More Than Meets the Eye: Watching Television Watching Us

John Pungente has dedicated his career to the proposition that we are smarter than our TVs – notwithstanding some evidence to the contrary. Martin O’Malley, for many years, dedicated his TV-watching time to baseball, but under Pungente’s guidance, discovered that there is more that bears watching. Together, in More than Meets the Eye, they offer viewers a guide to critical viewing. There is no bad television as the authors see it: it’s all part of our common culture. We may enjoy some programs more than others, and some programs are certainly better made than others, but all tell us something about ourselves.Controversial themes are tackled head-on. In a chapter entitled “Buy Me That” the authors deal with rampant commercialism, from toy-driven cartoons to product placement on sitcoms. In “He Shoots, He Kills!” they explore the issue of violence on television. In “Bishop Sheen Touches an Angel” they delve into the complex issue of values, religious and secular, that are purveyed as part of television’s daily fare. In addition, the authors provide concepts that make it easy to watch television critically, discuss some of the technical aspects of production, and fill in some of the history and context behind particular genres of program.This is a thoughtful, insightful, and often surprising guide for worried parents, occasional couch potatoes, and all the rest of us who may think we spend too much time in front of the great “glass teat.”