Film noir reflects the fatalistic themes and visual style of hard-boiled novelists and many émigré filmmakers in 1940s and 1950s America, emphasizing crime, alienation, and moral ambiguity. In
The Philosophy of TV Noir
, Steven M. Sanders and Aeon J. Skoble argue that the legacy of film noir classics such as
The Maltese Falcon, Kiss Me Deadly,
and
The Big Sleep
is also found in episodic television from the mid-1950s to the present.
In this first-of-its-kind collection, contributors from philosophy, film studies, and literature raise fundamental questions about the human predicament, giving this unique volume its moral resonance and demonstrating why television noir deserves our attention. The introduction traces the development of TV noir and provides an overview and evaluation of the book's thirteen essays, each of which discusses an exemplary TV noir series.
Realism, relativism, and integrity are discussed in essays on
Dragnet, Naked City, The Fugitive,
Secret Agent
. Existentialist themes of authenticity, nihilism, and the search for life's meaning are addressed in essays on
Miami Vice, The Sopranos, Carnivale,
24
. The methods of crime scene investigation in
The X-Files
CSI
are examined, followed by an exploration of autonomy, selfhood, and interpretation in
The Prisoner, Twin Peaks, The X-Files,
Millennium
.
With this focus on the philosophical dimensions of crime, espionage, and science fiction series,
draws out the full implications of film noir and establishes TV noir as an art form in its own right.