TV as Art

I thought I would pick up a bit on our discussion in class regarding narrative, art, and Westworld.

Recall that Leo had questioned that multiple narrative threads of Westworld and whether the various storylines would come together. I suggested that in some respects his question was an interesting with parallels to the tv show itself, especially in the conflict between Ford and Sizemore over the direction of the narratives in Westworld. Ford is pretty clearly portrayed as the imperious artist who is attempting to impose his artistic vision on West World. He disregards the financial oversight of Delos, struggles against management, and goes his own way in imposing his singular vision on the theme park. Sizemore is the petulant hack who has no artistic vision, labors at the behest of Theresa, and works only to entertain the masses. We could see in the conflict between Ford and Sizemore a conflict in the very nature of TV: can TV aspire to great art? If TV is a mass medium whose purpose is to entertain, can it be art? If TV is a collaborative medium controlled by corporations tasked with generating eye-balls and, more and more, clicks, can it function as art? You may recall from Kellner's essay, that this question about art and television goes back at least as far as the Frankfurt School. Even today, Kellner argues much cultural studies has eschewed challenging avant garde media for more populous entertainment. But many shows in the so-called second golden age of television have renewed questions about whether television can be great art. Shows such as Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Wire, and The Sopranos, with their imperious showrunners, have often been compared to great literature and great art. As Ford and Sizemore struggle over the kind and meaning of the narratives they seek to embody in Westworld, we see a similar challenge playing out.

These themes are touched on in Banks' essay on I Love Lucy, where she introduces us to the notion of the showrunner and the privileged role we assign to the author of a narrative television series. In her analysis of Oppenheimer's role in creating I Love Lucy, Banks brings out the tension between "creative" (the writers) and "management" (the producers)--interestingly, a similar tension pervades much as Matthew Weiner's Mad Men. As you continue to watch Westworld, think about the artistic aspirations of the series and ask yourself if it could be construed as art.