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I Like to Watch: Arguing My Way Through the TV Revolution
From The New Yorker’s fiercely original, Pulitzer Prize–winning culture critic, a provocative collection of new and previously published essays arguing that we are what we watch.
From her creation of the first “Approval Matrix” in New York magazine in 2004 to her Pulitzer Prize–winning columns for The New Yorker, Emily Nussbaum has known all along that what we watch is who we are. In this collection, including two never-before-published essays, Nussbaum writes about her passion for television that began with stumbling upon "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"—a show that was so much more than it appeared—while she was a graduate student studying Victorian literature. What followed was a love affair with television, an education, and a fierce debate about whose work gets to be called “great” that led Nussbaum to a trailblazing career as a critic whose reviews said so much more about our culture than just what’s good on television. Through these pieces, she traces the evolution of female protagonists over the last decade, the complex role of sexual violence on TV, and what to do about art when the artist is revealed to be a monster. And she explores the links between the television antihero and the rise of Donald Trump.
The book is more than a collection of essays. With each piece, Nussbaum recounts her fervent search, over fifteen years, for a new kind of criticism that resists the false hierarchy that elevates one form of culture over another. It traces her own struggle to punch through stifling notions of “prestige television,” searching for a wilder and freer and more varied idea of artistic ambition—one that acknowledges many types of beauty and complexity, and that opens to more varied voices. It’s a book that celebrates television as television, even as each year warps the definition of just what that might mean.
From her creation of the first “Approval Matrix” in New York magazine in 2004 to her Pulitzer Prize–winning columns for The New Yorker, Emily Nussbaum has known all along that what we watch is who we are. In this collection, including two never-before-published essays, Nussbaum writes about her passion for television that began with stumbling upon "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"—a show that was so much more than it appeared—while she was a graduate student studying Victorian literature. What followed was a love affair with television, an education, and a fierce debate about whose work gets to be called “great” that led Nussbaum to a trailblazing career as a critic whose reviews said so much more about our culture than just what’s good on television. Through these pieces, she traces the evolution of female protagonists over the last decade, the complex role of sexual violence on TV, and what to do about art when the artist is revealed to be a monster. And she explores the links between the television antihero and the rise of Donald Trump.
The book is more than a collection of essays. With each piece, Nussbaum recounts her fervent search, over fifteen years, for a new kind of criticism that resists the false hierarchy that elevates one form of culture over another. It traces her own struggle to punch through stifling notions of “prestige television,” searching for a wilder and freer and more varied idea of artistic ambition—one that acknowledges many types of beauty and complexity, and that opens to more varied voices. It’s a book that celebrates television as television, even as each year warps the definition of just what that might mean.
14 pages, Audiobook
First published June 25, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 942 reviews
March 17, 2020
I Like to Watch: Arguing My Way Through the TV Revolution by Emily Nussbaum has opened my eyes about television and shown this medium to be much more than I expected. I must admit that I do not watch tv very much, I am not familiar with Emily Nussbaum’s essays, nor am I a New Yorker reader. The author dissects individual programming, highlighting important aspects and reasons for watching or not. Each essay is a joy to read and it becomes clear why Emily Nussbaum won a Pulitzer. I enjoyed this title as an audiobook and I intend to read this author’s essays from now on. And I might do a little tv watching as well.
May 19, 2020
Do you consider television show art form. Does what you watch define is some way who you are? In this book of essays the author takes us through several popular shows, and explains why they were successful or not. The Sopranos, which I did watch until it went to pay TV, was dissected in a very interesting fashion. Why it was so popular and trend setting. There were a few others mentioned that I did watch, The Good Wife and Lost. Loved her view on how Losts ending, failed. I agree.
My favorite essay though was on humor and howw Trump used a cruel brand of humor to win the election. I'm sure I would have rated this higher, if I was more of a TV watcher, but many of the shows, though I had heard of them, I had never watched.
My favorite essay though was on humor and howw Trump used a cruel brand of humor to win the election. I'm sure I would have rated this higher, if I was more of a TV watcher, but many of the shows, though I had heard of them, I had never watched.
July 11, 2019
The Tao of Telly
What a collection of perfection in perceptive criticism and thought from the incredible Emily Nussbaum, culture critic for The New Yorker. In it, she considers the high evolution of television in the past 20 years; its influence on culture; the revolutions of its ascendancy from simply entertainment into, at times, transcendent original art in which we can simultaneously find ourselves in its truths and lose ourselves. She also offers a few portraits of the artists/innovators, such as Shonda Rhimes, Jenji Kohan, and Ryan Murphy.
Worth the price of the book is her recent splendid New Yorker essay on whether the bad acts and malevolence of movers and shakers, like Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, Woody Allen, Kevin Spacey, et al., does or should affect our enjoyment of their works in television and cinema.
Rarely--maybe one other time--have I gotten to the end of a book (much less a book of commentary in essays) and seriously consider immediately re-reading--to relish again in--at least half of the pieces.
An Absolutely Edifying Book!
