Tv Drama

Typical Examples:

• Doctor Who
• Call The Midwife
• Broadchurch
• Downton Abbey
• Skins
• Sherlock
• Peaky Blinders
• The Crown
• Midsomer Murders
• Death in Paradise
• Luther
• The Night Manager
• Merlin

Format:

The Drama genre typically runs in series. For example, Call The Midwide is broadcast on BBC One and has six series as of March 2017. These shows are typically shown in the late evening, around 9pm, when children are normally in bed but the traget audience, teenagers and adults, will still be up. Usually in each series, there will be a big storyline that will progress throughout the series and will come to a resolution at the end of each season. Quite often, a series of a drama will end with a cliffhanger and which will be resolved at the beginning of the next season.

Appeals:

People watch tv dramas for entertaining purposes, which is part of the uses and gratifications model. As well as this, tv dramas usually have a large following and therefore people, usually mainstreamers, may watch to allow them to have something to talk about with other people. Watching for social interaction is apart of uses and gratifications. Dramas that are set in the past may attract audiences based on the information they provide about the time perio. People may watch to find out information about that time or may watch because they find that time in history particuar interesting.

Target Audience:

Tv dramas are usually targeted at working class adults and older teenagers. I would say that they are aimed at the mainstreamer as dramas tend to handle things that could happen in everyday life. As well as this, tv dramas run at the same time on the same day of the week for a certain period of time which will help with the daily routine that is fundamental to the mainstreamers way of life. Dramas such as Downton Abbey may appeal to the traditionalist lifestyle category as it is set in the early 20th century, which had different ways of life that the audience may feel are better than todays. Dramas may also appeal to the utopians lifestyle category as many dramas contain violence and murder. For example, the main topics in Death in Paradise is death and murder, as shown by the title. Utopians may want to widen their knowledge of certain subjects related to that in order to fulfil their want to make the world a better place.

Opening Sequence:

The opening sequence of Call The Midwife tells us that the show is a period drama. This is shown through the use of black and white as at the time it was set, there were no coloured photographs. As well as this, the use of the images of children and babies tells us that the show is focused around midwives and babies. The setting shown in the opening sequence is a small town in the UK, this is shown by the row of terraced houses in one of the images. The music used is quite upbeat which tells us that the drama is quite positive however it ends with a long note and an image of a baby alone. This tells us that the show also handles negative storylines as well as positive ones.

Setting:

Tv dramas a typically set in small towns or villages in England, often London. They are often filmed on location rather than a studio as most scenes are shot outside. We often see characters interact with each other in communal places, peoples homes or places with a lot of people. For example, in 'Call The Midwife' the characters mostly interact in Nonnatus House, a fictional nursing convent in Poplar district where the midwives and nuns live. Most of the scenes are shot in this house, which is an old college rather than a studio set.

Technical Codes:

The drama genre often uses close up shots of the characters faces which creates a relationship between the character and the audience. This also allows the audience to see how the character is feeling at specific moments. As well as this, the genre includes montage clips in order to pass the time. These montage clips have non-diegetic music playing alongside which matches the pace and atmosphere of the scenes taking place in the montage. The use of non-diegetic music is also used in sad scenes in the genre. For example, in season two episode four of 'Call The Midwife' there is a scene where the midwife is talking to a mother whos baby was born with complications. During this scene, the editing is slow paced and non-diegetic music is used to match the tone. This is used often in the genre as a whole, during sad scenes, non-diegetic music is used and the editing is slow whereas during happier scenes, faced paced editing is used.

Characters and Representations:

One archetype that is often used in tv dramas is 'the victim'. 'The victim' is the person who is dealing with a situation, which is either the main storyline to the drama or just a small storyline that is featured in the genre. For example, 'the victim' in 'Call The Midwife' is different in every episode. This is because, for this particular drama, 'the victim' is the woman who is having the baby. She is 'the victim' because a most storylines on 'Call The Midwife' include a woman who has a baby with complications or has complications herself. This is also shown in dramas such as 'Midsomer Murders' as 'the victim' in that drama changes each episode.

Narrative:

Most shows in the drama genre follow a narrative that lasts throughout the series. In most cases, the shows have a seperate main storyline in each season that comes to a narrative resolution at the end of each season. Despite this, some dramas do not come to a narrative resolution and use action codes such as cliffhangers at the end of a season or episode, which will either come to a resolution at the beginning of the next season or episode or at the end of the shows run. The use of cliffhangers in the genre leave an active audience to make their own decisions about what happened or is going to happen. It also leaves the audience wanting more and keeps them on their toes. The drama genre often uses the binary opposition of 'bad vs good' as there is always a character who is against the main protagonist or does bad things.