Assoc. Professor Barbara Selznick is the author of a new book published this month. In TV’s American Dream: US Television after the Great Recession, Selznick examines the U.S. television industry and its pursuit of audiences whose ideas about hope, fairness, work, and economic class were shaped by the Great Recession. Exploring shows across platforms from legacy networks to Netflix, she takes a deep dive into TV’s representations of the American Dream.
Each chapter of Selznick’s book focuses on a particular strategy mobilized in the second decade of the new century to speak to audiences about their expectations for and concerns about the Dream. Bringing together research on industrial practices with an examination of sociocultural context, TV’s American Dream demonstrates how interconnected forces give rise to the television programs that reinforce and redefine audiences’ ideas about the world in which they live.
“Before the U.S. could recover from the Great Recession, new sociocultural issues emerged—Black Lives Matter, MeToo, immigration debates, COVID-19, and Trump’s re-election,” says Selznick. “These challenges raised big questions about ideals of the American Dream like equity, opportunities for upward mobility, and the complicated concept of “merit.”
“Since I finished the book, streaming has reshaped film and TV, contributing to the 2023 WGA strike. Millennials, once the prime audience, are aging out, while Gen Z prefers content on social media as much as (or more than) traditional TV. Yet today’s hit shows—Succession, The Last of Us, The Bear, White Lotus, Severance, The Boys—still wrestle with the American Dream. They explore insecurities about who’s “American,” who deserves the American Dream, and what you can expect from this Dream. They still ask questions about the importance of family in reaching for and achieving the Dream and about equity and merit. As long as these anxieties exist—and they’re not going away anytime soon—TV will keep reflecting and grappling with them.”
Selznick’s book is already earning kudos. Boston University Department of Film and Television’s Deborah Jaramillo writes “A wide-ranging, insightful, and accessible study of post-recession television, TV’s American Dream meticulously probes narrative, character, genre, audience, and industry to ascertain how the medium adapted to the fallout of an economy gone sour. Selznick maps the elusiveness of the American Dream onto the shifting terrains of television and demonstrates that while the dream can be contested, TV cannot tolerate its complete undoing.”