Timed Essay Question 3

 

Why do long form television dramas from different countries offer different representations?

Long form television dramas have been one of the main sources of entertainment across the world for many people since the technology came about to be able to produce different types of shows. As technology has developed there have been many streaming services made to allow paying customers to be able to watch a range of shows and films whenever they want, Netflix being one of the most popular streaming services in the world. Each year since Netflix was released, each year the average users went up from 300,000 users in 2000, to 600,000 in 2002, to 4.2 million in 2005 – profiting from the increasing affordability of DVD players. In 2016 Netflix released one of their original shows, sci-fi horror, Stranger Things. Which was an extremely popular show for the age range it was targeted for. The sci-fi horror follows a group of boys who suddenly find that one of their closes friends has gone missing and they go out of their way to try and find him, meeting a new friend along the way. Conventionally, you wouldn’t find a group of young children in a horror-like environment, but Netflix challenges this idea and explores a new route in the sci-fi genre.

Genre theory suggests that media products that have a specific genre, tend to repeat certain conventions that connotate to that specific genre. Stranger things include many of the sci-fi conventions that we as the audience link to the sci-fi genre as well as the conventions of an 80s tv show. In the beginning of the episode, we see a man running from something and then see him get taken by the ‘monster’ and a non-human monster/alien on earth is a prime example of the sci-fi genre and is the main plot point for any tv show or film based around the genre. As well as the sci-fi conventions, there is also the 80s conventions and intertextuality that we as the audience link to that era the show was set. In Mike Wheeler’s house in the first episode, we see that when his dad is trying to fix the tv, the classic 80s tv ‘Knight rider’ which came out in 1982 is playing on the classic 80s television that would only have a certain amount channels depending on what income the family had at the time. When we see Mike’s sister Nancy in her bedroom, she has a range of posters such as Blondie on her walls, which was a famous band in the 1980s. With all of these genre conventions within the first episode the audience watching this show will be able to recognise it as an 80s sci-fi show.

Similarly, the popular espionage spy drama Deutschland 83 follows conventions and ideas that link to the 80s spy drama and the German background the show is set in. Throughout in the background of the different scenes in the first episode when we are shown the East there are Trabant cars dotted around as in the 1980s East Germany Trabant cars were the easiest and cheapest cars to make and sell. People who know their history and enjoy watching the show will recognise this and know whether they are being shown the East or the West. But one downside to this show is that people who don’t know their history won’t have a full understanding of what is going on. Deutschland 83 is for a specific audience whereas Stranger Things has a large range target audience because of the different conventions being represented to an older and younger audience, whereas with Deutschland 83 it has a more mature and specific audience because of the conventions of the Cold War and the East and the West.

With both shows being very popular in their respective genres and target audiences, each show has their own representations of the different characters so that people who watch the shows can relate to the characters and enjoy watching it. In Stranger Things, when we meet Mike Wheeler and his family, they are represented at the stereotypical nuclear family, with a mother who looks after the children and a father who goes to work and brings home money for his family. Other representations include Will Byer and his family, his mother being a single mother having to work for her family because they don’t have a father figure to help around the house. Despite gender theory suggesting that there is a specific gender role that women must conform by, which is shown through the character Karen Wheeler (Mike’s mother), it is challenged through the character Joyce Byers (Will’s mother) having a well-rounded representation of different characters that different audience members can relate to. Deutschland 83 goes about this in a similar way, but rather then it being relatable to a specific character, it is relatable in the choices that certain characters make. The main character Martin is found relatable because even though he doesn’t want to risk his life and become a spy, living far away from his family, he knows that if he doesn’t go along with, his mother won’t get the surgery she needs for a kidney transplant. Doing anything for your family is something any person would do and the audience watching this show can relate and feel represented because they would also choose to do anything for their family.

Representation goes further than just the characters in both the shows. In Stranger Things there is a more agreeable representation of the bad government, who spy on their town to find Eleven, and the good young kids who try to rescue their friend, even though there isn’t a define split between the good guys and the bad guys in the show, there is an agreeable stance that what the government is doing to the people of Hawkins is bad and as the show progresses this ideology is defined making the people want to continue to watch the show. Deutschland 83 however doesn’t have a defined split between the good and the bad, in the show we as the audience are shown the perspective of Martin who is a socialist in East Germany and the West is represented as the bad side, with the speech from Ronald Reagan playing at the beginning of the first episode. Audience members who lived through the 1980s might have a different reading of this text and see the East as the bad guys, having a different reception of the people who didn’t live through that time.

Different representations are used by many entertainment industries, and try to include as many people from their target audience as much as they can. When they know they can reach a large target audience and represent many different social groups, they go for it, knowing that people will watch their show and tell other people about, causing them to pay a subscription to platforms like Netflix and Disney+.