"Uncomfortable Television is an interesting work that raises many compelling questions about the relationship between televisual content and our own processing of reality and invites further discussion on affect theory and how affect potentially shapes most of our behavior. It is an insightful read for academics, political theorists, and students of many strands of humanities . . . ." — Ana Yorke, Popmatters
"Hargraves's book sits at the intersection of scholarship focusing on neoliberalism, affect, and popular culture and synthesizes these conversations in fruitful ways. . . . Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty." — S. Pepper, Choice
“Uncomfortable Television provides television, performance, and American studies scholars and graduate students with an interesting and insightful look into how televisual affect is mobilized. … [A] compelling illustration of the complex constellation of components that provide a framework for the affective and ideological functions of television.”
— Courtlyn Pippert, European Journal for American Studies
“Uncomfortable Television shifts our conceptual lens by tracking the pleasure and power of television that irritates, upsets, and disturbs. Bringing affect theory to bear on a changing mediascape, Hunter Hargraves brilliantly shows how the uncomfortable feelings of TV viewers can be channeled into neoliberal agendas.” — Laurie Ouellette, Professor of Media and Cultural Studies, University of Minnesota
“As the first book to focus on millennial/postmillennial television through the lens of affect, Uncomfortable Television is a notable contribution. Hunter Hargraves shows how televisual encounters with repulsion, profanity, and violence attenuate the late capitalist subject to feelings of discomfort, which emerges as a regulatory norm and a form of exposure therapy under neoliberalism. Readers interested in critical theoretical interventions in TV studies will be thrilled by this book, while those who are invested in the field’s more standard approaches will find a new account of current televisual cultural available to them.” — Karen Tongson, author of Why Karen Carpenter Matters