Weeks 10 and 11 – Buffy.
1) Q. Wilcox and Lavery
(2002) identify 9 defining characteristics of 'quality TV' - can you apply any
of these to other television series that you have viewed recently? Are there
any other characteristics that you could add to their list?
2) What role does Hills (2004) suggest the fans
play in the construction of cult TV? How is new media central to this?
3) Hills (2004)
lists a number of defining characteristics of cult TV that contain similarities
to the defining characteristics of pop genres (e.g. fantasy, science fiction)
discussed earlier in the Pop Genres paper. Can you identify these and discuss
why you think that these characteristics are repeatedly viewed as underpinning
popular genres?
1) Q. Wilcox and Lavery (2002) identify 9 defining characteristics of 'quality TV' - can you apply any of these to other television series that you have viewed recently? Are there any other characteristics that you could add to their list?
ReplyDeleteAccording to Wilcox and Lavern (2002), the 9 rules of a quality TV show, I would like to discuss one of my favorite TV “American Horror Story” . I watched every season, and this series of TV is surprise me and attraction to every audience who love this genres. The producers Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk create a universal of horror, anthology and supernatural, each season is conceived as a self-contained miniseries, following a different set of characters and settings, and a storyline.For instance, murder house, asylum, witch coven, freakshow, hotel. In the sixth season, Ryan and Brad put a true history background as the storyline, the missing colony Roanoke. Audience are able to scream, frighten, even moved by the story. There are big cast in this TV, likes Jessica Lange, an American actress who has received worldwide acclaim for her work in film, theater, and television. Kathy Bates, is an American actress and director, she had perform in “Titanic”, as a rich but kindness nobility lady. Also, there are some young pop cast likes Emma Robert, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters and Taissa Farmiga, they are both successful performers in TV. As a horror genre fans, AHS give me a deep impressive,it is not only the scary and creepy sense make audience excited. When you think back, the TV questioning the social problems, likes politics,religion, homosexual, bullying, violence, cheated and racism. As a result, AHS definitely is a quality TV.
For my own suggestion, I consider that a quality TV suppose to have the logical content, audience are able to follow and understand the story and would like to keep watching it.
Wikipedia(n.d) American Horror Story. Retrieved from https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Horror_Story
4) Buffy The Vampire Slayer (Cult TV Show) - How does Buffy deconstruct traditional literary notions of good and evil?
ReplyDeleteIn cult television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, characters move from being good to evil and evil to good. There is a known ambiguity of the two, characters holding good and/or evil, are no longer seen as complete different entities.
The characters in Buffy are faced with both and have to figure out which is which. Good and evil is the focus of every episode and the audience carries along with the characters to judge what is good or bad.
Buffy the vampire slayer was the first in television to express this idea of there being no clear good and evil characters. They intertwine with each other, there is no precise cut between the two mediums. Buffy herself is confused between the two and doesn’t know who to trust. This is seen through episode seven of season two- Lie to me. The conversation between Giles and Buffy is very revealing to what is going on in the series. Buffy wants Giles to lie to her about life, saying everything is simple and the good guys and bad guys are very easy to distinguish and they always get defeated and nobody dies. Buffy knows this is a lie but wants to hear it anyway. This tv show is about growing up and becoming an adult. Buffy looks at this is in a different way, it is internalized by the audience and is relatable.
5) In what way is Buffy influenced by the romantic gothic tradition? Yet how does Buffy also provide a contemporary critique of this tradition?
Buffy is influenced by the romantic gothic tradition in that it includes aspects of Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein. The romantic gothic classic has added its mark on to the more recent television series. Of course Buffy has similarities to Frankenstein in that it is a story about good and evil and holds supernatural content, yet it is also about humanity and the relationship between “the evil” and people.
Buffy is influenced by this genre in that it shows the relationship between the characters and the monsters. They are overlapped in that they can be both, this is expressed in both Frankenstein and Buffy. They both also have a connection to humanity in that people can either be good or evil, and we all hold an aspect of monster within us. This goes to say we are not usually one or the other, we have both sides inside of us, which is shown in Frankenstein and Buffy. Both works show this possibility and truth through a supernatural guise.
In the episode: Goodbye Iowa- season 4 episode 14, a monster called Adam is created by Doctor Walsh, chief of the Initiative. This monster has utter significance to Frankenstein’s monster, also both creators die at the hands on their creation, however not literally in Shelly’s novel.
Buffy uses that same story line as in Frankenstein, in that he wants to find out what and who he is, so goes out into the human world. However, he is disappointed when his true nature is revealed when he kills a little boy.
A contemporary difference is that Adam’s creator is a woman, not a man. This change in gender is an important difference in that during the time Frankenstein was published, although written by a woman, men were higher up in most fields including science- Frankenstein was a scientist. The change in buffy is that women can also be higher in command and can hold some sort of evil intention also, as it is known through a stereotype that men are more ill- tempered and “evil.”
The name of Adam also has reference to Catholic faith, as Adam is God’s first creation of man. This idea of the creation of man can be both seen as good and bad, through the bible story and through Buffy and Frankenstein. In the case of Buffy and Frankenstein the initial intention is bad, but as the monster grows and becomes aware of mankind they change their intentions. Both influence each other, through good and bad.
Well researched and ideas coherently developed.
Delete
ReplyDelete5) In what way is Buffy influenced by the romantic gothic tradition? Yet how does Buffy also provide a contemporary critique of this tradition?
