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TV (The Book): Two Experts Pick the Greatest American Shows of All Time Audiobook
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Publisher Description
Is The Wire better than Breaking Bad? Is Cheers better than Seinfeld? What's the best high school show ever made? Why did Moonlighting really fall apart? Was the Arrested Development Netflix season brilliant or terrible?
For twenty years-since they shared a TV column at Tony Soprano's hometown newspaper-critics Alan Sepinwall and Matt Zoller Seitz have been debating these questions and many more, but it all ultimately boils down to this:
What's the greatest TV show ever?
That debate reaches an epic conclusion in TV (THE BOOK). Sepinwall and Seitz have identified and ranked the 100 greatest scripted shows in American TV history. Using a complex, obsessively all-encompassing scoring system, they've created a Pantheon of top TV shows, each accompanied by essays delving into what made these shows great. From vintage classics like The Twilight Zone and I Love Lucy to modern masterpieces like Mad Men and Friday Night Lights, from huge hits like All in the Family and ER to short-lived favorites like Firefly and Freaks and Geeks, TV (THE BOOK) will bring the triumphs of the small screen together in one amazing compendium.
Sepinwall and Seitz's argument has ended. Now it's time for yours to begin!
Download and start listening now!
"It's the Golden Age of TV, yes, but TV: THE BOOK shows we are also in the Golden Age of TV criticism. In the same way so many of us made Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide or Pauline Kael's or David Thomson's review collections our film bibles, readers will be poring over this magnificent volume for years to come. An essential, provocative, and irresistible tome from two of our greatest critics." —Megan Abbott, bestselling author of The Fever and You WillKnow Me "
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Quotes
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“It’s not that easy to rank the best television shows of all time, as two critics discovered…TV fans will relish revisiting old favorites and arguing with some of the authors’ picks in this browsable and entertaining collection.”
— BookPage -
“The authors write as both incisive cultural critics and enthusiastic fans. Their essays will no doubt inspire debate and the reading equivalent of binge watching…A treasure trove for TV fans.”
— Publisher Weekly -
“Sepinwall and Seitz…explain why each of the choices deserves to be included in this list, which they call ‘the Pantheon’…[along with] quirky ‘best of’ lists, such as TV’s greatest hairstyles, cars, spies, character names, teachers, and mustaches. Verdict: A fun read for TV fans and aspiring media critics alike.”
— Library Journal -
“The authors present their choices in a series of essays that concisely and insightfully identify each show’s distinctive virtues and place in the history of the medium….Critics at the top of their craft going out on a limb rather than affirming the commonly accepted classics…Well-reasoned and engaging.”
— Kirkus Reviews -
I hate Top Ten lists and am existentially opposed to numerically rating television shows, so this book is my worst nightmare! You should buy it anyway, because Alan and Matt are shrewd, witty, and insightful critics, even if they are wrong about Cheers being better than 30 Rock.
— Emily Nussbaum, The New Yorker -
What fun to dive into a book that not only inspires but invites debate over your favorite TV shows. Which ones truly deserve to be in the Pantheon? Which ones did or didn't make the cut? Any book that celebrates everything from The Sopranos to Rocky and Bullwinkle gets my attention...and deserves yours.
— Leonard Maltin, film critic/ historian
Awards
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A BookPage Top Pick for December 2016
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A New York Times Bestseller
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About the Authors
Alan Sepinwall has been writing about television for close to twenty years. Formerly a television critic for the Newark Star-Ledger, he currently writes the popular blog What’s Alan Watching? on HitFix.com. Sepinwall's episode-by-episode approach to reviewing his favorite TV shows “changed the nature of television criticism” according to Slate, which called him “the acknowledged king of the form.”
Matt Zoller Seitz is the television critic for New York magazine and the editor in chief of rogerebert.com. He is the author of Mad Men Carousel and The Wes Anderson Collection. He lives in Brooklyn.