Action TV Reboots and Visibility Politics
Recycling Middlebrow Culture
Published on 29. May 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
144 pages
978-1-3995-1291-6 (ISBN)
Description
Action TV Reboots and Visibility Politics: Rebooting Middlebrow Culture deals with the network TV reboots of Hawaii Five-0, MacGyver, Magnum, P.I., Lethal Weapon and The Equalizer to explore the cultural politics at work in contemporary middlebrow culture. The book focusses specifically on the representational politics of contemporary middlebrow TV.
The book analyses action TV reboots via the framework of middlebrow television, and the political meanings of the category. It explores the category of middlebrow TV, the role of nostalgia of middlebrow reboots. This leads into a critique of the representational norms of middlebrow TV, which includes a variety of visual representations of 'otherness' but fails to narrativize marginalisation. Instead, visual 'difference' is reduced to visual signifier of an inclusive society. What emerges is the idea of visibility politics and its dominance in American network TV.
The book analyses action TV reboots via the framework of middlebrow television, and the political meanings of the category. It explores the category of middlebrow TV, the role of nostalgia of middlebrow reboots. This leads into a critique of the representational norms of middlebrow TV, which includes a variety of visual representations of 'otherness' but fails to narrativize marginalisation. Instead, visual 'difference' is reduced to visual signifier of an inclusive society. What emerges is the idea of visibility politics and its dominance in American network TV.
Reviews / Votes
This is an important intervention in our understanding of TV drama of the 2000s. By looking at the 'middle-brow' action reboots of the 2000s, Mareike Jenner shows us that these dramas provide middle America with a sense of progress while also continuing to serve up quite regressive politics: women remain sexualised, homosocial bonds between (mostly) white men are undermined by casting a more gender-diverse team in which heterosexual romantic liaisons can be more explicitly developed. By analysing these programmes in detail, Jenner shows that the concessions of 'visibility politics' - of providing visual diversity - are actually undermining the progressive politics behind the demands for greater equality. * Elke Weissmann, Reader in Film and Television, Edge Hill University *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
18 black and white illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 154 mm
Width: 233 mm
Thickness: 11 mm
Weight
238 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-3995-1291-6 (9781399512916)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Mareike Jenner is a researcher at Anglia Ruskin University. Her research focusses on Streaming, American Television, and Middlebrow Television. Her edited collection Binge-Watching and Contemporary Television Studies was published by Edinburgh University Press in 2021. Her previous work includes the monographs Netflix and the Re-Invention of Television and American TV Detective Dramas.
Content
Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
2. The Cultural Politics of Middlebrow TV
3. Rebooting the Middlebrow: The Action TV Reboot and Nostalgia
4. Updating the Text: The Politics of Visibility and Middlebrow Culture
5. Swapping Things Around: The Gender Swap, Middlebrow Culture and Visibility Politics
6. Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
1. Introduction
2. The Cultural Politics of Middlebrow TV
3. Rebooting the Middlebrow: The Action TV Reboot and Nostalgia
4. Updating the Text: The Politics of Visibility and Middlebrow Culture
5. Swapping Things Around: The Gender Swap, Middlebrow Culture and Visibility Politics
6. Conclusion
Bibliography
Index