What a collection of perfection in perceptive criticism and thought from the incredible Emily Nussbaum, culture critic for The New Yorker. In it, she considers the high evolution of television in the past 20 years; its influence on culture; the revolutions of its ascendancy from simply entertainment into, at times, transcendent original art in which we can simultaneously find ourselves in its truths and lose ourselves. She also offers a few portraits of the artists/innovators, such as Shonda Rhimes, Jenji Kohan, and Ryan Murphy.
Worth the price of the book is her recent splendid New Yorker essay on whether the bad acts and malevolence of movers and shakers, like Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, Woody Allen, Kevin Spacey, et al., does or should affect our enjoyment of their works in television and cinema.
Rarely--maybe one other time--have I gotten to the end of a book (much less a book of commentary in essays) and seriously consider immediately re-reading--to relish again in--at least half of the pieces.
An Absolutely Edifying Book!
May 9, 2021
I began to think of my job, with a grandiosity that was motivational but frankly a little nuts, as a mission. Television deserved a critical stance less hobbled by shame - a language that treated television as its own viable force, not the weak sibling to superior mediums.
It's this crazy passion of Emily Nussbaum for television that pulled me into her book even though I'm not an avid tv viewer. I haven't seen the overwhelming majority of the shows Nussbaum discussed. I had even nixed my satellite tv subscription nearly two years ago. Why read I Like to Watch then? Because some tv shows enter the cultural zeitgeist and then become inescapable. And because her insightful essays expose our current cultural realities and are just fun to read.
About 20 years ago, Nussbaum began to advocate that television is an art form worthy of serious evaluation. She came up with a model to explain how television was distinctive from other art forms. Shows were made by multiple parties in response to dictates from on high - specifically from paying advertisers laying out their terms to network executives. Because of tv's episodic nature, a messily intense feedback loop could be created as viewer responses could actually shape future episodes or executives could push back at the viewers. Over time, television developed a spiky, affectionate self-consciousness that was reflective of any newly energized art form - that is, television shows were making fun of television genres.
That initial model, however, is slightly less relevant today because of changes in tv distribution by satellite channels and streaming services. Nonetheless, Nussbaum critiqued approximately 30 shows in her essays. She panned a few shows but mostly she presented impassioned defenses of many other shows that had not garnered critical acclaim. Nussbaum asserted that critics' dismissals of some shows on aesthetic grounds really masked their biases that ran along gender, class, race and sexuality lines.
A handful of essays were utterly fantastic as they were about the rise of the anti heroes. These included Archie Bunker, "The Sopranos," and "Sex and the City." I also really liked her analyses of class and race for "The Middle" and "Black-ish." I was interested in her description of how tv distribution was changing the types of shows being made and how advertisers were pushing for more subtle product placements.
Nussbaum penned a long essay called "Confessions of a Human Shield" in which she raised the question - "what should we do with the art of bad men?" This included her reflections on differing responses to men's criminal treatment of women in the wake of Harvey Weinstein and the #MeToo movement. It was thought provoking as I considered my own stance. But I'm far less conflicted than Nussbaum and by the end, I wasn't sure what her final conclusions were for herself.
I'm still not interested in watching many of the shows included in her anthology, but I might eventually get around to two or so. I wasn't swayed by her apologist's eulogy for Joan Rivers. I also would have liked a longer piece for "The Americans."
I'm sure that others would rate this collection higher because of their tv viewership.
3.5+ Stars
July 6, 2019
Even if you've already read Nussbaum's New Yorker columns faithfully, the new essay, Confessions of a Human Shield, is worth the price of the book. In it, Nussbaum examines her own journey from liking and defending the work of difficult men to understanding how they fit into our current cultural morass. Particularly blistering is her discussion of the fate of Louis CK. It's an essay of and for our time.
November 18, 2019
Rating this was difficult because there are several competing things here: 1- This was thoughtful and Nussbaum lays out her ideas and criticisms clearly. It made me think about my own views on TV as a medium and on the shows that Nussbaum talked about. 2- As a collection of essays, there was a little something missing for me. I wanted a better over all flow from essay to essay and would've enjoyed even more behind the scenes or new-for-the-book content. 3- I don't always agree with Nussbaum's opinions and it was difficult for me to separate that from my experience of the book.
I appreciated getting to hear Nussbaum struggle with the media produced by men like Woody Allen, with histories of sexual assault or misconduct and whether or not that is media one should consume. You can't un-have an experience and the question of what you can or should be watching changes for someone who is a media critic. All that holds for me for sure. I just land on a bit of a more "no thank you" note than Nussbaum does and while she's investigating her own feelings, it felt like it was coming from a really privileged place.
Nussbaum is smart and this is a smart collection of essays. As I said, it made me think and I feel like it is something I can reread in pieces pretty much forever.
July 3, 2019
I won this book in a goodreads drawing.
Back in college, I took a class on popular culture. It was pretty interesting. We read a lot of stuff about television. For some reason, I remember an article written about the show, The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd. It was written, I think before 1990. I remember thinking it was an awful lot of effort for a show that most people didn't watch.
