Journal of Popular Television, The - Volume 2, Issue 1, 2014

This article examines religious themes in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (T:TSCC). These were already present in the film franchise of which the programme is a spin-off, in particular, in parallels drawn between John Connor, the man prophesized to save humankind from destruction by intelligent machines, and the Christian messiah. However, the TV series revises these parallels in such a way that it is now Terminators, the apparent antagonists, who are repeatedly aligned with Christ and even with God. The article suggests that this change has been influenced by a movement which Robert Geraci terms ‘Apocalyptic AI’, the basic tenet of which is a belief in the imminent arrival of the ‘Singularity:’ the point at which artificial intelligence (AI) will surpass that of humans. Geraci argues that AI Apocalypticism, which has become increasingly popularized in recent years, has absorbed many aspects of Judaeo-Christian belief and rhetoric. Its adherents view AI as a quasi-divine entity capable of instigating the apocalypse, but which may also offer salvation, and is therefore an object of both fascination and fear. This, I will argue, is very much the case in T:TSCC, in which the Terminators are still frightening but may be essential to humanity’s survival.

Todd Sampson, regular panellist on the popular ABC TV show The Gruen Transfer and CEO of the Australian branch of the advertising agency Leo Burnett, has become a media celebrity in Australia. Famous for his seemingly critical stance towards some of the advertising industry’s practices, as well as his trademark irreverent T-shirts, he appears to present the archetype of an ‘enlightened’ advertiser. The popularity of both Sampson and The Gruen Transfer also reflects a renewed interest of popular culture in the workings and culture of the advertising industry. This article takes Sampson’s performance on The Gruen Transfer and its various spin-offs as an illustrative case to analyse how a high-ranking advertising professional imagines and conceptualizes consumers on a popular TV show that claims to explain how advertising works on audiences. It argues that Sampson’s popularity can be understood by the way he reflects, alludes to and shapes three central discourses characterizing contemporary consumer culture: ironic enjoyment, branded activism and self-branding. Despite The Gruen Transfer’s apparent mission to immunize consumers against questionable advertising techniques, these discourses instead serve to immunize the advertising industry against any serious critique.

Reality television programmes focusing on issues of ‘hoarding’ (accumulating items and possessions at unhealthy levels) have become popular on US cable networks such as A&E and TLC. But while these shows outwardly appear to be offering help to those who are featured on the series (as well as viewers at home), the quick-fix solutions and pseudo-medical treatments exhibited may have serious negative consequences for participants and media consumers alike. This article will explore the current state of hoarding within the medical profession, how the disease is depicted through reality television programming, and the problems that result from the superficial and insensitive portrayals of hoarders and their lifestyles.

This article looks at the role of two of the most iconic figures in American popular culture: the gangster and the westerner. Drawing on genre theory from film and television, the way in which the westerner has been displaced by the gangster as the most common signifier of American identity is explored, focussing specifically on the television series Justified (2010-). The southern location of the series further complicates the set of referents by mobilizing aspects of Southern Gothic. While the western and the gangster film have often been viewed as oppositional in terms of location, era and their respective musings on and articulation of American identity, this article argues that the hybridity of genres in popular culture opens up a wider space in which to address aspects of myth, history and social concerns.

Here Comes Honey Boo Boo (2012-) is a gleeful spectacle of a show, filled with fat bellies, loud bodies, messy food and laughter. As much parody as ‘reality’ TV, the show profiles a southern US family as emblematic ‘rednecks’ and invites viewers to watch, laugh and judge. Yet in the depths of this heavily mediated version of southern American family life, there are strong messages about bodies, about class and about motherhood, and the ways that in transgressing dominant discourses, Honey Boo Boo unwittingly moves beyond farce and instead presents a strong critique of normativity. This article seeks to expose the dominant tropes of the show, especially in relation to three areas: class, fat, and maternity. In exposing the messaging of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and the ways that the show’s narrative both maintains and resists dominant discourses, the show can be seen as an example of resistance and reclamation. Drawing on analyses of white trash culture and presentations of fat bodies, as well as the emergent field of freak studies, the article positions Here Comes Honey Boo Boo within a broader analysis of reality TV that suggests a new phase in our consumption of difference and the fluid and disruptive boundaries of the ‘normal’.

Debate over asylum seekers and refugees has continued over several decades in Australia. Terms such as ‘boat people’, ‘illegal immigrants’ and ‘queue jumpers’ have peppered more recent discussions, as well as political party rhetoric such as ‘stopping the boats’ and a network of ‘people smuggling’. In 2011 SBS (Australia) broadcast the first series of a reality TV-type programme entitled Go Back To Where You Came From in which a group of ‘ordinary Australians’ followed a refugee journey in reverse. This ‘alternative’ format for exploring a controversial Australian issue suggests the potential for a more humanitarian perspective and a different kind of engagement with audiences as opposed to news or documentary. This article however examines discourses of the ‘Other’ still present within the programme, including the representation of ‘ordinary Australians’ as potential opportunities for empathy, but also as possible perpetuation of the dominant negative portrayals of refugees and asylum seekers in Australia. Utilizing Said and Bhabha’s theories of Orientalism and the Other, this article combines research on media representation of refugees with Hage’s argument about the construction of ‘paranoid nationalism’ through care and worry, to examine the tensions in Go Back To Where You Came From between humanitarian inclusion and exclusion, and between legitimacy and deviance.