Television as a Builder of American Culture

This issue includes seven essays from the Editor, Anna Faktorovich, on what American CBS television series are saying about America's and the world's modern cultural values. Star Trek: Short Treks is explained as a compressed series of storyline formulas that are designed to serve a propagandistic version of what represents moral behaviors. Star Trek: Discovery is analyzed in terms of its failure to position a rare strong female hero in a positive or independent light, instead repeatedly stressing her dependence on her parents and on society to do her favors to escape from self-perpetrated illegalities. The scenically-drawn and elegantly choreographed warmongering behind Star Trek in general and the new Picard series in particular is questioned to determine who stands to benefit from this pro-military position common to symbolic science fiction narratives. To understand how the same pro-war messages are portrayed in claimed to be reality-based military shows, SEAL Team is analyzed for how it presents or avoids explaining the motives and perspectives of the foreigners or aliens being hunted by the Navy. If the Other does not have a voice in the narrative, the Other's annihilation can be presented as a supreme "good" without hearing a defense that explains how this Other side came to the same conclusion about the "good" Team. Bull is used as an example of how America's media turns the corruption of the judicial system with hacked evidence, jury tempering and other paid-for manipulations into seemingly positive stories of victories in favor of attractive and innovative tricksters. A study of the new version of MacGyver questions the ethics of an unsanctioned or secretive agency taking upon itself to execute undisclosed assassination missions that are justified by vague references to the evilness of those killed via accusations of common international crimes without the assurance of the accuracy of this evidence in a trial. On a lighter note, The Open Road with Dr. Chris is described as an example of how documentaries can find the good in the world if they turn towards species other than humans for their subjects. And Susie Gharib offers her regular set of film reviews that help us grasp our current human predicaments.