Here we are in 2019. I open this book, and the whole thing is written almost exactly like that long ago article. Shows how little things have really changed in TV. There's a lot written about Sopranos and Sex in the City, and Norman Lear is lionized.
It's like reading 1980's analysis of newer programming. Odd, perhaps entertaining, but not especially enlightening.
Back in college, I took a class on popular culture. It was pretty interesting. We read a lot of stuff about television. For some reason, I remember an article written about the show, The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd. It was written, I think before 1990. I remember thinking it was an awful lot of effort for a show that most people didn't watch.
Here we are in 2019. I open this book, and the whole thing is written almost exactly like that long ago article. Shows how little things have really changed in TV. There's a lot written about Sopranos and Sex in the City, and Norman Lear is lionized.
It's like reading 1980's analysis of newer programming. Odd, perhaps entertaining, but not especially enlightening.
July 5, 2019
I Like to Watch is a culmination of 20+ years of revelatory television writing from Emily Nussbaum. The essays elevate the shows I’ve watched and love to greater heights. It makes me feel like an idiot for having missed others. Even when panning shows I love, I came away with a richer view of the show. Beautiful ruminations on why we watch and why television is enriching art and not the brain draining waste some dullards try and make it out to be.
October 22, 2019
Really enjoyed this Pulitzer Prize Winner, almost felt like a guilty pleasure.
Favorite Line: “a moral lasagna of questionable aesthetic choices”
I’ve seen most of the shows covered, and those I haven’t seen (The Sopranos & Lost among others) were covered enough in pop culture to still be familiar.
Favorite part was the last chapter on Ryan Murphy. Love AHS, Nip/Tuck, Scream Queens—basically everything he does!
Favorite Line: “a moral lasagna of questionable aesthetic choices”
I’ve seen most of the shows covered, and those I haven’t seen (The Sopranos & Lost among others) were covered enough in pop culture to still be familiar.
Favorite part was the last chapter on Ryan Murphy. Love AHS, Nip/Tuck, Scream Queens—basically everything he does!
August 7, 2019
So good I almost wanted to go back and watch Sex and the City how Emily Nussbaum did.
September 7, 2019
made it about halfway through this one. i enjoyed it at fist, specifically the first couple of essays. however, the 60-page-or-whatever diatribe in the middle of the book which neither condoned or condemned sexually abusive male artists and the me too movement was a huge turn off. there was no point to any of it. might as well have been her personal diary entry. if you can't decide whether or not you still want to watch woody allen movies, that's on you. but save the rest of us our time while you figure it out if you still want to consume media by awful men. i also wasn't big on the essay about joan rivers. it read very much like "yeah she wasn't a great person and her jokes were always at others' expense and she hated herself and women in general, but she HAD to be like that to make it." sorry, i don't care.
there were essays in here i enjoyed but those two mentioned above were major turn offs. it seems that when nussbaum is talking about her love for tv and the way it can shape culture, she's at her best. but when it comes to more nuanced things, like separating the art from the artist, she flounders.
there were essays in here i enjoyed but those two mentioned above were major turn offs. it seems that when nussbaum is talking about her love for tv and the way it can shape culture, she's at her best. but when it comes to more nuanced things, like separating the art from the artist, she flounders.
November 7, 2019
I really loved these essays. Incredibly astute, and what a voice. Always a fun read. I flew through them.
December 25, 2019
This book is a pretty good history of television and how it has really changed with the creation of streaming services. I have one major pet peeve with it, though.
About a third of the way through the author veers way off course and talks about non-television topics. She goes into the many accusations against Woody Allen and Harvey Weinstein, and their films. Then she names a bunch of stand-up comedians and their routines. Then there's quite a bit of talk about Trump and how his speeches are a version of stand-up comedy.
She makes good points about all of those topics - but they have little to nothing to do with television. It's not what I was expecting or wanting to read about. The book eventually gets back on topic but it made the whole book feel more like a commentary on American culture instead of television.
About a third of the way through the author veers way off course and talks about non-television topics. She goes into the many accusations against Woody Allen and Harvey Weinstein, and their films. Then she names a bunch of stand-up comedians and their routines. Then there's quite a bit of talk about Trump and how his speeches are a version of stand-up comedy.
She makes good points about all of those topics - but they have little to nothing to do with television. It's not what I was expecting or wanting to read about. The book eventually gets back on topic but it made the whole book feel more like a commentary on American culture instead of television.
November 27, 2024
[4.5 stars]
Read Harder Challenge 2024: Read a book about media literacy.
Read Harder Challenge 2024: Read a book about media literacy.
June 1, 2020
Buddy read at the Non Fiction Book Club
I am a self-proclaimed armchair TV critic. Yes, I love books, but TV is my other love and I spend at least two hours a day to stream TV series. For me, it too is a form of art that could be enjoyed and sometimes criticized.
