Love Wars

The big screen romantic comedy has captured and dominated the popular and scholarly imagination. As a result, scant critical attention has been paid to its poor relation, the television version. In Love Wars Mary Irwin seeks to rectify this imbalance and provides the first international overview dedicated to the genre. She builds upon the tradition of film studies to offer a thorough, critical analysis of how televisual romantic comedy has taken its current shape. From classics such as Moonlighting to the social commentary of Sex and the City to Gavin and Stacey, Irwin's work charts the form's evolution and the changing attitudes to love, sex, class, feminism and the family that it represents. Her central focus is women's changing experiences and as such she contributes crucial new scholarship to feminist television studies. Her immersion in the socio-cultural context also means that it is a valuable tool for students and scholars in the fields of television, media, culture and gender studies.