Reflection Prompt

Is Television Art?

Applying the three standards of evaluation to a series you know

Television is the art form most of us know best and take most for granted. It is also the one whose status as art is most disputed. This unit has asked you to look at it with the same attention you gave to paintings and poems. This final reflection asks you to make a judgment.

The prompt

Choose a television series you know well (a drama, a comedy, a documentary series, anything with several episodes). Apply the three evaluative standards from Unit 3:

  1. Perfection: does everything in the work contribute to the whole?
  2. Insight: does it reveal something meaningful about human experience?
  3. Inexhaustibility: does it reward repeated viewing?

Give a specific example from the series for each standard, and say where it falls short. Then answer: is this series art?

Notice how the form of television (a long serial structure, interruptions, a living-room setting) helps or hinders each standard. A series can be inexhaustible in a way no two-hour film could, but it can also be uneven. Be honest about both.

Your Reflection

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