Post #4: Marxism

The concept of Marxism boils down to the dynamics of power and shifts in power. Every scene on television is a power play. At any point, a character (or even a group of characters) exceeds another character in power, and that other person automatically responds to that. More commonly, the game evolves into a “give or take” situation, but it’s not always the case. There is a chance for the power to be deflected, rejected, or simply ignored by an opposing character.

Marxism also establishes various roles within a hierarchy in which most characters in a television program or a movie can fit into. The levels of this hierarchy are not arranged in the order of a food chain, but rather as separate but interacting groups. These groups illustrate the basic interests of the characters described in each.

Blog Post #3

This class has given me new lenses with which to view and consume media. As a former theatre/film student, I'm used to analyzing work on screen in a certain way. The methods learned in this class provide a different way to think about the subjects put forth in modern television.

Since moving out of my parent's house last year, my access to cable has been substantially limited. I watch a lot of Netflix, Amazon Prime if I feel like doing something different, and the rest of the time, I'm that person who listens to full albums on my record player. So many new and returning shows premiere new episodes this time of year, so if I want to actually catch one of those, I make sure it's recording at my parent's house or that one of my friends is equally interested in the program so they'll end up recording it. I'm pretty much a mooch when it comes to people who have DVRs. This past week, the only premiering episode I went out of my way to see was Scream Queens, a new Ryan Murphy show that promised to be campy, college-based horror. Scream Queens turned out to be fantastic, but I think it's really funny that the episode just HAPPENED to premiere the night that our class started working with the concepts surrounding Marxism. There are a lot of hierarchal dynamics surrounding the characters (the plot centers around a college sorority).

I'm intrigued by what I have observed so far, and am interested to see how this class further changes my perceptions.

Blog Post #2: The Semiotics of Sherlock

I'll be honest- I've seen the pilot episode of Sherlock more than once. A lot more than once, actually. There was a time where A Study in Pink was something I ritualistically watched while falling asleep. However, I had not watched the show with much analyses until this past Tuesday. I was surprised to find subtleties that I might have seen before, but had never gone out of my way to notice.

One of the things about this particular reinvention of Sherlock that I think has lent itself heavily to the overall success of the show is the constant presence of intertextuality- more specifically, its references to the original stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. While A Study in Pink is a direct homage to the story A Study in Scarlet, the episode is also peppered with references to other elements of the canonical world of Holmes, such as Holmes' drug addiction and the address of 221b Baker Street. There are also modernized references, such as the journals kept separately by both Watson and Holmes that take the form of separate blogs chronicling their adventures. The case of the green ladder killer appears solely on Sherlock's blog, but is mentioned briefly via text from Sherlock to John.

While the evolution of John Watson's psychosomatic limp and subsequent cane use is very significant, I found myself more intrigued by the parallels between some of the more major characters presented in the episode. Sherlock and his brother, Mycroft, are both self-isolated people who look down on their intellectual inferiors- Mycroft from the pedestal of the British government, and Sherlock from his apartment where he outwits Scotland Yard for his amusement. However, it is primarily through their vocalized speculations that we learn details about John's life. On the other hand, there are a great many similarities between John Watson and Inspector Greg Lestrade, both of whom are the only people who are both amazed by Sherlock's deductive reasoning and ability to solve murders, but also both are convinced of Sherlock's inherent goodness.

I highly recommend watching your old favorite shows with an analytical eye, because you become decidedly more aware of elements used to tell a familiar story.

Blog Post #1

This advertisement is designed to grab the attention of a viewer by providing a seemingly silly image at a large scale. The photo of the cheetah wearing a coat takes up almost half of the entire advertisement which guarantees that it is the first element observed in the ad, and an image that sparks intrigue within the audience. Because the image of a coat-wearing cheetah is amusing and puzzling, the audience is more inclined to seek explanation in the second half of the ad. It is interesting to note that the alignment of elements within this ad puts the text and the product centered beneath the cheetah.

The font choice for the ad is simplistic and seems to serve the purpose of stylistically separating the two featured images. Surprisingly, despite its bright red coloring in contrast to the cold color scheme used throughout, the Charal product does not stand out nearly as much as the aforementioned cheetah. Its placement at the bottom of the ad serves to provide a definitive justification for the advertisement.

The goal of this ad is to inform consumers in a lighthearted way that Charal's packaged meat products are more authentic than their competitors offer, and so much so that a carnivorous animal such as the cheetah would go out of their way to hunt it down. Realistic? hardly. But it is an amusing image that would likely be easy to recall as a consumer during a trip to the grocery store.