Trapped character profiles

Section A: 1 hour
Q1: BBC breakfast show (Production and format of show, presenter and recent changes, target audience and specific appeals, funding PSB remit and how it meets it, economical political and cultural context and digital convergence./ Jungle Book(15 marks)  (Production distribution involved, main detail of the production narrative and character etc, changes in the remake and reasons, economical and historical context.)

Q2: Video games (15 marks)(Production companies involved, developments in game, target audience and appeals, impact of being brought out.)


Section B: 1 hour
Q3: TV Drama representation (context, produced and consumed) (30 marks)

Q4: Todorov's (10 marks)radio


Representations of social, cultural and historical events can vary within long form television dramas from different countries. Discuss how and why audiences might respond to and interpret these representations differently. 

In your answer you must 

• consider the contexts in which long form television dramas are produced and consumed
• explain how media contexts may have influenced different aspects of realism and audience response in set episodes of the two long from television dramas you have studied
• make judgements and reach conclusions and the differences in realism of social,cultural and historical circumstances between the two set episodes. 

I am going to compare and contrast the long form U.S television crime drama Homeland and the European long for television drama Trapped. From comparing the two I will draw upon the different representations in relation to social and historical context, which will offer explanation to how such contexts will influence representations of gender and crime in set episodes, and how the audience interprets these representations differently.

Homeland was produced on a high budget by the cable channel Showtime, a premium cable and satellite network that is the flagship service of the Showtime Networks subsidiary of CBS Corporation. The original broadcast of the opening episode 'Pilot' received just over one million viewers, becoming Showtime's highest-rated drama premiere in eight years and drawing record setting audiences for the cable network. It was produced for a cable and global internet audience, and demonstrates the opportunities for character development in authored programmes allowing for more complex, individualised three-dimensional characterisation rather than simple stereotyping.

In contrast the long form TV drama Trapped (RUV 2015, shown on BBC 4 in the UK (2016) has a low budget, costing the series about 6 million euros to make, which is the most expensive Icelandic series ever. It wasn't made for global market but spread through Europe. With its release in the UK in 2016 it was attractive to middle class viewers. It was so popular that BBC made a special BBC 4 Saturday night slot for foreign programmes. The BBC picked up the show a year after release for a small amount of money. Netflix globally distributed it later in 2016. It isn't as popular as Homeland but still had huge viewing figures. In France 5 million people tuned in for the first episode and the UK had around 500,000 views per episode.

The main context in terms of production is that Homeland is a high budget American drama with an intended mainstream, global audience, where Trapped is only a low budget Icelandic drama which target Icelandic people. This allowed Homeland to have more choice in regards to mise-en-scene, filming, editing, sound and technology, with a cast of recognisable actors. It also allowed for a bigger variety of locations which may have created more realism for the audience. Since trapped was low budget it had not very well known stars and was filmed in North Iceland using a little fishing village as its main location. Although it doesn't have the money to be thrown into creating realism, whilst filming the camera crew were actually trapped due to the extreme weather conditions adding a lot of realism. It relies on lighting stylisation and the use of camera to replicate traditional crime drama conventions.

In terms of social context, Homeland is very behind with gender equality, gender roles and representations compared to Trapped. In both long form television dramas we have the discussion of representation in relation to Carrie Mathison and Hinrika, whose character are crucial to the narrative and on occasion challenge and subvert those representations. This is done to instigate cultural change and domestic conventions on representations and identity. Both females share generic traits in their representations across western television culture. As Van Zoonen says gender is performative, we see Jessica playing the doting wife and the army desperately trying to persuade Brody to be the masculine hero. The CIA management in Homeland is male reinforcing a patriarchal power.

difference in how the crimes are created

Plot twists are comparable to the success of the show with its themes of loyalty and legitimacy, demonstrating the established convention of these elements within crime/political/espionage thriller genre which represent social anxieties and/or constructed social values on television programmes for example the rupturing of the American Dream, which is illustrated though allegorical representations of social anxieties such as domestic terrorism and surveillance and also more broadly though a wider western social values towards security, family and home. audience 

homeland received criticism from non-western societies for racism portray- during season 8 a protestor even managed to spray paint 'Homeland is racist' is Arabic onto the set. This highlights the issue that America may be guilty of Xenophobia and some western audiences either identity with this or are ignorant of it.  There is a lack of diversity in Trapped which could be interpreted as racist to international audiences, however 93% of the Icelandic population are Icelandic so it could just be a realistic representation. Audiences have not criticised Trapped in the same way as Homeland. 

In conclusion, there are a number of reasons for the differences in representations of social, cultural and historical events between the set two episodes of Homeland and Trapped. This is due to the production of Homeland being mainstream cable TV drama and Trapped being an Icelandic production. These context have a clear effect on the representations of gender and family. Theres is a difference in how the crimes are created, one bing homeland security and one being the murder of a teenage girl and the murderer of a man. The complex storytelling and representations of femininity which challenge traditional stereotypes have resulted in different readings from the audiences. Both dramas have been popular with an international audience showing long form television crime drama and shared values can have a mass audience appeal.

intro- what tv dramas we studied, budget,

Iceland had a financial crash
Homeland was coming to terms with terrorist attacks