During the summer recess period I became mildly obsessed with a television series. It constructed for itself a temporally-unlocatable world which seemed to epitomise Fredric Jameson’s (1991) discussion of postmodern aesthetics as the collapse of distinct time periods into an eternal present. Its diegesis was populated with strange characters who would, in the manner of a soap opera, appear and disappear as they went about their daily duties.

The current controversies swirling around Hollywood in particular are a reminder, if any were needed, of just how damaging the use of sex through and as power can be, by intimidating those exposed to its horrors. Even if we exclude the notorious era of the studios’ “casting couches,” sexual scandals have abounded across the history of the industry. They are virtually all about men harassing women, as are the stories emerging today.

Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood producer with 300 Oscar nominations, has fallen. After The New York Times revealed decades of accusations of sexual harassment involving a string of actresses, including high profile names such as Ashley Judd, Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie and Cara Delevingne, Weinstein was sacked from his own company.

’Winter is coming’, ‘Valar Morghulis’ and ‘You know nothing Jon Snow’ are widely-known expressions attesting to the global visibility of Game of Thrones ; each expression offering a reminder of the power of television to resonate through casual forms of oral culture.

At most screen and media studies conferences television scholarship is too often relegated to a single session or superficially dealt with as a contributory example when discussing broader industrial developments. However, the University of Westminster’s recent TRANS-TV conference focused solely on the specific and yet expansive notion of “transformations” in television.

Last Sunday, faced with a disappointing episode of Philip K.Dick’s Electric Dreams ( Sony Pictures TV for Channel 4, 2017 – ) on Channel 4 and the blandness, not to say offensiveness of watching episode 3 of The Last Post (BonafideFilms for BBC, 2017- ), we turned to a repeat of The Monocled Mutineer (BBC, 1986) on the Yesterday channel.

Funes. Journal of Narratives and Social Sciences Directors: Stefano Bory, Gianfranco Pecchinenda (University Federico II, Naples, Italy) http://www.serena.unina.it/index.php/funes/announcement/view/81 The experience of death represents one of those few things every society must face, no matter what historical period.

In the last thirty years feminist media scholarship has analysed media systems as environments reproducing patriarchal structures that work against gender equality in the media.

Local television outlets are essential places for the development and dissemination of local content. However, if you’re in a market that is anything other than America, the capitalist side of the industry has long fought against this – with commercial broadcasters in particular looking at cheap and reliable imports rather than necessarily investing in local productions. Cue another repeat of The Big Bang Theory.

Have you been watching Doctor Foster ? Or Rellik ? Or Strike ? No? Me neither. Doctor Foster apparently drew over 8 million viewers to one of its episodes, but judging from my facebook feed, they were not impressed. Rellik scrapes around the 4 million mark, whilst Strike managed around 5 million. Other dramas such as Liar and Victoria on ITV are gaining similar figures.

… don’t worry; you’re still doing better than most modern undergraduates. Welcome back everyone – and what better way to start the academic year than with a good read? After what seems (to me) like an eternity, my first book – The Changing Spaces of Television Acting – was at last published at the end of August, and I have since been busily promoting it via whatever means possible.