LONG FORM TV DRAMA

((Platforms, audiences & Breaking Bad))

(CHRIS’LESSON)

Pros & Cons – why study long form TV Drama

Long form TV drama has a storyline that continues throughout multiple series.

The Institutional Context – US television drama reborn, & the problem of UK Drama

Institutional Context: US NETWORK TELEVISION

 US network broadcasters must satisfy their advertisers & hold market share +
controlled by federal regulation

US CABLE TV
 HBO was the fist US national subscription cable tv channel
 These subscription based cable channels can take more risks with context and form
 Other US major players – Showtime & FX, many are subsidiaries of media
conglomerates (HBO/Warner, FX/FOX)

Trouble with UK TV Drama?

 Uk broadcasters have failed to meet the challenge of the US cable channels move to
long form tv dramas, with their risk taking content & style
 BBC & ITV – pre 90s- relied on genre based, formula drama
 ^^^^(Heritage & Crime drama are prime examples)
 Sky co-opted success of US long form w/ Sky Atlantic
 Water Shed – can swear etc after around 9pm on Tv
 Commissioning remains tightly controlled

Platforms – the changing use of technology?

Audiences— the changing market?

 Rise w/ binge watching – started w DVDs in late 90’s , partially due to syndication
problems in the UK
 A move from ‘water cooler’ TV to ‘shared universe’ fandom
 US long form drama often use Easter eggs & mid season breaks to generate fan
intensity & maintain media profile

Chasing the ABC1 Audience?

 Channel 4 & BBC4 have identified foreign language/ subtitled long form shows are
ratings winners
  Foreign long form shows are cheaper after being out for a few years

Case Study – Breaking Bad

AMC 2008-2013
 ‘State of the nation’ TV as cultural phenomenon
 Studying a rich text

 Long form tv shows challenged the simplistic storylines and stereotypical characters
that dominate network Tv in US
 BREAKING BAD – creator writer Vince Gilligan
 BB aired on US cable channel AMC in 2008 building to crescendo in 2013

Semiotics of Breaking Bad

- Each character has a strong colour pallet, representing their characters & sometimes
reflecting the story line

Narrative
- Walter White represents an ‘everyman’ character but who’s hero’s journey is
inverted (from good to bad, protagonist to antagonist)
- He represents the false hero or anti hero
- Jesse is his helper, donor, dispatcher? – audiences Proxy (relatable character to TA
- Walter is a distorted, ‘guru’ like father figure for Jesse

Time lapses
- Shows change – symbolic of Walters journey & maybe a change in his character
- Represents the passing of time

Shots
- “POV” shots throughout, some through the floor or wall
- Put the audience in the scene in a bit of a weird way, immersive
- Can show Walters transformation, puts something directly into the audiences
eyeline – highlighting what’s important

Genre
- Example of Hybridity
- Uses elements of western, crime/gangster, psychological drama & black comedy
- Domestic melodrama? Draws on generic elements in US TV sit-cos, drama &
literature

Walter White
- Emasculated by his position in life
- Humiliated by Bogdan – part time car wash boss
- Walter regains his manhood & masculinity through his criminal activity
- He regains independence but loses the ties to family as he comes the alter ego of
Heisenberg (the false here/split personality)
- Diagnosed with cancer, wants to be able to provide for his family
Representation- American Dream as Nightmare?
- Other characters have a reverse character arc or are dysfunctional
- Skylar – becomes corrupted & an accomplice to Walters drug empire
- All their pursuits of happiness/ justice lead them down a dark path in order to find it

Key Themes
- Social Class
- American Family
- War on Drugs – how drugs have poisoned American social & cultural discourse &
relations w Mexico
- The American Dream – fame, celebrity, get rich quick culture dominates
- Health Care Crisis – millions of Americans can’t afford or don’t have decent health
care insurance
 Long Form TV Drama Continued (ALANS LESSON)

((Looking @ Deutschland 83 & Stranger Things))

FORMAL CONVENTIONS

High Concept – based around a unique idea, or a fresh twist on a familiar story

Deutschland 83 – traditional idea of being under cover but with a younger protagonist in a
more recent historical text (GERMAN)

Stranger Things – trad. Horror thriller, (usually a topic in a film), incl. child’s perspective
when dramas are usually aimed at adults

Novelistic – multiple storylines, characters stretch over no. seasons/ episodes

‘Beyond the Binary’ – characters move beyond simple ‘good’ & ‘bad’, long form format
allows us to make more complex believable characters , w/ complex situations

Narratives based around ‘systemic change’, not focused on 1 individual (journey for whole
community)

Ambitious themes that explore social issues – ‘State of the Nation’ stories
(state of the nation = what the world is like, not just characters)

Deutsch. – East & West dealing w/ US/Russian threats

Stranger.—challenging the American dream w/ issues of surveillance, human

experimentation & reference to MKULTRA experiments of 70s/80s
Cinematic – high quality writing, direction, acting, production, design etc. ‘tangible world’
brought to life with production design

‘Flow’ – one character flows into the next, makes it easy to binge watch
Netflix encourages continuous flow through a season

Syndication –

Netflix provides a micro-tagging system to help focus audiences more on their favourite
content – Video On Demand
Micro Tagging – shows audience what content they may like on their previous watching
preferences/ history

I.e. Stranger Things falls under

- Horror
- Thrillers
- Conspiracy
- Science fiction
- Coming of age

What makes LFTVD unique??

