Undead TV

“Because of its unique perspective, this pleasurable and thoughtprovoking collection will benefit even the veteran reader of Buffy scholarship, but is accessible not only to layperson fans, but to the (rare) media scholars who have never viewed the show.” - Stephanie Eve Boone, Journal of Popular Culture

“I was incredibly excited to have the chance to read Undead TV: Essays on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and feel like I was doing ‘academic’ work while still obsessing over my favorite show. . . . [T]he articles about media and marketing aspects of TV shows that use Buffy as an example are interesting, and deserve a reading by any Buffy scholar. As Undead TV proves to its readers, a successful TV show becomes great only after it is already dead. But like any Buffy fan knows, when things die, they’re never really dead, and it is in this undead experience that things really start to get interesting.” - Chelsey Clammer, Feminist Review blog

“In a fascinating addition to the ever-increasing body of scholarly, journalistic and fan-fuelled writings on the BtVS phenomenon, the contributors successfully balance their obvious pleasure in the intertextual universe that constitutes the ‘Buffy experience’ with comprehensive critical analyses of the series’ political, social and cultural effects, with rewarding results. . . . When does knowing fandom become merely an academic adjunct to merchandising, and what does this tell us about the production of knowledge in a transmedia era? When executed as elegantly and astutely as in Undead TV, one answer is that commentary can prove as deeply satisfying and thought provoking as its popular source.” - Felicity van Rysbergen, Media International Australia

“It is rare that a scholarly collection of essays on [Buffy the Vampire Slayer] can send me back to the show with anew perspective. But Undead TV is such a book.” - Tricia M. Farwell, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly

“This intelligent collection of essays offers a critical commentary on both the ongoing cultural significance of the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and on media and television industries in general. Undead TV makes a great resource for anyone interested in television theory as well as offering fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer an insightful look into the program’s continuingly relevant themes and messages.” - Maryanne Mangano, M/C Reviews

“This is a useful . . . . addition to the body of work on Buffy and other shows.” - Roz Kaveney, TLS

“What distinguishes this collection of essays from the voluminous corpus of existing scholarly work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer–and also creates a sense of internal coherence among the variety of metholodogies and foci offered in the essays themselves–is, quite simply, that this is a book that considers BtVS as television, situating itself within the discipline of television studies. “ - Lucia Blanchet, Scope

"Thoughtful and thorough. . . ." - Maria Raha, Bitch

“Aiming its Mr. Pointy at preconceived ideas about the show, this collection tackles Buffy from cultural, economic, and aesthetic angles. Cancellation has clearly done nothing to blunt the show’s cutting edge. Read it along with Joss Whedon’s new eighth-season comic book and you’ll agree: Buffy is dead—long live Buffy!” - Heather Hendershot, author of Saturday Morning Censors: Television Regulation before the V-Chip

“Keenly attentive to gender, age, race, and institutional politics, the essays in this collection reverberate with the clarity, cogency, and force of high-quality television studies scholarship. Undead TV is indispensable reading not only for those interested in one of the most important American television series but also for anyone who wants to be informed about the current practices, investments, and prospects of television and other associated media.” - Diane Negra, coeditor of Interrogating Postfeminism: Gender and the Politics of Popular Culture