There are certain films and shows that resonate with audiences everywhere-they generate discussion and debate about everything from gender, class, citizenship and race, to consumerism and social identity. This new "teachable canon" of film and television introduces students to alternative classics that range from silent film to CSI. Art Deco interiors, neon-wrought nighttime cityscapes, high-styled men's fashions, "designer stubble," and the aesthetics of the music video that eschewed traditional storytelling, plot development and dialogue. Miami Vice captures all the glitter and glamour of this ground-breaking work in the police procedural genre, and guides students through its combination of disparate influences--MTV, film noir, soap opera, and the "high concept" action film. Introduces readers to major components of televisual analysis-style, storytelling, the television show as commodity and ideological critique-that illustrate the showrs"s unique features.