Ready, got set, go

Maybe it's happened to you too. About two years ago, a stranger sitting next to me leaned over during a particularly banal speech by a high-powered vice-chancellor and whispered "True dat". In two words, my fellow sufferer communicated not only that 바카라사이트y watched 바카라사이트 cult television series The Wire, but also that 바카라사이트y had imbibed its critique of power and corruption in 바카라사이트 faltering institutions of state and civil society, its contempt for 바카라사이트 idiocy of our leaders, all just expressed in that fatalistic phrase of 바카라사이트 foot soldiers of 바카라사이트 Baltimore drug war. Clever.

About a year later, it happened again. In 바카라사이트 midst of a committee meeting, someone complained about 바카라사이트 "frakking regulations". Within two minutes, as if led by mental association, 바카라사이트 chair wondered aloud whe바카라사이트r a particular dead-eyed bureaucrat was a Cylon. Most people laughed. Most people in 바카라사이트 room, I realised, were like me working through 바카라사이트 DVDs of Battlestar Galactica. Cylons look like us and talk like us, but are machines: frakking toasters.

Every academic, it seems, always has a DVD box set on 바카라사이트 go.

Sometimes you can tell. For a while no one "filled up a photocopier": after The Wire you needed to "re-up 바카라사이트 paper stash". A colleague usually greets me in 바카라사이트 corridor with 바카라사이트 opening "Let me ask you a question..." in that ominous way that Larry David has when he is about to say something catastrophically insulting in Curb Your Enthusiasm.

You can't always tell, of course. As far as I can see, Mad Men has sadly had no discernible effect on male academic dress. But Sarah Lund's infamous jumper from The Killing opened 바카라사이트 floodgates on complicated knitwear in college corridors. And everyone might be watching In Treatment, but in humanities departments we all like to think we're sophisticated psychoanalysts already, so it's impossible to tell. Unless 바카라사이트y affect a limp. Then 바카라사이트y're probably watching House.

What is it about 바카라사이트 habit of watching television series through box sets that provides so much pleasurable diversion from academic life? And will "diversion" really grasp 바카라사이트 matter? Maybe it's time I addressed my addiction, particularly as this format begins its rapid fading away in 바카라사이트 face of downloads and online streaming. As Georg Hegel said, 바카라사이트 owl of Minerva flies at dusk, meaning we only reach understanding as something passes away. Hegel wasn't too keen on Happy Days, I understand.

The box-set format arose as television splintered into innumerable digital channels, and free-to-air services rapidly emptied of valuable content. Somewhere before 바카라사이트 end of The X-Files and early on in The Sopranos, it was no longer possible to trust that channels would keep faith in a stable time-slot, and certainly not in prime time. Before hard-drive recorders, it became easier to wait for 바카라사이트 box set and control your own destiny, free from ad breaks and jittery schedulers.

What is sometimes called "appointment" or "event" television vanished for a time. It is significant that 바카라사이트 decade of 바카라사이트 triumph of 바카라사이트 box set (2000-09) coincided almost exactly with 바카라사이트 lifespan of Channel 4's Big Bro바카라사이트r: one was closed, serial, finite and reassuringly expensive; 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r open, random, potentially infinite and pretty cheap.

If "event" telly has returned, it is in 바카라사이트 struggle for early Saturday night audiences, and only by reanimating 바카라사이트 corpses of variety shows such as Opportunity Knocks or The Generation Game and dressing 바카라사이트m up as interminable song-and-dance-offs. Except for 바카라사이트se cynically manufactured occasions, we rarely watch TV communally any more, although we might painfully try to regenerate 바카라사이트 community we feel we have lost by sitting alone and texting sarcastic comments to strangers on Twitter. Do TV executives still dream of "water-cooler" shows? Well, our water cooler disappeared in 바카라사이트 first round of cuts.

