朋友们,我们别再谈电视剧了行吗?

When 21-year-old Stuart Goldberg went into a job interview last fall with a partner at the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., the University of Pennsylvania senior expected to discuss his 3.8 grade-point average, his internships in private equity or the data-crunching he'd done for the Philadelphia Eagles. Instead, the interviewer went straight for a different bullet point on Mr. Goldberg's resume: his interest in the cable-television series 'Breaking Bad.'

去年秋季，在接受咨询公司麦肯锡(McKinsey &Co.)的一位合伙人的面试时，21岁的宾夕法尼亚大学(University of Pennsylvania)大四学生斯图亚特•戈德伯格(Stuart Goldberg)本以为他们会讨论他3.8的平均学分绩、他在私募股权基金的实习经历或是他曾为费城老鹰队(Philadelphia Eagles)做过的数据分析等，反之，面试官直接跳到了他简历上的另外一项：他对电视连续剧《绝命毒师》(Breaking Bad)的兴趣。

They spent 10 of the interview's 45 minutes discussing the dark drama about a high-school teacher who becomes a methamphetamine kingpin, Mr. Goldberg recalls. 'I was shocked that he wanted to allocate so much time to that.'

戈德伯格回忆说，在那次为时45分钟的面试中，他们花了10分钟时间讨论这部讲述一名中学老师成为一个冰毒毒枭的犯罪类剧集。他说：“他想在那个话题上花这么多时间，这让我很是惊讶。”

The candidate was also pleased that his strategic decision to represent himself with a 'popular yet relatively highbrow' TV show had worked. He starts as a business analyst at McKinsey this summer, the consulting firm confirms.

让求职的戈德伯格感到欣喜的是，他策略性地决定以一部“热播但格调相对较高”的电视剧来展现自己，并起到了正面作用。麦肯锡证实，戈德伯格将于今年夏季在该公司开始商业分析师工作。

Everywhere you go it seems as if all anyone wants to talk about is TV. Watching the boob tube used to be the couch potato's hobby, hardly a subject to trot out over cocktails. Now, that stigma has vanished, and a few knowing remarks about 'House of Cards' can confer gravitas. Ever since fictional mob boss Tony Soprano had an existential crisis over the ducks in his swimming pool in 1999, viewers have been feasting on a growing bounty of high-quality dramas.

无论你走到何处，似乎大家想讨论的都只是电视节目。看电视以往就是整天躺在沙发上的电视迷的爱好，绝非可以在鸡尾酒会上大谈特谈的话题，而如今，这一污名已经消失，就《纸牌屋》(House of Cards)发表几句有见解的评论能让人显得庄重。自从虚构的黑帮老大托尼•索普拉诺(Tony Soprano)因为自己泳池中的鸭子而产生存在感危机后，观众们饱览了越来越多的高质量剧集。

The result is that TV has infiltrated almost every setting, from dinner parties to the torrent of tweets on Sunday nights. That's when a glut of good shows air, causing twice the amount of TV-related activity on social media than on Mondays, the next busiest night. Major publications (including this one, which has a law professor and Supreme Court advocate leading a 'Mad Men' discussion online) recap every plot development, even of ratings-challenged shows.

其结果是，电视剧渗透进了几乎每一个场合中，从晚宴到周日晚间大量涌现的推文均如此。周日晚间正是大量优质剧集播出之时，这使得当晚社交媒体上与电视剧相关的消息数量比繁忙度次之的周一高出一倍。一些主要刊物（包括请了一名法学教授兼最高法院律师在网上引导对《广告狂人》(Mad Men)的讨论的这本刊物）重述每一个情节，甚至也讨论收视率不佳的剧集。

Some people are ready to change the subject. Art adviser Elizabeth Jacoby is a dedicated follower of 'Suits' (USA), 'Mr. Selfridge' (PBS) and 'Shameless' (Showtime). But the vice president of New York consulting firm BSJ Fine Art has lost patience with certain shows that hog more than their fair share of discussion time among friends and colleagues.

