Review: I Like to Watch

The last two decades have seen significant changes in TV – from the quality of production to how it is consumed – resulting in vastly improved entertainment options. In I Like to Watch: Arguing My Way Through the TV Revolution critic Emily Nussbaum explores the television ecosystem in an anthology of essays.

Nussbaum, a Pulitzer Prize winning critic for The New Yorker, has great admiration for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Norman Lear and The Sopranos. Topics that have recurring rolls in her essays. I found myself agreeing with her more than half of the time and questioning some of her conclusions the rest of the time. But that’s understandable, as the best critics challenge our thinking and cause us to question, or at least justify, our own preferences.

I Like to Watch (digital galley, Random House) does read like the loose collection of essays that it is, without a unifying theme. And the collection fails to satisfyingly explore the impact streaming services have had on the quality and quantity of programs available.

If you share her sensibilities you’ll likely find yourself nodding your head in agreement as you read this book. If you don’t, you will still come away having learned something about your own preferences. But the book will help everyone become more critical and informed TV consumers.