He is the author of Mike Leigh (2011), a volume in the Contemporary Film Directors series from the University of Illinois Press. His articles and book chapters on serial narrative and television include such topics as: The Sopranos and episodic storytelling; modernist structure in Mad Men; poetic design and the serial season; Deadwood and Charles Dickens; third seasons; satisfaction; and the showrunner Ingmar Bergman. He received his Ph.D. in English from Yale University, after studying theater, film, and television at the University of Bristol (U.K.) as a Marshall Scholar. Before entering graduate school, he worked as a sportswriter for The Boston Globe and as a production staffer on several films in New York City.