Contents

Chapters in this book

1. Front matter i
2. Contents v
3. Acknowledgements vi
4. List of abbreviations vii
5. 1 Introduction 1
6. I Watching television 10
7. 2 America and the screen 12
8. 3 Screening America under Bush, Obama, and Trump 36
9. 4 Drawing lines 57
10. 5 Analysing fictional television 74
11. II Politics and television 94
12. 6 World politics as realpolitik (in House of Cards and Game of Thrones) 96
13. 7 Constructing counter-terrorism (in Homeland, 24, and The West Wing) 113
14. 8 Imagining the president (in The West Wing, 24, and Veep) 132
15. III Television and our political world 152
16. 9 Ethics and inequality (in The Wire) 154
17. 10 Being human in a world of zombies (in The Walking Dead) 171
18. 11 The personal is political (in Breaking Bad) 186
19. 12 Conclusion 202
20. Bibliography 215
21. Index 236