Nostalgic Tele-Visions: Male Nostalgia and Failure in Contemporary Quality TV

Abstract

The first decade of the twenty-first century saw a proliferation of masculine-centred dramas within US television labelled under the discursive rhetoric of ‘Quality TV’. This thesis takes four such series: The Sopranos, Mad Men, Breaking Bad and Boardwalk Empire. Through a study of nostalgia as an affective mood and a stylistic mode, this thesis posits that these four series all feature male nostalgia as a constitutive component. These four series all approach male nostalgia differently, both in its affective and stylistic dimensionalities but they ultimately demonstrate how male nostalgia poses a rupture to culturally normative ideals of white masculinities. I argue that nostalgia, most com..