Click here for the link to my Padlet for the TV Literacy Project paper: https://padlet.com/jess_browning/39pg9sqdecns
Blog
For my TV literacy project I am going to review season one of the British crime drama series ‘Broadchurch’ which originally aired in 2013. The program follows detectives Alec Hardy and Ellie Miller as they try to solve the murder of a local schoolboy Danny Latimer in the small costal town of Broadchurch, where everybody knows everybody. I was first attracted to the program because I was already a big fan of crime drama’s similar to ‘Broadchurch’ and knew it would be something I would get pleasure from watching due to all the twists and turns of the plot and overall mystery of the show. I also practically enjoy watching Olivia Colman and David Tennant who play the lead roles of the detectives. I had grown up watching David Tennant playing the character of Dr. Who and also enjoyed his performance in other British dramas such as ‘Recovery’ and ‘Single Father’ so was excited to see how he would take on the role of the lead detective in ‘Broadchurch’. The factor I found most interesting about the story of ‘Broadchurch’, and what I think separates it from other crime dramas, is the intimate community in which it is set. This allows the audience to get to know all the characters that live in the village inside and out, making them question some of their morals and leave you thinking anyone could be capable of the murder, even if from the outside they look like a picture of innocence. When the program aired in 2013 on television it was a program I would religiously watch and want to see as soon as it was on to avoid spoilers as well as being eager to find out what would happen next. It is a show I take seriously which is why I had the same enthusiasm to watch the second series when it aired in 2015 and have the same excitement for the third series expected in 2017.
‘Family Guy’ is an animated sitcom that begun in 1999 and is still running today, and is popular in both America and across the world. The show has gained both popularity and criticism for its tongue in cheek pastiche style that often mocks current events affecting America. The show features a lot of comical intertextual pop culture references through the use of flash backs and cutaway gags. There have been many ‘Family Guy’ adaptations of films throughout the seasons including ‘Back To The Future’, ‘North By North West’ and ‘Shawshank Redemption’ to name but a few. The characters do not directly mention the films though, instead portray their own versions as it is presumed the audience will recognize the comparisons and find humor in it.
Season six of ‘Family Guy’ premiered with an hour-long special episode ‘Blue Harvest’. The episode was done entirely in the style of the ‘Star Wars’ franchise, and just like the first films was part of a trilogy of episodes set in this style. The episode begins with Peter Griffin telling the story of “Star Wars, Part IV’ to his family. The story follows closely the original ‘Star Wars’ narrative but also ads it’s own gags along the way, for instance changing the dialoged in the iconic ‘I love you’ scene. A character in ‘Family Guy’ represents each character from the ‘Star Was’ film. For example Peter Griffin represents Han Solo, Peter’s wife Lois represents Princess Leia and baby Stewie, who is often portrayed as the evil genius in other episodes plays the villain of the films, Darth Vader. The characters the people in family guy represent are chosen to comically show their personalities, already known to the viewer. ‘Family Guy chose to dedicate a whole pastiche trilogy of episodes to ‘Star Wars’ as it is presumed the viewers would have already seen the films and therefor find comedy in the comparisons. The creators would presume the audience has an understanding of the original ‘Star Wars’ story as both the TV program ‘Family Guy’ and the films have a target demographic of males aged between 18-35.
‘Black-ish’ is a sitcom that takes a modern look on both racial and family issues in American culture today. The show is unapologetically blunt about the problems America faces all while putting a comical spin on it to fit into the genre of situation comedy. Season 2, episode 16, ‘Hope’ is no exception. The episode focuses on the centuries old mistreatment of African Americans by the police, which is still considered commonplace, even today. The duration of the episode takes place in the family living room and the set connotes that this is a middle class African American family, with a large television and modern furniture, this is idea is also supported when it is revealed that the mother is a doctor. The front room setting allows multiple generations to sit and watch news coverage of a court case of a policeman who allegedly assaulted an unarmed black man, and through the use of quick witted dialoged and flash backs the opinions of the different generations are portrayed. The grandmother looks back on her actions in her youth with pride when she would protest on the streets for black equality. When the father of the household Dre criticizes his son Andre for quoting Ta-Nehisi Coates’s ‘Between the World and Me’ book , he is quickly reminded by his own father that he did the same at his sons age, quoting Malcolm X during a comical flash back. Dre’s wife Rainbow has a far less cynical outlook on the case and tries her best to shield her young children from the idea of the police being against the black communities, much to her husbands disgust. Like the title states, the theme of this episode is hope. While the episode highlights that police brutality has been an ongoing issue within the black community, the concluding montage that shows images of President Obama being sworn in, peaceful protests and the coming together of all races, strives to bring hope to the black community that things are changing and one day there will be total racial equality.
