How to read TV
Are you watching The Buccaneers on Apple TV?
In today’s episode, you’ll pick up five tips for “reading” your favorite (or least favorite) TV shows and movies. These close reading tricks will help you get more critical while you watch television, which we hope prompts more engaging discussions with your friends and family. We’re using The Buccaneers (Apple TV) as our main example in this episode, but you don’t need to watch the show in order to listen. In fact, if you like episodes in which we get a little sassy, well, this one’s for you. We also share questions to make you a more critical viewer, what we’re reading with a literary lens, and book recommendations to pair with The Buccaneers show.
We run through our five tips (and add a bunch more) pretty quickly in today’s show, so here’s a quick summary:
Start with visuals & sound
Close read a scene
Use critical theory/literary lenses
Read the script
Read critic reviews
Wharton in Winter
We’re having the most fun recapping The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton for Literature Scholars on Patreon. We also taught a class on how and why to annotate, and that replay is available now. For just $10 per month, you can access our entire backlog of classes and join us for Wharton in Winter. We’ll be recapping and discussing the Gilded Age through February, so it’s not too late! Take note of our upcoming Patreon events:
On Wednesday January 31st, we will discuss Books One & Two.
On Wednesday February 14th, we will teach a class on New Historicism.
On Wednesday February 28th, we will discuss Books Three through Five and conclude The Custom of the Country with book club.
Extra Resources
Cons of color-blind casting (Refinery 29)
Denee Benton on bringing Black history to Gilded Age TV (USA Today)
A limit to the power of “colourblind” period dramas (British Vogue)
10 books coming to the screen in 2024 (Electric Literature)
How to be a critical viewer (great resource for teachers!)
Summer: a novella by Edith Wharton in Penguin Clothbound Classics
We will be back in your podcast feeds soon with more glitzy, glamorous, dramatic reading and viewing to recommend. Until then, we declare after all, there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book.
Thank you for supporting the podcast and our work to make public scholarship fun and accessible. If you would like to stay connected to what’s happening at Novel Pairings, make sure to subscribe to this Substack and follow us on Instagram. Make sure you never miss an episode by subscribing to the show wherever you get your podcasts. And if you love the work we’re doing, please consider leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts!
I have not watched The Buccaneers on Apple TV but I did watch an adaptation of it in 1995. It is available on Britbox. I would to hear you compare it to this new adaptation.