A TV Guide for the Art-Observer: What to Pause, Rewatch and Decode

The cable-era TV Guide had its moment. This one’s for the art-obsessed viewer in the age of binge-watching. From masterworks tucked into dystopian worlds to Easter eggs hiding in plain sight, television has become an underrated gallery space. Across these series, the art isn’t just décor—it’s clues, symbols, world-building, and character study. Here’s what to watch, when to pause, and why the art on screen matters.

We wouldn’t say this counts as art in unlikely spaces considering shows have entire art departments dedicated to the careful consideration, curation, and strategic placement of artworks and direction. It could require a double take to see just how crucial to the plot art is—while other times it's a happy accident.

The White Lotus (Season 2)

Artwork spotted: Testa di Moro (Moor’s head) majolica vases

“What is with these head things? We keep seeing them everywhere.” – Ethan

Ethan wasn’t the only one thinking it as we enter season 2 set under a Sicilian backdrop. The amount of Testa di Moro vases placed throughout the luxe resort—almost gaudy—were too many to ignore. The first clue, the first seed planted.

We shared in Ethan’s curiosity. The resort is filled with ceramics, a menacing clue of what’s in store for the vacationers. The colorful vases—always made in pairs, one featuring a turbaned man and the other a crowned woman—are more than decorative props. They’re cultural symbols based on Sicilian folklore: tales of passion, betrayal, jealousy and revenge.

The show gives us the sparksnote version of the tale: "The story is about a Moor who came here a long time ago and seduced a local girl. But then she found out that he had a wife and children back home. So, because he lied to her, she cut his head off."

Of course, there’s more to the story. The ceramic vases decorated with jewelry, fruits, and flowers represent far more, and are a cultural symbol in Sicily. In one version, it was said that a young woman used his head as a basil planter. In another story a noble woman and a Moorish man were beheaded—for their forbidden love—by her family, their heads were hung from a balcony as a warning.

The choice to saturate the set with tangible embodiments of doomed love didn’t have romance in mind. Instead, seeds of curiosity are planted—how will the themes of sexual politics and colonialism turn out in this story?

Severance (Season 2, Episode 1)

Artwork spotted: [Melting Iceberg 7]) by Lisa Lebofsky, oil on Aluminum

A season deeper into the mind bending thriller where office employees surgically “sever” their work and personal memories. Yes, the plot is just as labyrinthine—and the art just as allusive.

“I locked you in the room like an animal, Mark. As an unsecured man I’ll carry that knowledge the rest of my life.”

A striking metaphor takes shape when Mr. Milchick, framed beneath Lebofsky’s iceberg painting, confronts Mark. The painting becomes a visual vignette of his character: composed on the surface, yet carrying immense weight beneath.

In Severance, art is both indoctrination and revelation. The iceberg reflects Milchick’s emotional profile—controlled, concise, and cold in delivery. Just as 90% of an iceberg's mass remains hidden below icy waters, so too does the character’s inner turmoil, cloaked by a thinning sheet of decorum. The painting’s small scale is a loud contrast against the bare, deep blue walls. A lone iceberg surrounded by the endless sea—perhaps another purposeful symbol of the character's isolation.

The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills

Artwork spotted: Cheval Rouge (1966) by Alexander Calder

Bravo’s long-running reality series keeps up with the ladies of Beverly Hills while they navigate friendships and family across the city’s lavish landscape.

At 00:24:19 and again at 00:44:14, the camera pans over Sutton’s staircase and right across her unmistakable Calder sculpture. Yes, I searched pages & pages of auction archives—and yes, I found it: Cheval Rouge, sold at Sotheby’s in 2011 for $1.36M. Keeping in shady housewives fashion, call it alimony week spent. Her private collection hosts mainstream, main-character artists—and she knows exactly what she’s doing.

Harlem (Season 2, Episode 5)

Artwork spotted: Piece by Ceaux Art Spotted at 25:15, artist Jeffrey Melo makes a casual cameo in the series. Standing across from an art director of the show, they appear in front of artwork by a local New Orleans artist Ceaux Art. It’s definitely a blink or you’ll miss it type of moment, but noteworthy for helping shape the show’s look and feel.

The 100 (Season 2, Episode 8)

Artwork spotted: The Lovers’ Whirlwind by William Blake

Set in a post-apocalyptic world where survivors of a nuclear devastation are in a constant fight to live and find their place in a new civilization, The 100 can be seen slowing down just long enough for some art appreciation.

From the very first episode, we’re introduced to the main character Clarke Griffin through her drawings—a detail that becomes a repeated thread in her development across seasons.

Inside of Mount Weather—the bunker that saved citizens from the AI-detonated nuclear bombs—someone thought about the art. Amongst rations and internal war, we can find walls lined with culture. Maya, one of Mount Weather’s citizens, reveals her favorite painting: The Lovers’ Whirlwind by William Blake.

So, what’s the show, what’s the piece, and why does it matter? In this era of binge-watching, sometimes it’s not the dialogue that speaks the loudest—it’s the art hanging silently in the background.