Scenes from the Suburbs

'The spatial sensibility of the suburb in recent US film and TV is brilliantly explored and theorized in this book. Without reducing their complexity, Vermeulen elegantly shows what suburbs do on screen, as representations and as ways for fictional characters and for viewers to experience contemporary place and space.' JONATHAN BIGNELL, Professor of Television and Film, University of Reading SUBURBIA. Say the word and a stream of images passes before your eyes: white picket fence, neatly mown lawns, winding roads nicely lined with trees, pastel-tinted bungalows, bored housewives, conspicuous consumption. We all know what the suburbs are about. Or do we? This book looks again at the filmic and televised spaces we think we know so well. How are these spaces built up? What is it that makes us recognise them as suburbs? How do they function? By exploring in detail the hometowns of Desperate Housewives, The Simpsons, King of the Hill, Happiness, Pleasantville, Brick and The Chumscrubber, Scenes from the Suburbs examines what it means to be suburban today. An essential read for academics concerned with the ways in which our understandings of space and place change, this book is particularly relevant for students and researchers in Suburban Studies, Film & Television Studies and Urban Geography.