As stated in the book Television Criticism by Victoria O’Donnell, ‘The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon’ is one of many American nighttime talk shows. Each show follows the generic format of a late night talk show and the show that aired on Tuesday 25th of October was no different.
The first part had the most amount of different content with a brief monologue performed by host Jimmy Fallon down the camera and speaking to the studio audience. In the monologue Fallon put a comical spin on current affairs including the up coming Presidential election and stories that have appeared on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter over the last week. The mention of social media indicates that the target audience for ‘The Tonight Show’ is 18-35 year olds who are both awake at 11:30 when the show airs and are also users of social networking sites. The show also features two comic skits, ‘Pros And Cons Of Halloween’ and at the beginning of part two ‘Today I Learnt’, in which Jimmy and the rest of the cast and band make comical one liners such as ‘Pro of Halloween, it’s the most frightening day of the year, Con, besides November 8th’, mocking the election candidates.
The two interviews follow the traditional format of a late night talk show with Jimmy sitting behind a desk while the two guests Ethan Hawke and Phil Collins sit on a sofa and a casual interview is conducted where they are both given the opportunity to talk about their careers and upcoming work.
The final part of the show, part five begins with a live performance by guest Phil Collins of ‘In The Air Tonight’, who performs with Jimmy Fallon’s house band. The performance takes up the main bulk of the final part, with the last 30 seconds of the program ending with Fallon walking over to the performance area to congratulate Collins before a shot piece to camera to round up the show and inform the audience on who is appearing on the next program.
The pilot episode of ‘Grimm’ is loosely based on the story of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ and throughout has several nods to the original story and the overall fairytale theme, some more obvious than others. The episode begins with a jogger running through the forest, deliberately wearing a read hoodie who is eaten by a wolf like beast. We later learn that the killer is a ‘Blutbad’ otherwise known as a big bad wolf, just like in the originally story. Other than the obvious similarities to the Grimm story, there are also more subtle mentions. The detectives look for a missing girl on Hunter Street; it is well know that a huntsman is the one to save Little Red Riding Hood in the story. The girl who goes missing also coincidently has the initials R H printed on her backpack found in the woods. The main difference from the original story is that the role of the grandmother is forgotten. Although the second girl is on her way to her grandfather’s she is abducted on the street rather than met in the woods by the wolf and then again at the house of her grandparents.
The second episode ‘Bears Will Be Bears’ is based on the story ‘Goldilocks And The Three Bears’. In which a blonde haired woman ‘Gilda’ and her boyfriend break into a house, drinking the home owners wine, wearing their clothes and sleeping in their beds. The boyfriend is attacked while trying to escape and it is later revealed that the residents are a family of three that turn into bear like creatures. Unlike the original story, the family keeps the couple and plan to chase and kill them as part of the sons coming of age ceremony, but this result is the mother ‘bear’ getting injured.
Overall, although the episodes take inspiration from the original Grimm stories. They use their dark origins to make an entertaining programme that will appeal to older audiences that are familiar with the stories from their childhood.
For my comedy analysis I have chosen season 10 episode 6 of ‘Friends’. In this episode Ross tries to get the grant of his dreams while Phoebe gifts Monica Gladys, the stuff of nightmares. To contrast this, for my drama programme I have chosen ‘Luther’ season 4 episode 1. In which Luther, while battling his own daemons, makes a return to the police force to stop a serial killer terrorizing London.
The most striking difference between the two programmes is the verity of shots. With Friends being shot in a studio using the multi-cam set up the number of shot choices and movements are limited. Due to this, the majority of the shots uses are shot reverse shot using a mid shot during conversations to guide the story and show the reactions of those in the scene. The pacing of the show was quite consistently fast. I notice that the programme would begin each scene with a exterior establishing long shot before another interior long shot to establish the position of the characters. There would then be a series of seven mid shot reverse shot to carry the conversation before cutting back to a long shot. Reaction shots are more relied on in ‘Friends’ as they are used to create comedy. Most notable when there is a reaction shot of all the characters to Chandler wearing lipstick. This gives the audience the impression they are seeing it for the first time with the characters adding additional humor.
Being shot on location means ‘Luther’ has less restrictions, therefore has more of a verity of shot types with a lot more movement and length. The programme used impressive long shot of the London skyline. Using single camera creates the ability to move the shot form a long to a close up with a simple step or pull focus rather then cutting. This means the shots are often longer with tracking shots to build tension. This matched with fast cutting close ups shows action and builds drama. The programme uses shots to make the piece aesthetically pleasing along with the storytelling.