This book is a collection of essays of a New Yorker TV critic. It brings me back to the days of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and TelevisionWithoutPity. It made me see some aspects of Marvelous Mrs Meisel that I've never thought of before. It convinced me to watch black-ish. It fascinated me with its intimate look of Hannibal. It also gave me interesting journeys and back stories on various showrunners, like Tina Fey, Kenya Barris, Jenji Kohan, and Ryan Murphy, those who have shaped and will continuously shape the form of entertainment, subvert it, create conversation out of it. I think her access to some of these people are also useful.
However, I gotta warn you that the essays spoiled the heck out of some shows like The Sopranos, Jane the Virgin, Lost, and some others. As with critics, readers should also remember that they might not agree on her takes on issues or persons. I also don't think people who don't usually enjoy TV will have the maximum benefit in reading this book.
PS: I just finished (finally) Community! All six seasons of it. The most meta show ever. And I want to quote Abed who said this about TV:
I am a self-proclaimed armchair TV critic. Yes, I love books, but TV is my other love and I spend at least two hours a day to stream TV series. For me, it too is a form of art that could be enjoyed and sometimes criticized.
This book is a collection of essays of a New Yorker TV critic. It brings me back to the days of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and TelevisionWithoutPity. It made me see some aspects of Marvelous Mrs Meisel that I've never thought of before. It convinced me to watch black-ish. It fascinated me with its intimate look of Hannibal. It also gave me interesting journeys and back stories on various showrunners, like Tina Fey, Kenya Barris, Jenji Kohan, and Ryan Murphy, those who have shaped and will continuously shape the form of entertainment, subvert it, create conversation out of it. I think her access to some of these people are also useful.
However, I gotta warn you that the essays spoiled the heck out of some shows like The Sopranos, Jane the Virgin, Lost, and some others. As with critics, readers should also remember that they might not agree on her takes on issues or persons. I also don't think people who don't usually enjoy TV will have the maximum benefit in reading this book.
PS: I just finished (finally) Community! All six seasons of it. The most meta show ever. And I want to quote Abed who said this about TV:
There is skill to it. More importantly, it has to be joyful, effortless, fun. TV defeats its own purpose when it’s pushing an agenda, or trying to defeat other TV or being proud or ashamed of itself for existing. It’s TV; it’s comfort. It’s a friend you’ve known so well, and for so long you just let it be with you, and it needs to be okay for it to have a bad day or phone in a day, and it needs to be okay for it to get on a boat with Levar Burton and never come back. Because eventually, it all will."
June 12, 2020
It takes an excellent writer and smart critic to capture your attention when writing about art you haven't watched/read/etc yourself. But Nussbaum did that time and again for me in this diverse group of essays about TV. I didn't skip a single essay, despite the fact that I haven't watched the majority of the shows she writes about.
As she writes herself at one point, Nussbaum loves to dwell in the question rather than focus on the answer, and that makes for thought-provoking criticism about specific shows, nuanced showrunner profiles, and essays about topics such as #MeToo and product placement in TV.
I especially loved her takes on Sex and The City and Jane the Virgin, as well as every time she brought in Buffy (very interesting comparison of Buffy season 6 with Jessica Jones season 1). She excells at being non-judgmental and intellectually curious about TV, even shows and genres considered fluff. ("The soap, the rom com, the romance novel, and more recently, reality television... These are the genres that get dismissed as fluff, which is how our culture regards art that makes womens lives look like fun.") She aptly calls reality TV "television's television."
I learned some really interesting stuff about the history of TV (I now understand references to Archie Bunker and the Sopranos!). This book was kind of like taking an undergrad class about TV with a really cool professor.
Definitely recommended!
As she writes herself at one point, Nussbaum loves to dwell in the question rather than focus on the answer, and that makes for thought-provoking criticism about specific shows, nuanced showrunner profiles, and essays about topics such as #MeToo and product placement in TV.
I especially loved her takes on Sex and The City and Jane the Virgin, as well as every time she brought in Buffy (very interesting comparison of Buffy season 6 with Jessica Jones season 1). She excells at being non-judgmental and intellectually curious about TV, even shows and genres considered fluff. ("The soap, the rom com, the romance novel, and more recently, reality television... These are the genres that get dismissed as fluff, which is how our culture regards art that makes womens lives look like fun.") She aptly calls reality TV "television's television."
I learned some really interesting stuff about the history of TV (I now understand references to Archie Bunker and the Sopranos!). This book was kind of like taking an undergrad class about TV with a really cool professor.
Definitely recommended!
June 24, 2019
I LIKE TO WATCH, Emily Nussbaum's collection of essays on television, is a revelation. I worked through the book much faster than anticipated. I thought I would go to each essay individually, and would take my time, but her amazing writing, insights, and interesting stories about some of my favorite television shows made the book a page-turner for me.
Each essay is about a certain television show, yes, but it usually delves into so much more - politics, relationships, how we consume culture, and so much more. Her critiques are both rich and nuanced, and she makes the best argument for television as art. The collection is also extremely timely. However, I think it will also endure and find myself wanting to get the hard cover copy of the book to have forever (something I rarely think to do with NetGalley books!) Five stars for sure.
