TV: Assessment

TV: Assessment

Now we have finished the content for the TV unit, we would normally be doing an assessment in-class in exam conditions.

Instead, we're going to set the assessment as 'open book' - which means there is no time restriction and you can use any resources you wish. The only thing you cannot do is plagiarise work from another student or online source. Any quotes copied and pasted must be in speech marks with the source in brackets afterwards (e.g. The Guardian).

Before lockdown, we did some brilliant work exploring representations, the technical construction of the episodes, political contexts, Marxism and Hegemony and postmodern ideas such as bricolage, hyperreality and historical deafness. Now we need to make sure we can apply these ideas to a 25-mark exam question:

Question 1

“Realism is a vital component of television drama”. To what extent does an analysis of your television close-study products support this view? [25 marks]

Question 2

To what extent do your television close-study products reflect the responsibilities and remit of public-service broadcasting? [25 marks]

Question 3

Steve Neale suggests media products need to show “repetition and difference” in their use of genre. To what extent do your television close-study products support this view? [25 marks]

For your final assessment for TV, choose one of the above questions and write a full essay answering it. For the actual exam, you will have 35 minutes to write a 5-paragraph answer plus introduction and conclusion. Here, you can use all of your notes and blogposts to write an exceptional response to work from in future assessments and exams. Write this answer on your blog.

TV unit: final assessment

Question 1

“Realism is a vital component of television drama”. To what extent does an analysis of your television close-study products support this view? [25 marks]

I believe that a lack of realism can be distracting from a TV drama, although it is really only an important component if the drama specifically attempts to depict certain social events or time frames. Even then, audiences seek different audience pleasures when coming to television and so different audiences may see realism as less "vital" than others. Our two SCPs - Captial and Deutschland 83 - both tackle real life events with fictional characters and narratives, (although I will argue that Captial is much more fantastical about it), and the general reception of both shows has varied due to this.

Starting with Captial, the state-of-the-nation drama attempts to capture modern London during a financial crisis, juggling issues such as the housing market and immigration. The mise-en-scene used in Captial successfully paints a picture of the diversity in London, with the opening's ariel shot capturing the immense scale of the city as well as introducing the characters to us. For what Captial is attempting to tackle, creating a realistic atmosphere of London was very important and I believe the notion of a diverse cast and setting was successful in making the introduction compelling. Realism is vital when tackling the different corners of society and different social classes, which Capital does to varying results. Captial doesn't follow up on it's promise of interesting characters and a compelling narrative, instead walking into pitfalls of fairly stereotypical and unflattering depictions of British people. An obvious example would be Arabella and Roger, the caricatures of a white middle class family who are oblivious to their privilege and extreme wealth. Capital gained criticism for it's somewhat overly PC nature, with one reviewer stating "Capital was as stuffed full with fashionable causes as Jeremy Corbyn’s function diary." (Mail Online) Even though I doubt Capital was attempting to deflame British culture, it's not hard to imagine that the characters would have been easier to sympathise and relate with if they weren't so one dimensional. Essentially, realism can be important in contexts like this because audiences take active roles in engaging with media by taking their own meaning from it and, with Captial's take on modern London being underwhelming and unrealistic, audiences will choose to oppose the producer's intent with the drama as Stuart Hall theorised. When creating a TV drama that attempts to be "state-of-the-nation", I think that realistic characters are vital to the viewers enjoyment of it, and so realism is a vital component of television drama in this case. 

It could even be argued that Captial, being produced by the BBC, should have a centrist political view point showcasing both left and right wing ideologies co-existing with eachother. Gramsci's theory of hegemony suggests people are kept under control through active consent - the control of 'common sense' - which huge media outlets such as the BBC hold complete control over. The BBC advertising this show as a realistic take on modern Britain could be seen as submissively controlling the masses to give in to it's leftist ideology to the point where they won't question or oppose it.

Contrastingly, Deutschland 83 is a drama that is enhanced by it's use of realism. As a post-modern TV drama, 83 tackles the argument that there are no absolute ways to explain society, deconstructing the failures of Communism and being critical of both East and West sides of Germany during the year of 1983. Instead of siding with grand narratives in the context of the drama, it instead focuses on compelling characters and nostalgic symbols of the 80s to invoke realism in it's narrative. For example, Deutschland breaks down the distinction between art and popular culture during the Supermarket scene in the first episode. The bright colours and highkey lighting capture a fantastical yet grounded experience, with implications of Andy Warhol's 1960s Cambell soup pop art contrasting with the nostalgic barrage of 80s Pop music (Sweet dreams) and iconography. 

Walter Presents and UFA Fiction made certain to create a realistic and believable setting, while still taking liberties to create an engaging experience for the audience. Anna Winger, co-creator of the show, says that lots of research was done into gauging the political tension and timeline of events on the show. For example, real life political documents were used in the scene where Martin is secretly taking pictures of the suitcase. Due to the compelling ways Deutschland uses it's characters and historical setting, the parts of Deutschland that aren't 100 percent realistic don't take away from the experience. A good example of this is the Spy montage scene, which uses common spy movie iconogrophy to invoke the spy genre and James Bond. The show both uses nostalgia and intertextuality to it's benefit in order to create an entertaining scene for the audience. Therefore, realism is not vital in TV dramas to create a compelling story, but using it correctly can enhance the audience's viewing experience.

In summary, TV dramas need to exercise caution when attempting to be realistic, as it can very much break the audience's engagement with a show. Although I don't fully disagree that realism is a vital component in TV drama, I also don't believe that a show needs to be realistic in order to be engaging. Blumler and Katz's Uses and Gratifications Theory details the reasons why audiences indulge in media. TV dramas like Deutschland 83 and Captial can engage with an audience through aspects like Personal identity and social interaction, and so TV drama's don't have to rely on realism or education in order to entertain their audiences. Therefore, realism isn't exactly vital for audiences. However, ideas such as hyperreality become more of a problem as we carelessly indulge in media and begin to find it difficult to differentiate fictional narratives from reality.