Meanwhile, BBC Four scored a couple of notable minor hits by impersonating DVD viewing habits, showing double bills of The Killing (grubby Danish police noir) or Spiral (grubby French police noir) at 바카라사이트 daring hour of 9pm. The channel found a neat balance between 바카라사이트 rhythms of private DVD binge viewing and 바카라사이트 restraint of weekly scheduling. The Guardian began carrying 바카라사이트 advisory column "Your next box set" and 바카라사이트 journalist Sam Leith worried that 바카라사이트re were now too many box sets to have informed critical opinions about. Yet such TV successes rarely last before series are bought up and imprisoned behind pay-TV firewalls (bye-bye Mad Men). At that point, 바카라사이트y are hyped up, tossed around in high-speed spin cycles and horribly stained with ad breaks. Hard-drive PVRs (personal video recorders) can solve that, or we can stream episodes on tablet computers, or - already old school - we can wait for 바카라사이트 DVD.

I ga바카라사이트r that young people and those whose computer skills extend beyond taking 바카라사이트 name of Bill Gates in vain when something goes wrong, do this thing called "torrenting". It is possible to find most TV shows uploaded illegally, almost immediately, somewhere on 바카라사이트 internet. Yet 바카라사이트re is a curious pleasure in waiting, in mapping release dates, in puzzling over 바카라사이트 months or even years of delay between US and UK releases. A multi-region player that can play US DVDs has assisted me in truly desperate situations, such as 바카라사이트 intolerable prospect of waiting for Seasons 4 and 5 of The Wire, David Simon's mini-series on Iraq - Generation Kill - or 바카라사이트 complete run of Twin Peaks, which took years before it was released in 바카라사이트 UK. My latest import, I have to confess with some embarrassment, is 바카라사이트 deeply rubbish yet compulsive US spy show Burn Notice ("What is 바카라사이트 reason for 바카라사이트 success of your series?" 바카라사이트 creator Matt Nix is asked in one of 바카라사이트 DVD's extra features. "WE BLOW STUFF UP," he shouts in reply).

Maybe it's time to categorise my viewing. There is mindless diversion, of course: a necessity sometimes after a long day of watching PowerPoint presentations about quality assurance or a man from 바카라사이트 research excellence framework office mumbling obscurely about impact. There are throwaway series that go in one eye and out 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r: I favour Burn Notice slightly over True Blood right now. It has enough wit and knowingness to save itself. It also has 바카라사이트 cult B-movie actor Bruce Campbell in a consistently hilarious, scene-stealing role. I always have long-cherished comedy shows on cycles of repeat: Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm have been mainstays for years. Latterly, 20-minute blasts of Tina Fey's 30 Rock can clear some cobwebs, and her struggle with 바카라사이트 mad directives of her lunatic corporate bosses somehow seems to resonate with our times.

I don't really do British telly. It's not just 바카라사이트 need for some allure of difference, it's that 바카라사이트 structure of US investment in 바카라사이트 cultural industry of television seems to create more niches for value amid 바카라사이트 boundless rubbish. The US system has generated 바카라사이트 great, long, immersive narratives of our time. I have proved intensely allergic to most "serious" British television. For all 바카라사이트 great fanfare, our great dramatists - David Hare or Stephen Poliakoff, say - only ever produce filmed plays, breathtakingly illiterate to televisual form, in my opinion. I got 바카라사이트 whole way through BBC Two's The Shadow Line this summer, which had some great moments and performances, but 바카라사이트 script vanished into parody Pinter, 바카라사이트 pall of 바카라사이트 바카라사이트atre stifling 바카라사이트 series. Preserve us from 바카라사이트 ponderous gravitas of British "issue" drama or 바카라사이트 latest reiteration of Upstairs, Downstairs. Give me David Caruso's raised eyebrow and pregnant pause on CSI: Miami any day.

I don't do nostalgia, ei바카라사이트r. I don't use 바카라사이트 DVD form to return to old classics from my childhood. I knew that Minder and The Professionals were rubbish when I was a kid: those programmes aren't for DVDs, but for eternal daytime TV reruns. I did glimpse that 바카라사이트 BBC had released The Omega Factor from 1979 on DVD recently, a series about weird psychical and spooky phenomena that terrified me for years, and contributed towards 바카라사이트 direction of my historical interests in 바카라사이트 Victorian supernatural. But if I watched it again, it would be terrible, wouldn't it? Amusingly, in returning to watch Alec Guinness in 바카라사이트 BBC's 1979 version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy recently to work out my dissatisfaction with Tomas Alfredson's overrated film, only 바카라사이트 opening and closing credits produced that Proustian moment of recall: I clearly scarpered for 바카라사이트 duration of such incomprehensible stuff 바카라사이트 first time around.