Each essay is about a certain television show, yes, but it usually delves into so much more - politics, relationships, how we consume culture, and so much more. Her critiques are both rich and nuanced, and she makes the best argument for television as art. The collection is also extremely timely. However, I think it will also endure and find myself wanting to get the hard cover copy of the book to have forever (something I rarely think to do with NetGalley books!) Five stars for sure.
August 20, 2019
Honestly, I don't even watch TV. But these essays are so freaking good. They are about culture and feminism and art and me too. I didn't want to watch the shows necessarily, but I did want to hear Nussbaum watch them and tell me what to think about what these shows are trying and succeeding/failing to do. I did appreciate the LOST essay because I did watch that one back in the day and I was so annoyed at the ending so that essay was satisfying.
October 12, 2019
If I had to sum up this book in one sentence it would be, "you just had to've been there." Which is how I felt the entire way through this book. The first couple of chapters started out alright discussing shows from the 90s, reflective and thought provoking, especially for a 90s child who holds those years dear but honestly doesn't remember actually watching the shows Buffy the Vampire or the Sopranos.
From there, I quickly realized all Nussbaum had done was taken previously published show reviews from her work in the New Yorker and slapped them together in a book. But rather than putting together a thought provoking montage (like the recently published Trick Mirror done in a similar style) this felt crude and lazy.
Nussbaum rejects the opportunity to reflect here-and-now on some of these shows, but instead recites what was stated in a 2015 review, and thus the chapter literally reads, "Last week on [tv show]"....except it wasn't last week, it was 4 years ago.
I quickly realized I don't watch enough TV and I'm sure if someone was more familiar with these shows then they'd have consumed this work differently, however even the chapters on shows I had seen, didn't feel all that insightful or groundbreaking. And I honestly could have done with a few spoiler alerts as she rips through various TV shows, revealing plots and season archs.
I'll take some blame that I didn't better research the book before I read it, and if you paid attention to the chapters you could maybe know which ones you wanted to avoid to not hear spoilers, but honestly, I want to ask Nussbaum, what was the point? Just so you can say you've published a book? And what a missed opportunity to write something unique (but taking a shortcut by using inspiration from your previous articles) to reflect from today's perspective, rather than giving the reader what you thought about some show after X episode 4 years ago.
From there, I quickly realized all Nussbaum had done was taken previously published show reviews from her work in the New Yorker and slapped them together in a book. But rather than putting together a thought provoking montage (like the recently published Trick Mirror done in a similar style) this felt crude and lazy.
Nussbaum rejects the opportunity to reflect here-and-now on some of these shows, but instead recites what was stated in a 2015 review, and thus the chapter literally reads, "Last week on [tv show]"....except it wasn't last week, it was 4 years ago.
I quickly realized I don't watch enough TV and I'm sure if someone was more familiar with these shows then they'd have consumed this work differently, however even the chapters on shows I had seen, didn't feel all that insightful or groundbreaking. And I honestly could have done with a few spoiler alerts as she rips through various TV shows, revealing plots and season archs.
I'll take some blame that I didn't better research the book before I read it, and if you paid attention to the chapters you could maybe know which ones you wanted to avoid to not hear spoilers, but honestly, I want to ask Nussbaum, what was the point? Just so you can say you've published a book? And what a missed opportunity to write something unique (but taking a shortcut by using inspiration from your previous articles) to reflect from today's perspective, rather than giving the reader what you thought about some show after X episode 4 years ago.
August 12, 2019
3.5 stars. I think the strength of this book are the shorter critiques of specific shows- there were several that made me consider shows differently when shown in the context of what tv came before and after it. The longer profiles of creators and the essay in the middle about separating the art from the artist dragged and slowed momentum. The profiles meandered through interviews with the creators, and while I realize that profiles don't necessarily need to have a "point," these felt especially framed to have no real point.
The longer essay didn't enhance the central thesis of the book: the fact that tv should be taken more seriously. The subject is one that I think we do need to be talking about, but it didn't seem like this was the place for it. It also felt incomplete. The whole time it felt like it was building to a place where Nussbaum would change her mind on separating art and artist. There were several anecdotes about her enjoying media by problematic creators and her interacting with people who felt differently than her, and then it didn't make any kind of definitive statement.
fave quote: "If you're going to gaze into the abyss, find one that's worth the look."
The longer essay didn't enhance the central thesis of the book: the fact that tv should be taken more seriously. The subject is one that I think we do need to be talking about, but it didn't seem like this was the place for it. It also felt incomplete. The whole time it felt like it was building to a place where Nussbaum would change her mind on separating art and artist. There were several anecdotes about her enjoying media by problematic creators and her interacting with people who felt differently than her, and then it didn't make any kind of definitive statement.
fave quote: "If you're going to gaze into the abyss, find one that's worth the look."
July 30, 2019
I think Emily Nussbaum is one of the sharpest, most illuminating thinkers I’ve ever read. There’s something so calm and level and yet deeply felt about her critiques, I find myself nodding along and yelling, “Yes!” as she makes cogent, generous, precise point after point, like I’m watching her jump hurdles, which she is! The sticky sticky hurdles of emotion, bias, and agenda that so much of my own responses to art get mired in. I feel like reading this sort of warmly observed beautifully muscular analysis plucks my brain away from the wasps nest of the internet/internet-think that it’s constantly stupidly poking and hurls it into the bright broad atmosphere of belief and conviction I am so much happier and safer and more useful in.