Gothic romanticism can be seen as an extension of traditional romanticism, while allocating more focus to the macabre. Gothic fiction emerged in England in the mid 18th century and its popularity peaked in the 19th century during the dawn of the industrial revolution. Seen as a response to the age of enlightenment, Hume (2005) describes “gothic fiction as one symptom of a widespread shift away from neoclassical ideals of order and reason, toward romantic belief in emotion and imagination”. Buffy the Vampire Slayer takes on board different romantic gothic tradition while critiquing others in the process.
Obvious to viewers is the fact that the Buffy narrative revolves around the supernatural. But what many do not realise is that the supernatural processes are used as a device to better exemplify the personal and emotional experiences of the characters following in the fictional gothic tradition. According to Braum (2000) for example, the events which unfolded between Buffy and Angle in the second season “can be explored with psychoanalytic theory”. Angel, who was a vampire had also been cursed; “his human soul was restored in his immortal and bloodthirsty body as a result” (Braum, 2000). He becomes a love interest of Buffys, and after a night of fighting vampires, the two proceeded to Angel's apartment where they made love for the first time. Neither character realised this at the time, but Angles curse would be lifted if he experienced “perfect human happiness” and that experience occurs while having sex with Buffy. After this event Angel was reborn as the “evil and vengeful Angelus” and the rest of season two “ focused on Buffys efforts to come to terms with the fact that her lover had turned into her most determined enemy who delighted in emotionally torturing her”(Braum, 2000). Bruam (2000) compares Buffys ordeal with Angel to Melanie Kleins psychoanalytic hypothesis, in which she theorised that infants allocate their mothers into good and bad objects. The reason for this line of thinking is because the infants rely completely on their mothers but the mothers are not always there for them so they split their mothers into good and bad to avoid the inconceivable. Buffy having to acknowledge that her lover “embodied great hostility and rage targeted toward her” can be seen as metaphor, mirroring Kleins infant predicament.
Buffy best critiques classical romantic gothic traditions by questioning the conventional romantic hero. The archetypical romantic hero can be defined as a protagonist who has been excluded from wider society and regards himself as the center of his own reality. Buffy the Vampire Slayer refutes this convention by providing the protagonist (Buffy) with a meaningful social life, and as apart of this, a group of characters (scooby gang) who help Buffy defeat evil supernatural beings.
References
Braum, B. (2000) The X-files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The ambiguity of evil in supernatural representations. Retrieved 18 October, 2005 from:http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0412/is_2_28/ai_64688900
Hume, R. D. (2005, October 8). Gothic Versus Romantic: A Revaluation of the Gothic Novel. Retrieved October 17, 2017, from http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/Articles/hume.html
Q. Wilcox and Lavery (2002) identify 9 defining characteristics of 'quality TV' - can you apply any of these to other television series that you have viewed recently? Are there any other characteristics that you could add to their list?
ReplyDeleteA. The nine defining characteristics of ‘Quality TV’ described by Wilcox and Lavery (2002) are as follows:
1. Usually has a quality pedigree.
2. Desirable demographics notwithstanding, they must often undergo and noble struggle against profit mongering networks and non-appreciative audiences.
3. Tends to have a large ensemble cast.
4. Has a memory.
5. Creates a new genre by mixing old ones.
6. Tends to be literary and writer-based.
7. Is self-conscious.
8. The subject matter tends to be controversial.
9. Aspires towards realism.
A show I have viewed recently that I believe follows a number of these characteristics is ‘The Get Down’, a two part Netflix series created by Baz Luhrmann. Below I will outline why/how the show fits into the nine categories:
1. In terms of a ‘quality pedigree’, the shows creator Baz Luhrmann is an award winning director best known for quality and highly praised films such as ‘Romeo + Juliet’, ‘Moulin Rouge’, and ‘The Great Gatsby’.
2. Unfortunately the show only ran for one season on Netflix before it was canceled. Despite it’s initial popularity the shows ratings dropped exponentially during the second part and was canceled despite the love and support from fans.
3. The show has a large primary cast including Justice Smith, Shameik Moore, Herizen Guardiola, Jaden Smith, and Jimmy Smits, along with an even larger secondary cast. The show follows numerous groups of characters whose stories all intertwine making for an interesting and complex show.
4. The show follows a linear storyline and characters don’t forget events and developments as the show progresses allowing characters to develop properly as the show went on.
5. ‘The Get Down’ might not be considered a ‘new genre’, but it is a fantastic example of a mix of genres that aren’t often seen together in a new and exciting way. The show is both a period drama and a musical with the fusion of the period setting of 1970s New York and 70s R&B and Disco music.
6. The show was written in part by Baz Lurhmann who also wrote the screenplays for most of his other works. The writing shows a deep complexity as we see stories intertwine and we get a deep look into many of the characters motivations and development.
7. The show is self-conscious of the time period and what would have been popular at the time. ‘Star Wars’ has just been released at the time and is mentioned a few times throughout the series.
8. The show does not shy away from speaking out about more controversial themes such as race, sexuality, poverty, religion and violence as they are all prominent in the show.
9. ‘The Get Down’ doesn’t cut corners when it comes to portraying the realism of 1970s New York. The experiences of Black and Latino people in the poverty and violence stricken region of the South Bronx aren’t glossed over even if they are slightly dramatised at times.
References:
Baz Luhrmann. (n.d.). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved October 23, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baz_Luhrmann
The Get Down (n.d.). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved October 23, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Get_Down
Wilcox, R. & Lavery, D. (2002). Introduction, in R. Wilcox & D. Lavery (eds) Fighting the forces: what’s at stake in Buffy the vampire slayer. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.