Is the End of Television Coming to an End?

Abstract

This article analyses the discourses of the end of television in relation to its status as a bad object. It traces the early, transnational, massive negative treatments of television. It suggests four explanations for this: sociological (television as a popular medium), economical (disappointing investment), metapsychological (frustrating experience), technological (insincere dispositif). It suggests that discourses of the end are coming to an end, because television is becoming a kind of archive, increasingly considered nostalgically, while its ‘quality series’ are achieving canonical aesthetic status. Finally, it suggests that discourses of the ends are organized into systems of interdependent ‘good’ and ‘bad’ media.