BOOK DATA: Hunter Hargraves, Uncomfortable Television. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2023. $99.95 cloth; $26.95 paper. 264 pages.

Looking back at my television diet of the past twenty years or so, I can point to many moments of discomfort. They have come up frequently in some series, more fleetingly in others. Often, though, these moments seemed to test the range and limits of my affective responses. Was I meant to empathize with or scorn Walter White’s final chance at providing for his family after learning of his fatal cancer in Breaking Bad (AMC, 2008–13)? Should I enjoy or despise the main characters in Girls (HBO, 2012–17)? Have I been a victim of or accomplice to Don Draper’s calculated charm in Mad Men (AMC, 2007–15)? Apparently, rather than providing satisfaction, these television shows have been daring viewers to keep watching as they push the envelope, dangling cultural affects of discomfort...

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