By Katie Posey
Our definition of television has changed tremendously since the beginning of the 21st century, with streaming platforms such as Netflix and Hulu now allowing us to watch thousands of television series that offer more diversity and global perspectives, says UCSB Film and Media lecturer James McNamara.
James McNamara is a screenwriter and a lecturer in Film and Media Studies at UC Santa Barbara.
Television series, he told a virtual audience this month, allow people to connect with one another through shared experiences, not only in America but around the world, giving the medium a new educational role in society.
“We now see multiplicities of what America looks like, which is really valuable,” McNamara said at the event Television as Democratic Experience, hosted by Film and Media Studies. “For me, that’s what makes television artistic in its own way, because it does have its vital educational and sociopolitical function in our discourse.”
Guest speaker Sandra Laugier, professor of philosophy at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.
In the past, television was constricted by corporate advertisers and was created with the intention of appealing to a broad public audience, McNamara said. Now, many television series on streaming platforms have smaller audiences, appealing to niche categories. That has made it more inclusive and able to bring important topics to life, such as racial injustice.
McNamara was conversing with guest speaker Sandra Laugier, a professor of philosophy at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, to explore the role television series play in society. Drawing on concepts from her publication How TV Series Change Our Lives and Transform Philosophy, Laugier examined contemporary television as “an opportunity for a diverse amount of people from different races or sexualities to become public.”
During the event, Laugier drew examples from the French hit television series Lupin. In the show, the protagonist is determined to avenge his father’s death, and exploits the fact that he’s a Black man, virtually invisible in society. Since he’s planning an elaborate heist, he uses this invisibility to his advantage. Laugier says the television series introduced an important conversation about racial injustice and what it means to be seen as a minority in society.
French actor Omar Sy, in “Lupin,” a French television series about a Black man who sets out to avenge his father for an injustice inflicted by a white, wealthy family.
“It’s not enough to have black actors and to cast them, it's really about fighting injustice and there’s a really strong political education in this show,” she said.
Lupin’s racial commentary is “a good example of the educational power of TV shows,” Laugier said.
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Katie Posey is a third year UC Santa Barbara student majoring in Communication. She is a Web and Social Media Intern for the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts.