Substance / style: Moments in television (The Television Series)

The 'Moments in Television' collections celebrate the power and artistry of television and the excitement that particular televisual moments can engender, while simultaneously interrogating current concepts and debates within TV studies.

Each 'Moments' book is organised around a binary theme that engages with key critical concepts in television studies. Substance / style challenges the enduring hierarchy that prioritises substance over style. It renegotiates the relationship between these two categories to offer fresh perspectives on the value of television, its essential qualities and aesthetic significance. The book opens up new pathways, reassessing the synergy between substance and style, highlighting the potential for new meanings to arise through their integration. Sustained and sensitive attention to substance and style persuasively illuminate the book's chosen programmes in new ways.

The chapters in Substance / style are inspired by moments drawn from an eclectic range of TV fictions, dramatic and comedic. Contributors from diverse perspectives come together to explore, expand and enrich the kind of close analysis most commonly found in television aesthetics. Each chapter attends to one carefully chosen programme, evoking its particular qualities and appraising its achievements - while situating it thoughtfully within historical, technological, institutional, cultural, creative and art-historical contexts. The programmes stand as singular moments of television by virtue of their unique contexts, accomplishments and significance within the wider television landscape.

Substance / style is essential reading for those interested in the ways substance and style intertwine, enhancing our critical appreciation and enjoyment of television.