Urban Anthropology in the Media: Hidden City

While visiting friends over Thanksgiving Break, I managed to catch a peak of a new show that is coming to the Travel Channel called "Hidden City." This show follows acclaimed novelist Marcus Sakey as he attempts to navigate some of America's most prolific cities. While I admit that this may not be the freshest concept for a television show, I found it fascinating the way it was framed in a context that is similar to the way that we have described cities. All of the promo shots featured Sakey walking through the streets of a city. Sakey does his research for his stories by exploring the subcultures of a city, such as the historic gangster culture in Chicago. The last line of the commercial even says, "Cities are made of stories. And the best stories are usually about the worst people." The series premiers on Travel Channel on Tuesday December 6th at 10pm. The first city that Sakey is going to tackle is Chicago, but based on the information on the show's website (see below), it looks like he is going to try to uncover Boston as well later in the season.