有些人则愿意换换话题。纽约咨询公司BSJ Fine Art的副总裁、艺术顾问伊丽莎白•雅各比(Elizabeth Jacoby)是《金装律师》(Suits，USA电视台出品)、《塞尔福里奇先生》(Mr. Selfridge，PBS电视台出品)和《无耻之徒》(Shameless，Showtime电视台出品)的忠实粉丝。尽管如此，她也忍受不了某些剧集在朋友及同事的谈话间占据了过多的时间。

'I begrudgingly read Plutarch for college, and I begrudgingly watched 'Girls' to know what all the fuss was about. But I don't want to talk about Plutarch, and I don't want to talk about 'Girls, '' she says, referring to the HBO series created by and starring Lena Dunham. The comedy, featuring lots of cringe-worthy sex, stifling jobs and frequent nude appearances by Ms. Dunham, made a big splash with critics and pundits that was disproportionate to its relatively puny viewership.

雅各比说：“我在大学时不情愿地读了普鲁塔克(Plutarch)，后来又勉强自己看了《都市女郎》(Girls)以了解这些乱七八糟的东西都在讲些什么。但是我不想讨论普鲁塔克，也不想讨论《都市女郎》。”她口中所说的这部HBO电视台的剧集由莉娜•杜汉姆(Lena Dunham)编剧和主演。这部喜剧有大量让人尴尬的性场景、沉闷压抑的工作描述以及杜汉姆本人频频裸体出镜的画面，这在评论家和知识界种引起了轩然大波。而相对于该剧规模较小的观众群体来说，这些人所占的比例有些超常。

Recent months have seen additions to the ranks of obsessively watched shows, including FX's 'The Americans, ' about married Soviet spies embedded in an American suburb at the peak of the Cold War, and, on the frothier side, ABC's 'Scandal, ' a series about a Washington fixer that goes to outlandish lengths to live up to its title.

最近几个月，吸引观众沉迷其中的剧集又有了新成员，其中包括FX电视台的《美国谍梦》(The Americans)以及由ABC电视台出品、更浅薄一些的《丑闻》(Scandal)。前者讲述了前苏联一对间谍夫妇在“冷战”高峰期潜伏在美国某郊区的故事，后者则讲述了华盛顿某专门帮人解决丑闻危机的公关公司的故事，其中无所不用的手段无愧于它的片名。

Throughout the year, networks (and now upstarts like streaming-media services) are rolling out series that seem meaty enough to merit at least a first round of sampling and debate. This week, the Sundance Channel introduced 'Rectify, ' a simmering drama about a man released into his small hometown after 20 years in prison for a heinous crime. On May 26, Netflix will unveil 15 new episodes of a densely woven comedy that disappeared from network TV seven years ago, 'Arrested Development.'

在这一整年里，各大电视台（现在流媒体等新兴平台也加入其中）推出了似乎内容足够有料、至少值得头一轮品鉴和辩论的剧集。其中，Sundance电视台前不久推出了《昭雪》(Rectify)一剧，这部逐渐升温的剧集讲述了一名男子因一项弥天大罪蹲了20年监狱，出狱后回到自己的家乡──一个小城镇──后发生的故事。此外，Netflix将于5月26日开始播出一部七年前从电视上消失的喜剧──《发展受阻》(Arrested Development)的15集新剧集。

A new halo of prestige now floats over serialized dramas. Recently the Paris Review, the 60-year-old literary journal whose 'Writers at Work' feature has included Capote, Hemingway and Nabokov, commissioned the first-ever interview in that series with a television writer: Matthew Weiner, creator of 'Mad Men.'

现在连续剧的上空又悬浮着一个新的权威光环。前不久，《巴黎评论》(Paris Review)，这本拥有60年历史的文学期刊的《作家访谈录》(Writers at Work)栏目有史以来第一次对一名电视编剧、《广告狂人》的编剧马修•威纳(Matthew Weiner)进行了采访。该专栏曾报道过的名人包括卡波特(Capote)、海明威(Hemingway)和纳博科夫(Nabokov)等。

'The stuff is art, ' says editor Lorin Stein. He still doesn't own a TV set. ('The day is short. I love to read.') But the 40-year-old has polished off a select group of series on his computer or with friends. To discuss, say, the themes of masculinity in the moody FX comedy 'Louie' is an instinctive part of the experience, he says.

