This paper offers a critical approach to television viewing that considers the literary and rhetorical impact of television programing. The methodology described is composed of three stages of criticism that are designed to examine and describe television drama: (1) the descriptive stage, in which the critic examines the plot, characters, production techniques, sound elements, tone, purpose, method of story development, dramatic strategies, and the implied audience and the implied author of the work; (2) the analytic stage, in which the critic examines the actual audience of the work, the issue it presents, and its historical context; and (3) the judgmental or evaluative stage, in which the critic poses certain questions in order to make final methodological decisions about how to best illuminate and evaluate the drama. (FL)