LFTVD TIMED ASSESSMENT [LOCKDOWN]
“LFTVD'S LACK ORIGINALITY; NO MATTER WHAT COUNTRY THEY'RE MADE IN, THEY ALL USE INTERTEXTUALITY IN THE SAME WAY.” HOW FAR DO YOU AGREE? [30]
Long form TV dramas are often reflective of the history of film and TV, using intertextuality to their advantage and creating new narratives from familiar codes and conventions, but this tool doesn’t necessarily indicate a lack of originality. In fact, often the opposite is the case. It takes a great deal of creative intuition to manipulate genres to be your own and create an entirely new narrative.
Stranger Things very much finds its success in the engagement of mass international millennial/Gen Z audiences in 2016 through what Neale would call a hybridization of genres and overall manipulation of intertextuality from 1980s Spielbergian movies in order to attract secondary adult audiences by enabling a sense of nostalgia and a homage to what film once was. The blend of micro-genres such as sci-fi, thriller, teen romance, and high school drama pairs with a multi-narrative structure to create a fluidity that enables diverse audiences to be targeted and therefore increases consumption on a global scale. This can be seen through the differing narrative strands of the kids discovering Eleven, Will's disappearance, and the mystery of the Gate. The Duffer brothers takes advantage of this hybridization in order to manipulate intertextuality through the multi-stranded narrative and create a story that encapsulates and draws in multiple audiences to appeal to Netflix’s global reach. They not only use intertextuality to their advantage, but use it so extensively that they’ve created a new mega-genre of LFTVD that attracts almost every audience in some way in order to appeal to the historical contexts of the 80s, hybridization enabling a reflection on family and gender relations, the enemy within and anxiety about the power of the central state as a viewer in the 21st century.
The Killing on the other hand, uses intertextuality to attract a niche consumer market of culturally literate Danes. DR needed only to satisfy the needs of a Danish audience for whom were paying the TV license fee, and did not intend for The Killing to reach international audiences. This in turn enabled a niche danish form of intertextuality taking place, not necessarily coming from other TV shows, but through the representations of Denmark as a whole. The episode reflects a cynical viewpoint of corrupt politics through consistent binary opposition of family and work, with the political narrative having niche Danish cultural relevance. This is continued consistently throughout all narratives such as Sarah Lund’s work-life balance and Troels Hartman’s struggle through grief as a public figure. The Killing uses genre adversely to Stranger things, creating new codes and conventions in order to maintain mystery and suspense in comparison to the use of hybridization to enable nostalgia marketing. Though Nordic Noir is a new genre in itself, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t inspired by other forms of film. The genre intertextually poaches conventions of film noir (1940s) and German expressionism in order to create a new established genre with impressionistic uses of light and silence as sound in order to continue a new sub-genre of crime and mystery.
Though the narratives of both shows emulate each other though the disappearance of a child, there is a key difference in the originality of the perspective the shows are told through. Where the Killing sticks to an adult-centric narrative convention of the crime genre, Stranger Things subverts this and for the majority, tells the story from the children’s POV. We discover things as the kids discover them, then we watch Nancy and Jonathan, then Joyce and Hopper discover them too, almost extending an idea that the older you get, the less our minds are open to the impossible. Though this is reflective of 80s film culture such as the Goonies and ET, this intertextuality is used to combat the conventions of other shows in the climate it’s being filmed. This enabled an originality to the show in comparison to others on Netflix at the time such as Orange is the New Black and House of Cards, attracting a younger Millennial and Gen-Z audience profile to what is a technologically integrated platform.
The Killing has chosen to focus on the domestic interactions of the adults, ensuring that the consumer sees themselves in the text and can reflect its narrative into their own life, growing stronger connections; this is applicable to both sets of audiences, Adults seeing themselves in The Killing and Gen-Z seeing themselves in the characters of El, Mike, Dustin, and Lucas, with adults seeing their past selves in Nancy and Jonathan, furthering nostalgia marketing. Sarah Lund furthermore breaks the stereotype of the authoritative male police detective, which is filled by Meyer in the Killing and Hopper (who both end up contrasting their supposed role, being very anti-heroic), in Stranger Things, very much expressing her gender rather than acting stereotypically feminine, reflecting Butler’s theory surrounding gender performativity. The repetition of panning shots and sound motifs as she’s thinking establish her in a world of her own and further emphasize her protagonist role and establish her intellectual power over the men around her. Though, in terms of originality in the 21st century, feminism and the manipulation of gender roles is a key convention of the era, and thus not necessarily original in form.
So, in conclusion, I believe that though almost all new LFTVDs are reliant on some form of reclaiming of genres and intertextuality, this is more of a help than a hinderance in terms of creating original new content. The historical and cultural significance of both texts play contrastingly on the missing child narrative in a way that enables a reflection on society both historically and as it’s happening, establishing a glocalisation of genres creating original and deep-rooted television in modern society.
8+16 = 24
EVALUATE THE USEFULNESS OF CURRAN AND SEATON'S THEORY ON POWER IN MEDIA INDUSTRIES IN UNDERSTANDING LFTVDs [10]
Curran and Seaton’s theory suggests that powerful media institutions project values, messages and ideas and have the power to shape viewer’s ideologies, without the responsibility that comes with it’s repercussions. Long form Television as an industry draws attention to the effects of ownership and control and the issues of risk and profitability.
Through Stranger Things, we can see clearly how the international dominance of American TV products and American streaming services distribution LFTVDs, the continuance of established genres in Stranger Things dissipates risk and enhances reward for Netflix. Unlike the Killing, Stranger Things is able to have a large budget due to Netflix’s global dominance of the streaming industry in 2016, It is able to projects its ideals and values to a wider audience at a larger scale, enhancing reach of values and messages. But unlike the Killing, Stranger Thing’s messages are imbedded in the historical significance of the show and its reflective nature of how the US society was paranoid in the 80s. The Duffer Brother’s aren’t wanting the audience to make detrimental impacts on society, so viewers read many of the messages rooted in the show as stereotypes. It is safer for them to project these messages because they won’t often actually be taken seriously in retrospect.
We are more likely to follow projected ideologies established in the killing because they're applicable to the modern-day viewers are living in and would have a positive impact on society, such as messages of feminism through Sarah Lund’s gender performance. DR are a public service broadcaster and therefore have a social responsibility to uphold, imbedding the ideologies that Stranger Things does (like that people who seem crazy are actually telling the truth) wouldn’t happen because it isn’t responsible for them to do so. Instead, they root ideologies of politics in satire towards their own government in context and enable a real-world reflection in order to project audience ideologies back onto them and create a sense of familiarity between the show’s messages and the values that the Danish audience already uphold.
The ideas that Media institutions have great power in what they project to their viewers is clearly true, and is especially prominent in dominating industries like streaming services, however it is clear through the Killing that Curran and Seaton’s theory isn’t always applicable when upholding a social responsibility and with the emergence of active audiences, not all ideologies will be taken on board.
7/10
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