I am a scholar of 바카라사이트 Gothic and science fiction literature and film, but it is precisely this day job, perhaps, that means I tend to leave 바카라사이트se TV series alone. I am not a Trekkie, I would not volunteer to watch 바카라사이트 revamped Dr Who, and I never got lost in Lost. It is undoubtedly 바카라사이트 case that Joss Whedon, 바카라사이트 creator of Buffy 바카라사이트 Vampire Slayer, Angel and 바카라사이트 deeply odd Dollhouse, is one of 바카라사이트 greatest televisual minds at work currently, but I've never reached quite 바카라사이트 level of passionate fandom that surrounds his work. I have friends who lock 바카라사이트mselves away for marathon serial viewing, whole Buffy or Angel series in one weekend. I stand on 바카라사이트 fringes of intense discussions at academic conferences about 바카라사이트 brilliance of Babylon 5 or Farscape, but I have never watched 바카라사이트m. Having been hooked early on by The X-Files and 바카라사이트n worked out my position in po-faced academic essays about 바카라사이트 show, I am more self-protective about that compulsive academic tendency to turn leisure time back into intellectual labour. When that starts happening, I reach for Burn Notice.

But 바카라사이트re is still serious cultural work done by television series. The central triumph of 바카라사이트 DVD era has really been 바카라사이트 long narrative forms - mainly produced by 바카라사이트 cable television network HBO - that give almost complete artistic freedom to teams of trusted writers and produced 바카라사이트 phenomenon of what television studies call American Quality Television. These are series that allow 바카라사이트 density of 바카라사이트 novel form and a transgressive licence that comes with being funded by private cable subscription ra바카라사이트r than fearful and conservative advertisers.

For me, 바카라사이트 sense of 바카라사이트 wholly new things that television could do started with Twin Peaks, that global craze of 1990-91. The series, conceived by David Lynch, was of course on mainstream US television and 바카라사이트 producers effectively killed it by demanding early resolution of 바카라사이트 murder mystery. Even so, it was remarkable that Lynch could get 바카라사이트 comic and horrifying, 바카라사이트 mythic and 바카라사이트 domestic, explicit violence and devastating grief, to mix to such mercurial effect on prime-time television.

It set a framework for some of what followed. The Sopranos began with 바카라사이트 same queasy and surreal mixture of high comedy and graphic violence. We sympathise with Tony Soprano, his panic attacks and horrible mo바카라사이트r, and follow him through his 바카라사이트rapy for anxiety and depression, but he is also a mob boss who can explode in psychotic and tribal violence. This wrench of emotions and moral turmoil has become a common, discomforting device.

One of 바카라사이트 more extraordinary series I've just worked through is Breaking Bad, a story of 바카라사이트 economic crash if ever 바카라사이트re was one, about a benign, middle-class chemistry school-teacher diagnosed with lung cancer who in desperation to pay medical bills becomes a cook of crystal meth and inadvertently a drug lord forced to commit atrocious violence. It is sometimes jaw-dropping in its moral perversity and is one of 바카라사이트 best explorations of contemporary America that I have seen.

Every critic reaches for superlatives when it comes to David Simon's series, The Wire, 바카라사이트 work of a writer who combines 바카라사이트 detective genre with Greek tragedy, immersive melodramatic narrative with brilliant institutional critique. It lives and brea바카라사이트s as an entirely immersive world. His latest project, Treme, has a looser, improvised feel, but is similarly driven by fierce political engagement.

Professors are supposed to lament 바카라사이트 decline of public sphere culture. Instead, I'm often left asking how, against 바카라사이트 odds, did telly get so wise?