- A submersive world provides escapism

- Less trad. Narrative & storytelling structure, w/ unexpected twists
- Encourages audiences to respond w/ their own media and take part – cosplay,
conventions, online communities ((Clay Shirky)) consumer becomes a producer
- Becomes part of the cultural parlance & embeds into society

Long Form TV Drama Continued

((Chris’ Lesson))

Why do institutions invest in LFTVD?

Audience commitment
- Highly engaged
- Audiences are invested in the outcomes and narratives, likely to follow till the end

Prestige programming
- Award winning
- Very important for subscription channels
- People subscribe to services purely to see one particular show, therefore flagship
shows can pull in more subscriptions

Audience Loyalty
- Despite dips in quality
- Fan base loyalty key to shows success
- People become committed to characters & narratives

Controversial Plots
- Make them ‘water cooler’ topics – marketing spread by word of mouth
- People are commenting immediately after the episodes on the plots

Subscription TV
- Guaranteed income, so able to take risks, invest in new projects
 - Continuous generating of new programs and enables consistent subscribers

Deutschland 83

- Historical, spy thriller, family drama, action

- Hybrid genre
- Made by Sundance
- Trailers : UK one focused on the different characters and developments, US once
focuses on the montage training of Martin
- German show but released globally
- UK & US trailers

Where are uses & gratifications being provided in these trailers?

- Escapism into world of hyper reality
- Entertainment based
- Tensions over his mothers illness – link to socialising gratification
- Ongoing mission for protagonist to overcome – link to entertainment

US Trailer – familiar signs of the teen recruitment video

Stranger Things
Genre & audience pleasures

Why do people enjoy genres?

Deborah Knight – satisfaction of having expectations fulfilled, people have prior

expectations

Steve Neale – ‘repetition & difference’, how creators play with that repetition & innovate to
create the differences

David Chandler – ‘interpretive community’, you can classify yourself through genre

DIFFERENCE AUDIENCES PLEASURES – USES & GRATIFICATIONS

Entertainment – a pleasure gained from humour

Identifying with the character - relate to the characters because of their personality,
situation, status or issues similar to yours

Identifying with the situation - pleasure being able to relate to situations happening on
screen

Escapism – the pleasure of being able to escape from the audiences own world into a less
realistic one
Superiority to the characters

Schadenfreude – pleasure gained from the pain of others

Viewer Reward – being rewarded for being a loyal viewer through references to previous
episodes or associated media (intertextual reference can come under this umbrella)

Hybrid Genres – way of getting a bigger audience to engage with your product as it appeals
to more people, long form tv dramas suit hybrid genres bc they have more time to address
these multiple genres, characters & storylines

- Enables marketing to be more diverse

- Challenges existing dramas
- Appeals to a more diverse audience

REPRESENTATION OF SOCIAL GROUPS

Deuschland 83 – character of Leonora subverts that expectation of women in power

- Stereotypes are expectations

- Archetypes are commonly found stereotypes e.g. the caring mother

Nostalgia

- Sentimental or glamorised version of the past

- Major attraction for many viewers

- Emotional engagement – strong personal memories of the period

- ‘Authenticity’ – rigorously research and recreate production design; audience trust

- Familiarity/ safety of the past – especially during times of political/ social upheaval

Why do younger viewers like stranger things?

Many teen, horror, detective, sci-fi films today get their look, style & narrative ingredients

Exoticism – an idealised, small town, USA creating a glamourous, fantasy world

POST MODERNISM

- Duffer Brothers never lived through the 80’s – Stranger things purely based on
media of that period
- Considered a homage to 80’s media
- Baudrillard – simulacra – a copy that is somehow more ‘real’ that what it is imitating
 - It becomes new reality
- Levi Strauss – Bricolage – assembling a new media texts from elements ‘sampled’
from others – rise of a ‘remix culture’

Selling of Stranger Things

- Netflix styles itself as the first truly global tv network

- Netflix = 100 million subscribers
- List of big data to generate viewing tastes
- Expands the initial audience by using ‘taste communities’ demographics based on
previous viewing habits and generating personalised thumbnails

Marketing to Millennials

- Stranger things includes games & ‘surveillance footage’ of family homes on YouTube
- Spotify ‘character -curated’ playlists
- The need to interact with the audience beyond the series itself
- ((Millennials like/ appeal to more intricacies))