该期刊总编洛林•斯坦恩(Lorin Stein)称，采访的内容是关于艺术的。今年40岁的斯坦恩现在依然没有电视。（“日子很短，我喜欢读书。”）不过，他在电脑上或与几位朋友一起粗略看完了一批精选出的电视剧。他说，比如讨论FX电视台情感类喜剧《路易的故事》(Louie)中的男性气概主题便是看电视过程中的一种本能行为。

'Social TV' is the term for the real-time conversations happening online, and that's a major force keeping serial shows at the forefront. According to Trendrr, a company that tracks social-media activity around TV, the top 10 most-discussed dramas include young, soapy fare like 'Pretty Little Liars' (ABC Family) and 'The Vampire Diaries' (the CW). Topping the pack so far this year is HBO's epic fantasy series 'Game of Thrones, ' with an average 777, 000 social-media interactions on days an episode first airs. By comparison, the Daytona 500 broadcast on Feb. 24 had 704, 000.

“社交电视”(Social TV)一词指的是发生在网络上的关于电视节目的实时交谈，它是推动连续剧长期占据热门位置的一股主要力量。据跟踪有关电视社交媒体行为的Trendrr公司称，引发讨论最多的十大剧集包括《美少女的谎言》(Pretty Little Liars，ABC Family出品)、《吸血鬼日记》(The Vampire Diaries，CW Family出品)等吸引年轻观众的肥皂剧。其中，今年迄今为止高居首位的是HBO电视台的魔幻史诗剧《权力的游戏》(Game of Thrones)，首播时各集平均引发了777,000条社交媒体互动消息。与之相比，《戴托纳500大赛》(Daytona 500)在2月24日播出时引发了704,000条消息。

Intellectuals have long dismissed TV, except as a lens through which to study the masses. Bridgette Alexander, a Chicago-based expert in 19th-century French art history and philosophical culture, used to hide her TV habit from her scholarly friends like 'a rendezvous with a secret lover, ' she says. 'Now the conversation has shifted.'

知识分子长期以来就鄙夷电视，除非把它当作研究普通大众的渠道。布莉奇特•亚历山大(Bridgette Alexander)是芝加哥一名研究19世纪法国艺术史及哲学文化的专家，过去她都向学术界的朋友隐瞒自己看电视的习惯。她说那就像“与秘密情人幽会”一般，现在他们之间的谈话发生了转变。

Thanks to shows like HBO's 'True Blood, ' which enabled her to pipe up about political identity in the relationship between vampires and humans, TV themes are now routinely dissected on Ms. Alexander's party circuit. Over appetizers her friends have analyzed how Kevin Spacey's character in Netflix's 'House of Cards' adapts the Brechtian strategy of breaking the 'fourth wall' speaking to the audience directly as if from a three-walled stage. The group includes a political scientist, the head of an African-American studies department, an English professor and a former city attorney. 'These are the people who would say 10 years ago, 'I don't watch television, '' Ms. Alexander says.

得益于诸如HBO的《真爱如血》(True Blood)这样的剧集，现在亚历山大的派对圈开始定期分析讨论电视剧主题，她还借助这部电视剧讨论了僵尸与人类之间关系的政治认同感。她的一位朋友边吃着开胃菜边分析了凯文•史派西(Kevin Spacey)在Netflix电视台的《纸牌屋》中饰演的角色如何应用了戏剧家布莱希特的打破“第四面 ”的策略理论，彷佛从围着三面 的舞台直接向观众说话。亚历山大的这群朋友包括一名担任某非裔美国人研究部门主管的政治学家、一名英语教授和一名前市检察官。她说他们都是些在10年前会说“我不看电视”的人。

Her husband, David Alexander, mostly sticks to the 'Masterpiece' series on PBS (though he quit 'Downton Abbey' after one season because it was 'too superficial'). He says he doesn't object to the TV repartee at parties, but there have been times he privately urged his wife to rein it in.