Product placement is used in the programme ’30 Rock’ continuously throughout the episodes in an unsubtle, ironic way to highlight to the viewer when and how it happens in shows the watch on a regular basis. In series five, episode one there are a few products placed within the scene. For example Jack and Liz both use Apple Mac laptops during a phone conversation and an episode of ‘Barefoot Contessa’ on the ‘Food Network’ features. As well as a physical product being placed in the scene, a number of products and companies a mentioned within the dialogue. Companies such as McDonalds, Chilies, CBS and many more seamlessly blend into the script but still stand out to the viewer. Using products in the dialogue and in the scene not only benefits the company to gain airtime and customers, it also makes the programme seem more realistic as the viewer can relate to the characters and forget that the show is fabricated fiction and believe it is a real life depiction of a television production company. I find this an entertaining and cleaver way of weaving product placement into the show. It clearly stands out within the scenes and dialogue but the comical way in which it is approached makes it less annoying than show that blatantly use product placement to advertise to the audience.
Sitcoms famously use product placement within the scenes to advertise. While watching ‘Friends’ I often spot product placement within the mise en scène. The characters can often be seen drinking Budweiser beer or Coke, eating Captain Crunch and Rachael Green famously worked at both Bloomingdales and Ralph Lauren. The difference between the product placement in ‘30 Rock’ and ‘Friends” is that rather then the products blending in with the conversation or scene like in ’30 Rock,’ in ‘Friends’ the products seem deliberately places in the foreground of the scene in an obvious attempt to make them the main focus. To me this is more annoying than entertaining, making me less likely to by the product even if I notice it more.
There are many inartistic factors within the mise-en-scene of this episode of ‘CSI Miami’ that signify to the audience the theme of the show and make the it seem realistic. For example the forensic team are dressed in white coats and gloves and the police carry a pistol. The language used throughout the episode is also true of that used in a CSI department, with discussions about DNA, evidence, forensics and crime scenes. The technology the investigators use to aid them in solving the crime is similar to that used in real life forensic investigations. For instance we see the use of crime scene photos to capture evidence at the bank such as skid marks left by the criminal’s Heelys. We also see the use of a dye pack, which is used to render money stolen from a bank unusable and catch those that stole it. Back at the forensic lab the detectives have a number of high tech equipment to aid them trace the bank robbers. These include swabbing the bag and analyzing it using a machine to discover traces of ethylene glycol, DNA analysis to match up DNA found on a mask left at one of the crime scenes and a biometric machine to scan the mask which was then loaded into a computer where a facial recognition program used to find a face matching the mask. While the technology used in the show is inartistic the producers have used some artistic license to make the show more entertaining. The most notable of these is the timespan in which the detectives gain the information. In the show they use graphics and cut-aways to make it seem as if the information is processed within a matter of minutes or hours and the investigation is solved in days. In reality the information gathered such as DNA matches would take days or weeks to process. This is bypassed in the show because it wouldn’t be entertaining to the audience and allows the show to move at a face pace allowing a lot to story development within a 40 minute episode.
It is clear from the layout and writing styles of these reviews of ‘Mad Men’ that the readership of the publications a very different. The first, by “The New York Times’ is mostly an explanation of the characters and storyline of the first episode. The review depicts the programme as both a gritty and romanticized portrayal of the late 50’s, early 60’s. The review is titled ‘Smoking, Drinking, Cheating and Selling’ admits the show has it’s flaws but all in all allows views to indulge in the sexism, adultery and drinking to name but a few of the ‘7 deadly sins’ that were rife during the era. The review concludes with “Mad Men” is both a drama and a comedy and all the better for it, a series that breaks new ground by luxuriating in the not-so-distant past.” Enticing the reader to watch the show based on it’s intriguing and entraining unique representation of a slice of American history.
The review in ‘The Washington Post’ however is far more critical of the programme. It is clearly written in a style that is intended for an audience that has some understanding on criticizing television programmes. The writer focuses less on telling the story and more on the character and story development, or lack of. The tone of the review shines a bleak light on the programme highlighting some positives like the set design but mostly deterring viewers from watching the show any time soon.
Personally I agree more with the review in ‘The New York Times’. Although the programme may seem indulgent at times of the controversial themes from the very first scene with one of the waiters making a raciest remark towards his employee, I think it displays to the viewer what life was like as a city worker in the 60’s and how much views have changed of women both in the work place and at home. The programme may be a bit extravagant at times to prove this point but I think they’re allowed some poetic license in the name of entertainment.
Jess Browning 