May 15, 2019
Emily Nussbaum is the reason I flip to the back when I get my hands on The New Yorker. Each page offers insight and honest appraisals of many of the most important shows over the past two decades. Her love for television imbues every review with a sense of affection, even for the shows deemed a disappointment. Reading these reviews in proximity, along with some extended profiles and essays, reveals the depth of her genius and brings the reader up to speed on several aspects of the twists, turns, and great leaps forward that have brought us to the fascinating television landscapes of today. Viewers left feeling empty after GOT ends will likely find a new fount of enthusiasm here, and expert tips for what show to go back and see with newly enlightened eyes. Highly recommended to even casual fans.
Read
November 22, 2019Up until I read I Like to Watch, my favorite book on contemporary TV was Brett Martin’s Difficult Men, a study on the TV revolution that happened in roughly the first decade of the 2000s (Sopranos through Breaking Bad). Emily Nussbaum’s new collection is an excellent continuation, and at times correction, to the history of modern American television.
Nussbaum is an observant critic who’s a lot of fun to spend time with. She can bring the snark when necessary, but one of the things I appreciate about her is her ability to pick at something without tearing down. Even when she’s criticizing shows that I really enjoyed, I can’t help but admit that she makes very good points.
While all essays on specific shows and profiles of showrunners were quite good, my favorite installments were her big picture takes, specifically her introduction to the book and her self-questioning essay on how to watch TV and film post-MeToo.
I Like to Watch is a great read that will make you sound smarter the next time you're watching TV with a friend. Thanks to Random House for the ARC.
Nussbaum is an observant critic who’s a lot of fun to spend time with. She can bring the snark when necessary, but one of the things I appreciate about her is her ability to pick at something without tearing down. Even when she’s criticizing shows that I really enjoyed, I can’t help but admit that she makes very good points.
While all essays on specific shows and profiles of showrunners were quite good, my favorite installments were her big picture takes, specifically her introduction to the book and her self-questioning essay on how to watch TV and film post-MeToo.
I Like to Watch is a great read that will make you sound smarter the next time you're watching TV with a friend. Thanks to Random House for the ARC.
November 19, 2019
More like 4.5... It’s undeniable that television of now is no longer the dumb entertainment of yesteryear. It’s no longer a badge of intellectual pride to declare that you don’t even own a TV. In the last twenty years the smorgasbord of thought provoking and relevant offerings became a battleground for best writers, talented new directors, and star-studded cast choices. Emily Nussbaum, The New Yorker critic, celebrates television’s finest and most daring in this fine collection of essays, trying to understand the things we watch and how they shape us, and in turn how they are shaped by us and the world we live in. You will get maximum enjoyment and insight from I Like to Watch if you indeed watched all of the series the author talks about, because she doesn’t hold back on any details. While I was just fine with most of it, there were a few instances where I got lost (The Good Wife, for example) or confronted by a spoiler (The Sopranos), so I docked a star. I truly delighted in the smartly written commentary on feminism and MeToo, black Hollywood and tokenism, diversity and pandering, disappointed fans and superstar show runners, and the fascinating analysis of some of the most famous shows on television.
December 3, 2019
4.5
This was a collection of Emily Nussbaum's New Yorker TV essays. There were some essays that I connected with more than others. I enjoyed her essay on separating the art from the artist, and the fact that she stood up for shows that might be considered more "low-brow" than prestige television. I did get annoyed that she called Gilmore Girls too sentimental, but overall agreed with her criticisms regarding The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. A must-read for any avid television fan!
This was a collection of Emily Nussbaum's New Yorker TV essays. There were some essays that I connected with more than others. I enjoyed her essay on separating the art from the artist, and the fact that she stood up for shows that might be considered more "low-brow" than prestige television. I did get annoyed that she called Gilmore Girls too sentimental, but overall agreed with her criticisms regarding The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. A must-read for any avid television fan!
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August 4, 2025as someone who has gone years currently & long periods before without cable (& no actual physical television, tho definitely have used other devices for seeing things at times!), plus didn’t see much when an older kid & growing up, I didn’t think I would connect as much as I definitely did with this incredible selection of essays!
definitely recommend!!
definitely recommend!!
June 22, 2022
Sure, the salacious title sucked me in—I was skimming the nonfiction shelves at my local branch library and just had to pick up I Like to Watch, based solely on that eye-popping spine. But what kept me reading were Pulitzer Prize-winner Emily Nussbaum's lively and penetrating analyses of what she likes to watch—of watching television (ohh...).
