Television

Question 1: On page 194, Cavell wrote that “certainly I have been among those who have felt that television cannot have come of age, that the medium must have more in it than what has so far been shown.” But two paragraphs later, he said “the acceptance of television as a mature medium of art further specifies what I mean in calling my subject here the fact of television.” So is television a mature medium? Is there more to be discovered about television as a medium?

Question 2: Later on in the article, Cavell talked about the discontinuities that exist in the medium of television, such as commercials and also the idea of improvisation. He said that “the diminished role of improvisation on television is an instance of a familiar process in certain phases of the history of performance” (203) But he went on to argue that “room remains for the improvisatory in television’s formats”, and that “connection of serialization with improvisation that links serialization with the idea or the fact of the popular.” This makes me wonder how the reality television shows greatly popular now fit into Cavell’s ideas of serialization and improvisation?