Television,“Amsterdam”,and Me

Abstract

To render an account of how different television houses interact and indeed co-create one another, I offer a digest of my viewing experience of the recent dramedy Amsterdam. With a focus on characterization, narrative, sound, meticulous set dressing, and related work in costume and makeup, I explore how each of these overlapping elements of the series’ construction plays a key role in its attitude toward and conception of home and homeliness. In a closing engagement with recent work in autotheory and in a meditation on middle-class habitus, I consider why television’s hails and appeals, including those of Amsterdam, remain so relentlessly middle-class.