Cultural Traditions

Introduction: "OK, See You" — The Abrupt and Unsettling End of a Cultural Landmark On March 8, 2021, the producers...

Introduction: The Central Mystery In the summer of 2006, the basketball world was presented with a puzzle. Kobe Bryant, a...

The modern Valentine’s Day presents a striking paradox. It is a global commercial juggernaut, an industry generating billions of dollars...

Introduction: The Exit Interview In the highly curated world of reality television, a cast member's departure is rarely a simple...

Part 1: The Lingering Question For over a decade, the departure of Lauren Conrad from MTV’s cultural phenomenon The Hills...

Introduction: The Ghost in the Akron Gym It begins, as all such stories do, with an idol. In the gyms...

For any television critic who was working when Lie to Me premiered on Fox in 2009, the show's abrupt cancellation...

Introduction: The Case of the Missing Captain When 9-1-1: Lone Star premiered in January 2020, it arrived with the full...

Part I: The Genesis of a Story: Jay Asher and the Original Novel The global phenomenon of 13 Reasons Why...

Section 1: The End of a Hit Series: Deconstructing the "Cancellation" Narrative The question of why the popular reality series...