Genius on Television

Ashley Lynn Carlson is an associate professor of English at the University of Montana Western in Dillon, Montana. She has published essays on a variety of topics ranging from nineteenth-century literature to contemporary popular culture.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgments viiiIntroduction—Ashley Lynn Carlson 1Part I. Genius Types: Television Definitions of Genius“Spectacularly ignorant”: The Conflicted Representation of Genius—David Sidore 12Mediated Genius, ­Anti-Intellectualism and the Detachment(s) of Everyday Life—JZ Long 32The Human Hard Drive: Memory, Intelligence and the Internet Age—Ashley Lynn Carlson 49Gray Matter: The Malleability of Intelligence in Fringe—Lisa K. Perdigao 59Part II. Gender and Genius“Caring is not an advantage”: The Triumph of Reason in Sherlock—Jillian L. Canode 80Geeksploitation: Gender and Genius in The Big Bang Theory—Jeffrey A. Sartain 96The Genius in the Attic: The Female Technologist in NCIS and Criminal Minds—Marian R. Hjelmgren and Ashley Lynn Carlson 113Gladiators in Dresses: Scandal, Femininity and Emotional Genius—Jennifer Kirby 124“I’m not a girl, I’m a genius”: The Creative Souls of Brenda Leigh Johnson and Cristina Yang—Cecilia J. Pang 138Part III. Genius, Difference and DevianceWhat’s the Difference? Pathologizing Genius and Neurodiversity in Popular Television Series—Carol-Ann Farkas 156Temperance Brennan: A Case Study in Genius and Autism Spectrum Disorder—Kristin Larson 175True Detective or Smooth Criminal? The (Dys)functional Genius in Contemporary Detective Shows—Laura-Marie von Czarnowsky and Annette Schimmelpfennig 185“It’s the age of the geek, baby”: The Intelligent Con Artist, Corporate America and the Construction of the Family in Leverage—Hannah Swamidoss 199About the Contributors 215Index 217