她的丈夫戴维•亚历山大(David Alexander)大多数时候只看PBS的“经典佳作”（尽管他在看了一季《唐顿庄园》(Downton Abbey)后因为它“太肤浅”而放弃）。他说尽管他不反对在派对中谈论电视，但有时候他还是会在私下里要求妻子有所节制。

A whole category of etiquette has sprung up around the way people discuss TV (both in person and online) when they're all working through the same group of shows at different speeds. The stars of the IFC comedy 'Portlandia' satirized the social booby-traps in a sketch featuring two couples who ruin everything from 'Dexter' to 'Star Wars' for each other by blabbing crucial plot points. The clip itself, widely disseminated online, is preceded by a spoiler warning.

当人们都在看同一批电视剧但又进度各异时，围绕着他们（当面及在网上）谈论电视的方式涌现出了一整套规矩。IFC喜剧《波特兰迪亚》(Portlandia)的众明星在一个片段中讽刺了社交中的可恶行为，其描绘的两对夫妻通过泄露关键剧情来毁掉对方看电视的乐趣，从《嗜血法医》(Dexter)到《星球大战》(Star Wars)。这段视频本身在网上广为流传，视频开始之前有剧透警告。

Serialized programs that unfold over multiple seasons give viewers more time to develop relationships with their characters. That's making these shows seem more 'culturally crucial' than stand-alone entertainment like movies or books, says Daniel Menaker, a former top editor at Random House and HarperCollins, and author of a guide to conversation, 'A Good Talk.' Except for fluke blockbusters like '50 Shades of Grey, ' he says, 'I don't hear a commonality in the books people talk about.'

分为几季播出的连续剧给了观众更多时间来培养与角色的感情。曾在兰登书屋(Random House)和哈珀科林斯(HarperCollins)担任主编、撰写谈话指导类书籍《如何与人得体交谈》(A Good Talk)的作者丹尼尔•梅纳克(Daniel Menaker)指出，与看电影或看书这样的独立娱乐活动相比，电视剧似乎具有更高的“文化重要性”。他说：“除了像《五十度灰》(50 Shades of Grey)这样幸运地一举成名的作品之外，我没有听说书中有什么共同点会引发大家的讨论。”

When Brendan Francis Newnam goes to dinner with friends in New York, he grows wary when the talk locks on television, a subject that can become 'a kudzu vine that strangles out other conversations.'

布兰登•弗朗西斯•纽纳姆(Brendan Francis Newnam)发觉，与朋友在纽约一同吃晚饭时，当谈话锁定在电视剧时，这一话题可能会成为“一条扼杀其他谈话的葛藤”。

He's no snob -- he devours shows like 'Mad Men' and 'Enlightened, ' and with Rico Gagliano hosts a public-radio show called 'The Dinner Party Download, ' an omnivorous guide to arts and culture that broadcasts nationally. But Mr. Newnam recalls several gatherings that bogged down when fans of a show he doesn't watch, 'Breaking Bad, ' waxed on about Walter White, Jesse Pinkman and other complex characters. 'It's like they were talking about friends from high school, but I went to a different high school, ' he says.

他并不是愤世嫉俗之人，他也喜欢看《广告狂人》和《顿悟人生》(Enlightened)等电视剧，并与里柯•加格里亚诺(Rico Gagliano)一同主持一档名为《The Dinner Party Download》的公共电台节目，这是一档在全美范围内播出的，对艺术与文化话题无所不包的入门级节目。不过，他记得有几次聚会陷入了僵局，当时他没看的《绝命毒师》的一群粉丝专注讨论着沃尔特•怀特(Walter White)、杰西•平克曼(Jesse Pinkman)和其他一些复杂的角色。他说：“那就像他们在讨论高中时期的朋友，而我上的是另外一所不同的高中。”

Still, Mr. Newnam says he prefers talk of TV minutiae to that of viral videos, which often cause guests to whip out phones and laptops so they can compare YouTube clips. 'When that happens, ' he says, 'we might as well be eating frozen TV dinners by ourselves.'

尽管如此，纽纳姆说与如病毒般传播的视频相比，他还是更喜欢对电视剧细节的讨论，前者往往会让参加聚会的人纷纷掏出手机和笔记本电脑以便比较YouTube上的视频。他说：“如果这样的话，我们还不如自己吃着冷冻快餐呢。”