Nussbaum and I are not exactly the same age, but we did have very similar experiences growing up, back when watching television meant going into the room where the TV was, at a specific time, and sitting down knowing that you could not just stop and come back when you wanted to. Watching TV when we were growing up was a very spatially limited and, critically, time-bound activity:
Her introductory essay's subtitle is "How Buffy the Vampire Slayer Turned Me into a TV Critic," and while I think Nussbaum's altogether too kind to Joss Whedon (both here and later on), her enthusiasm for the show that was so formative for so many really is infectious.
Now, I'll admit up front that I have watched very few of the shows Nussbaum critiques. I haven't subscribed to the costly streaming services and premium cable channels where they appear, but I've been hearing about them for years, and she's great at providing background during the process. You do not have to have seen these shows to enjoy her clear and entertaining writing about them.
I did almost bog down during "The Long Con," which is about The Sopranos... but things picked up considerably later, as with her analysis of Norman Lear's All in the Family, a show I did watch, back in the day.
It's pretty obvious that "Cool Story, Bro" is going to be a takedown. But then,
Nussbaum's "Confessions of a Human Shield" takes on Woody Allen, Bill Cosby and others (though still not Whedon) in a consciously nuanced, deeply conflicted way that I found highly authentic.
I liked Nussbaum's sweet review of Jane the Virgin, and her admiring observations on the comedian Hannah Gadsby, too, especially since a coworker of mine was recommending Gadsby's standup to me just a few days before.
It wasn't until page 260, though, that Nussbaum took on a show that I'd watched in its entirety: Marvel's Jessica Jones, with Krysten Ritter (yeah, she's an author too!) as Jessica and David Tennant as her deeply creepy antagonist Kilgrave. And then Lost (starting on p.305). By then I was already hooked on Nussbaum's prose, and reading what she thought about shows I'd actually seen just added to the fun.
One of the standout articles for me, though, wasn't about a television show at all, but rather about one of TV's busiest creators. Nussbaum's warm, in-depth profile of Ryan Murphy (of Nip/Tuck, Glee and many others) rounds off I Like to Watch in fine style.
And so yeah, I am willing to recommend Emily Nussbaum's essays to just about anyone, even if you haven't been watching TV all that much here in the 21st Century—because, as it turns out, I like to watch her work.
Nussbaum and I are not exactly the same age, but we did have very similar experiences growing up, back when watching television meant going into the room where the TV was, at a specific time, and sitting down knowing that you could not just stop and come back when you wanted to. Watching TV when we were growing up was a very spatially limited and, critically, time-bound activity:
When the ads were on, you peed. When they ended, someone in the other room would yell, "You're missing it!" and you'd run back in.and, later,
—"The Big Picture," p.4
There's probably a whole essay to be written about the seismic impact of the "Pause" button alone, the simple invention that helped turn television from a flow into a text, to be frozen and meditated upon.
—Ibid., p.22
Her introductory essay's subtitle is "How Buffy the Vampire Slayer Turned Me into a TV Critic," and while I think Nussbaum's altogether too kind to Joss Whedon (both here and later on), her enthusiasm for the show that was so formative for so many really is infectious.
Now, I'll admit up front that I have watched very few of the shows Nussbaum critiques. I haven't subscribed to the costly streaming services and premium cable channels where they appear, but I've been hearing about them for years, and she's great at providing background during the process. You do not have to have seen these shows to enjoy her clear and entertaining writing about them.
I did almost bog down during "The Long Con," which is about The Sopranos... but things picked up considerably later, as with her analysis of Norman Lear's All in the Family, a show I did watch, back in the day.
"How could any man that loves you tell you anything that's wrong?"I think I should also include a warning here, though, about Nussbaum's use of some language that even All in the Family avoided.
—Archie Bunker, in All in the Family, from "The Great Divide," p.43
It's pretty obvious that "Cool Story, Bro" is going to be a takedown. But then,
If you can't pan art, you can't be a critic.
—"The Big Picture," p.15
Nussbaum's "Confessions of a Human Shield" takes on Woody Allen, Bill Cosby and others (though still not Whedon) in a consciously nuanced, deeply conflicted way that I found highly authentic.
I liked Nussbaum's sweet review of Jane the Virgin, and her admiring observations on the comedian Hannah Gadsby, too, especially since a coworker of mine was recommending Gadsby's standup to me just a few days before.
It wasn't until page 260, though, that Nussbaum took on a show that I'd watched in its entirety: Marvel's Jessica Jones, with Krysten Ritter (yeah, she's an author too!) as Jessica and David Tennant as her deeply creepy antagonist Kilgrave. And then Lost (starting on p.305). By then I was already hooked on Nussbaum's prose, and reading what she thought about shows I'd actually seen just added to the fun.
One of the standout articles for me, though, wasn't about a television show at all, but rather about one of TV's busiest creators. Nussbaum's warm, in-depth profile of Ryan Murphy (of Nip/Tuck, Glee and many others) rounds off I Like to Watch in fine style.
And so yeah, I am willing to recommend Emily Nussbaum's essays to just about anyone, even if you haven't been watching TV all that much here in the 21st Century—because, as it turns out, I like to watch her work.
