Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction / Jason Jacobs and Steven Peacock -- Conceptual Debates. Television Aesthetics: Stylistic Analysis and Beyond / Sarah Cardwell -- The Qualities of Complexity: Vast versus Dense Seriality in Contemporary Television / Jason Mittell -- What Does it Mean to Call Television "Cinematic"? / Brett Mills -- Rescuing Television from "The Cinematic": The Perils of Dismissing Television Style / Deborah L. Jaramillo -- Aesthetics and Style of Television Comedy. Why Comedy is at Home on Television / Alex Clayton -- Situating Comedy: Inhabitation and Duration in Classical American Sitcoms / Sergio Dias Branco -- Arrested Developments: Towards an Aesthetic of the Contemporary US Sitcom / Timotheus Vermuelen and James Whitfield -- Better or Differently: Style and Repetition in the Trip / James Walters -- The Presentation of Detail and the Organization of Time in The Royle Family / James Zborowski -- The Man From ISIS: Archer and the Animated Aesthetics of Adult Cartoons / Holly Randell-Moon and Arthur J. Randell -- Critical Analyses of Television Drama. Don Draper and the Promises of Life / George Toles -- Justifying Justified / William Rothman -- HBO Aesthetics, Quality TV and Boardwalk Empire / Janet McCabe -- - Storytelling in Song: Television Music, Narrative and Allusion in the O.C. / Faye Woods -- Camera and Performer: Energetic Engagement with The Shield / Lucy Fife Donaldson -- Flashforwards in Breaking Bad: Openness, Closure and Possibility / Elliott Logan -- The Fantastic Style of Shameless / Beth Johnson -- Non-Fiction and History. "Let's Just Watch it for a Few Minutes": This is Your Life in 1958 -- / Charles Barr -- Gaudy Nights: Dance and Reality Television's Display of Talent / Frances Bonner -- Television Sublime: The Experimental Television of Lithuanian CAC TV / Linus Andersson -- Closer to the Action: Post-War American Television and the Zoom Shot / Nick Hall -- Think-Tape: The Aesthetics of Montage in the Post-War TV Documentary / Ieuan Franklin -- What FUIs Can Do: The Promises of Computing in Contemporary TV Series / Cormac Deane.