Contextual studies lecture Louis: post modern TV

Postmodern TV

Twin Peaks: David Lynch     Crime-Soap opera hybrid

Objectives:

Define experimental and conventional

Are there different types of experimental in different genres of TV?

What modes of critical analysis can we use to define 'experimental'?

Twin peaks had two seasons from 1990 to 1991, created by film director David Lynch and TV crime genre writer Mark Frost for the ABC network(with access to an audience of 15 million at least). Twin Peaks was a unusual show for the network and is regarded by critics as one of the most innovative and influential mainstream network programmes for the modern TV era. 

How can we define experimental?

If something challenges and/or subverts genre codes/conventions

If there are innovations in stylistic presentation (mise en scene, editing, etc)

If there are innovation in narrative (eg how the story is told: structure and time)

Conventional narrative formats

Episodic series usually long-running (13 episodes or more), primetime, self contained storylines and closed resolutions within each show.

Continuous serial/soap opera- traditionally daytime, open-ended storylines with cliffhangers

Episodic serial (miniseries)- short run drama (more than six hours in two or more parts) which combine the closed resolution of the episodic series with the ongoing multi-arc strands of the soap opera

Sequential series- development of the episodic series format which run narrative arcs through out the series and end seasons with cliffhangers

Twin Peaks narrative format

First season was similar to a episodic serial or miniseries, it had a episodically threaded narrative and cliffhanger finale of the sequential series (co-creator Mark Frost worked on pioneering police drama series, Hill Street Blues)

Open-ended multi-character/multi-plotlines of the continuous serial or soap opera (lynch said of twin peaks in a '14 interview: "it is a soap drama")

Genre Hybridity

Crime genre- episodic, forensic rationality, central detective character, crime resolution and narrative closure

Soap genre- continuing, emotional melodrama, multiple character arcs, crime may take weeks/months or years to be resolved

Supernatural/horror genre- demonic possession, native American folklore

Postmodernism

Ideologically disruptive

Deconstructs form, often in playful way

May use elements of high and low culture (usually through homage or pastiche)

Meta-references of self reflexivity (intertextuality), such as films like 'Cabin in the Woods'

Mise en scene

Pacific north-west small town setting (rather than conventional crime genre urban city locations)

Costumes, makeup and set design evoke 1950's (though series set in contemporary timeframe)

Unconventional lighting and staging (flickering neon in autopsy room, objects framed in long close ups for dramatic effect)

Camera work and editing

Scenes filmed in wide and/or long shots (rather than conventional close-ups and shot reverse shots of most television drama)

Action held longer in the frame than usual- either for comic effect (dialogue scenes in police station) or exaggerated emotional resonance (crying scenes)

Sound and music

Heavy use of both original soundtrack music and surreal ambient sounds (Lynch's signature hum)

Music is used for heightened emotional effect (rather than just background underscore or action cues as in most TV dramas)

Used of diegetic and non-diegetic leitmotifs associated with spec characters

Acting and character

Twin peaks features many conventional dramatic archetypes: the analytical crime investigator, upright sheriff and corrupt business man

Characters are written and acted in a highly stylised or quirky manner that defy genre convention and challenged audience's preconceptions