“WishFulfillment” in Television Discussion

There are three parts tothis Discussion. You must do all three parts to get full credit.

Part I

Read Neal Gabler’s “The Social Networks” (pg 240 in9th edition; pg 409 in 10th edition) and answer the RTT questions.

Part II

After reading Gabler’s essay, “The Social Networks”,discuss a television show that you have watched that seems to follow the sameidea of being a “wish fulfillment” for its audience. You could focuson the same type of wish fulfillment of friendships that Gabler discussed, oryou could identify some other type of wish fulfillment.

The most fruitful types of shows you coulddiscuss are the 30-minute situation comedies (sit-coms) that tend to offercharacters who are, on the surface, realistic, but then tend to be unrealisticwhen you scratch that surface – just as Gabler discussed with the show Friends. 

For instance, you could discuss the way ModernFamily seems to be a generally realistic depiction of an upper-middleclass American family on the surface, but beneath that surface it fulfills thedesires of its audience to experience a family that is aware of each member’sfaults and/or differences and loves them and stays connected to them anyway. Oryou could discuss the way Fresh Off the Boat shows a generallyrealistic depiction of an Asian-American immigrant family, but beneath thatsurface it fulfills the desires of an audience to experience a family thatholds on to its ethnic heritage with little to no backlash from the racist orxenophobic elements of the society in which they live. Feel free to discusseither of those examples, or even better, choose one on your own from anotherTV show.

Be sure to discuss what “wish” theshow seems to be fulfilling and give at least two examples from the show bydescribing something that happened in any of the episodes. Don’t write aboutthe “wish” for friendship like Gabler. Find some other subconsciousdesire that a show may be meeting for its viewers. Could be something like”justice,” “racial harmony,” “lack of classdistinction,” “tolerance,” or anything you see along thoselines.

Part III

Comment on at least two other students’ posts.Did they help you understand any of the questions better? Did they identify a”wish” in Part II that you hadn’t have thought about before?