic> ’s 30 episodes, the paper argues that <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">al-Kherba</jats:italic> invites an allegorical reading of the humoristic discourse arising from the integration of sociopolitical realism and idealism. The paper concludes that <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">al-Kherba</jats:italic> , making available an allegorical reading of authoritarian governance, testifies to the capacity of television comedy drama to transmit political messages beyond the limits of everyday laughter.","PeriodicalId":51917,"journal":{"name":"Critical Studies in Television","volume":"37 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148286095","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book review: Spanish-language television: Cultural and industrial transformations Avilés-SantiagoManuel G.BáezJillian M. (2025). Spanish-Language Television. Cultural and Industrial Transformations. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. 208 pp. ISBN 9781477331163 (print) ISBN 9781477331187 (ebk).","authors":"Ruth Gutiérrez Delgado","doi":"10.1177/17496020261454973","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17496020261454973","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51917,"journal":{"name":"Critical Studies in Television","volume":"266 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148289647","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book review: Writing Women for Film & Television: A Guide to Creating Complex Female Characters WeinsteinAnna (2024) Writing Women for Film & Television: A Guide to Creating Complex Female Characters, London and New York: Routledge. 193 pp. ISBN 9780367254018 (pbk), ISBN 9780429287596 (ebk).","authors":"Tian Chunlin","doi":"10.1177/17496020261454956","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17496020261454956","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51917,"journal":{"name":"Critical Studies in Television","volume":"60 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148286099","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Around the world in 45 minutes: An analysis of representational strategies in Flemish factual-entertaining travel shows","authors":"Hannah Boen, Eduard Cuelenaere","doi":"10.1177/17496020261459369","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17496020261459369","url":null,"abstract":"While Flemish travel programmes enjoy widespread popularity, the ways in which they negotiate representations of destinations, cultures, and populations remain largely underexplored. This paper examines representational strategies employed in four factual-entertaining Flemish travel programmes (2018–2022) using textual analysis. In addition, expert interviews ( <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">n</jats:italic> = 4) were employed to examine how producers themselves frame and negotiate these representations. Our textual findings reveal how Flemish travel shows frequently reproduce stereotypical and reductive portrayals of other cultures. Insights from interviews suggest that these outcomes stem from the difficulty of balancing institutional constraints and genre constraints.","PeriodicalId":51917,"journal":{"name":"Critical Studies in Television","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148286096","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Creative innovation, global engagement and public outcomes: The significance of Netflix’s Adolescence","authors":"Trisha Dunleavy","doi":"10.1177/17496020261455492","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/17496020261455492","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores the UK significance of Netflix’s <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">Adolescence</jats:italic> in three areas. First is why <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">Adolescence</jats:italic> was commissioned for Netflix, a multinational subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) service, rather than for one of the UK’s PSBs and what this conveys about the current position of UK-produced high-end dramas and Netflix’s involvement in them. Second is the creative genesis of <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">Adolescence</jats:italic> and what narrative and aesthetic strategies were important to the story it tells. Third are the public outcomes of <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">Adolescence</jats:italic> , its connections with the UK’s PSB drama traditions, and the significance of its near-global release.","PeriodicalId":51917,"journal":{"name":"Critical Studies in Television","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148286097","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}