Recent years have seen a rise in the popularity and quantity of 'quality' television programs, many of which featuring complicated versions of masculinity that are informed not only by the women's movement of the sixties and seventies, but also by several decades of backlash and debate about the effects of women's equality on men, masculinity, and the relationship between men and women. Drawing upon studies of contemporary television programs, including popular series viewed internationally such as Mad Men, The League, Hung, Breaking Bad, Louie, and Girls, this book explores the ways in which popular cultural texts address widely circulating discourses of the ostensible 'crisis of masculinity' in contemporary culture. A rich study of masculinity and its representation in contemporary television, Masculinity in Contemporary Quality Television will appeal to scholars and students of cultural and media studies, popular culture, television studies and cultural sociology with interests in gender, masculinities, and sexuality.

Michael Mario Albrecht

Preface and Acknowledgments, Michael Mario Albrecht; Introduction, Michael Mario Albrecht; Chapter 1 Masculinity in the Obama Era, Michael Mario Albrecht; Chapter 2 The League and the Limits of the Bromance, Michael Mario Albrecht; Chapter 3 Mad Men and Nostalgic Masculinity, Michael Mario Albrecht; Chapter 4 Breaking Bad, Hung, and Masculinity in the Great Recession, Michael Mario Albrecht; Chapter 5 Louie on Louie, and Adam on Girls, Michael Mario Albrecht; Conclusion, Michael Mario Albrecht;