A history of prestige television through the rise of the "black-market melodrama." In Second Lives, Michael Szalay defines a new television genre-the black-market melodrama-that has driven the breathtaking ascent of TV as a cultural force over the last two decades. Exemplified by the likes of The Sopranos and Breaking Bad, this quietly fantastical genre moves between a family's everyday life and its secret second life, which may involve illegal business, espionage, or even an alternate reality. Second lives allow characters (and audiences) briefly to escape from what feels like endless work. For Szalay, black-market melodramas are the key to understanding both a changing middle class and how TV has come to be esteemed as never before.

Book Information
ISBN 9780226820484
Author Michael Szalay
Format Hardback
Page Count 288
Imprint University of Chicago Press
Publisher The University of Chicago Press