June 2, 2019
Via my book blog at https://cavebookreviews.blogspot.com/
I follow Emily Nussbaum's column in The New Yorker and her Twitter feed. The Twitter feed gives me AHA moments in her short bursts of comments on television programs that are hot in today's market. The longer New Yorker pieces are much more informative and give me things to chew over at a slower pace.
EN's new book is a collection of published essays with two new ones and a great introduction to her genre of writing. I love that after Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Nussbaum moves to The Sopranos, one of my favorite TV programs of all time. I never tire of hearing about David Chase, the show's creator. He comes from a part of New Jersey I am familiar with, and a time I remember well.
Taking The Soprano viewpoint of television changing in the early 2000s, we move on to Sex and The City, The Wire, and then all that has come since that time. I am not fond of sit-coms, but I love the drama part of TV and still watch Law and Order: SVU and a few others. I must say that Netflix and Hulu are giving network television a good run for viewership, and I would extend that to app's where I can view international television programs. They are more interesting even though the narrative arc often follows the original NYPD Blue. I like procedural cop shows in any language.
I appreciate Nussbaum's take on the predatory men who have become famous and are now slowly or very quickly losing their audiences, their companies, as in Weinstein's case, and making room for a healthier work environment for women.
Emily Nussbaum is my TV guru, and I love this book. If you watch any television at all, you will enjoy her thoughtful commentary.
Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC of this book (June 25).
I follow Emily Nussbaum's column in The New Yorker and her Twitter feed. The Twitter feed gives me AHA moments in her short bursts of comments on television programs that are hot in today's market. The longer New Yorker pieces are much more informative and give me things to chew over at a slower pace.
EN's new book is a collection of published essays with two new ones and a great introduction to her genre of writing. I love that after Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Nussbaum moves to The Sopranos, one of my favorite TV programs of all time. I never tire of hearing about David Chase, the show's creator. He comes from a part of New Jersey I am familiar with, and a time I remember well.
Taking The Soprano viewpoint of television changing in the early 2000s, we move on to Sex and The City, The Wire, and then all that has come since that time. I am not fond of sit-coms, but I love the drama part of TV and still watch Law and Order: SVU and a few others. I must say that Netflix and Hulu are giving network television a good run for viewership, and I would extend that to app's where I can view international television programs. They are more interesting even though the narrative arc often follows the original NYPD Blue. I like procedural cop shows in any language.
I appreciate Nussbaum's take on the predatory men who have become famous and are now slowly or very quickly losing their audiences, their companies, as in Weinstein's case, and making room for a healthier work environment for women.
Emily Nussbaum is my TV guru, and I love this book. If you watch any television at all, you will enjoy her thoughtful commentary.
Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC of this book (June 25).
March 16, 2019
"I Like to Watch" is a collection of lyrical, well argued essays written by The New Yorker’ s TV critic (and, as the cover notes, Pulitzer Prize winner), Emily Nussbaum. Like Nussbaum, I prefer TV to movies. i like how a story - and characters - can develop over multiple seasons, can change and morph into something new. That being said, I’m not a super fan - I don’t watch a whole lot of it. That didn’t hinder my enjoyment of this book, though. Even essays about shows I haven’t seen (e.g. True Detective) were fascinating - Nussbaum is a truly talented critic. I like how she wrestles with who deems culture to be “high” or “low,” as well as whether you are truly watching a show "wrong” if you’re not watching it how its creators intended. Her essay on #MeToo and “what [we should] do with the art of terrible men”, as she puts it, is excellent. (though since she is a self-professed Buffy lover (as am I), I did wish she’d also mentioned Joss Whedon and what you do when a bad man creates a strong role model for women.) Nussbaum grapples with her own culpability (she knew about the Louis CK story before it broke, although in fairness it was kind of an open secret), as well as how to move forward. I also loved her essay on Jessica Jones and Buffy’s sixth season (two of my favorite things), and how they both interrogate gaslighting, sexual violence, and resentful men, as well as her discussion of the bleakness of the Americans, and why it works. Thoughtful, engaging, and funny - highly recommended.
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy!
Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy!
March 4, 2020
Nussbaum is a TV critic for The New Yorker and this book is a collection of some of her columns over the last decade or so. For the first 50-100 pages, I was on board. I don't watch a lot of television and reading about it was a nice break from the misery tour my reading has been lately. And as a result of reading this, I started watching The Sopranos for the first time, so it's a win. But after that it really stopped appealing because it all started feeling the same. Nussbaum loves everything and wants to demonstrate how profound it all is–even absolutely terrible shows that no one liked. (She writes one column extolling the genius of one documentary that has a 32% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.) After a while she begins to sound less like a critic and more like a groupie. So I started speed-reading the second half. My only entertainment at that point was playing Where's Waldo with the word auteur, a pretentious word we got from the French in the 60s that literally just means a director with some style. She overuses it so egregiously that it seems a desperate ploy for highbrow status. When there's a rare column in which she doesn't use it, you can be sure she'll use it two or three times in a column coming up. Oh, and how do you write a book about television in recent decades and not include anything about Game of Thrones? That's like writing a book about YA series and ignoring Harry Potter.
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