Gilroy's theory applied to TV Drama

Evaluate the relevance of Gilroy's ethnicity theory to long form TV drama

Gilroy's ethnicity theory argues that a large proportion of people have been gathered together as "The Black Atlantic" with a large chunk of what we see through media is generalised but typically holds a majorly white cast in terms of dominant or lead characters. This is shown in Homelands by the generalisation that the terrorist is an immigrant and the lead detective are white Americans  with acceptation for David Estes one of the lead agents who is a black male. Trapped uses the theory with a major proportion of the cast being white other than three minor characters altho this could just be following accurate records of Iceland's occupants with 93% of them being Icelandic and 7% other 3 of that 7% are Polish so overall it is a majorly white area.

One of the main forms of generation in Homelands was saying that those from Middle Eastern locations, primarily islamic culture, were terrorist and the Americans were made to be the heroes against them and in the case of Nicholas Brodie who was associated with middle eastern people became a terrorist Homeland spread the false message of one group of people are evil one group of people are heroic and if a member was associated with the other they would also become bad generalising a group who believe in piece as much as the average Christian American as bad hence the show is racist and Gilroy's theory is present. in Trapped Gilroy's theory shown as much the main aspect comes from the lack of diversity between the characters as previously stated with only 3 minor characters with different ethnic origins and the statistics of Iceland's occupants the criminal in trapped was one of the people in Iceland showing less signs of generalisation but at the same time showing less diversity.

Trapped has a very basic set of characters with Andri Olafsson as the lead detective following the theme of a straight, white male lead but rather than just being he has to have a downside in this case food he was recently divorced and loved his food like Sherlock was addicted to cocaine and morphine and James bond being addicted to drinking and sex making this a very stereotypical thing to make the character less of an angel and more relatable. In Homelands the lead detective was Carrie Mathison switching it up by having a female lead only issue was she had to be overly sexualised which is ,wrongly, common when working with a female character. her fatal flaw was her mental state which is also common throughout Film and TV.

Overall Homelands has some upfront racist features compared to Trapped which just isn't as diverse Gilroy's theory is completely referable in Homelands but only slightly in Trapped with Homelands falsely generalising cultures and Trapped taking a safer but less inclusive approach. The theory is fully present in drama and media as it says that the generalisation of black people has been present ever since the British empire which relates to america as they originally started through the British Empire.

Trapped Characters

Name: Andri Olafsson
Age: Middle Aged
Role: Chief Of Police









Name: Hinrika
Age: Middle Aged
Role: Police Officer

Name: Ásgeir
Age: Middle Aged
Role: Police Officer

Name: Agnes Eiríkdóttir
Age: Middle Aged
Role: Andri's Ex-Wife








Name: Søren Carlsen
Age: Older Aged
Role: Ferry Captain

Name: Hjörtur
Age: Young adult
Role: Potential witness

Name: Eiríkur Davidsson
Age: Older Aged
Role: Agnes's Farther

Trapped Notes

In march 2015 Iceland's GPD had returned to how it was before the 2008 financial crisis . in April 2016 the prime minister stepped down after leaking documents from a panama based law firm. These incidents show both success  and corruption possibly linking to the shows theme on December 27th 2016.

Unpredictable and has more depth as well as being more realistic with a satisfying ending.

Episode one 

• 2 Teenagers are in an abandoned building doing drugs and having sex when the crime of arson is committed causing the girl to die
• 7 years later Detective with and family
• Detective is a middle aged white male and separated from his partner
• Ship gets frozen in town
• Body found in the water with no head or limbs suspected to have come from the ferry
• The ferry goes on lock down leaving passengers confused and angry 
• The detective speaks to the ferry's captain who is having trouble containing passengers causing the detective to promise a set amount of time 
• The detective looks around a misty yard for the suspects who slips away unnoticed 

Episode Two

• Detective chases suspect through snow storm 
• two the detectives ex wife who girl broke into the house 
• The suspect was identified as the one who brought them into the country 
• the girls are given a place to stay for a few days 
• suspect beats up police as he was let out to use the toilet causing his escape 
• someone leaked the pictures of the limbless corpse 
• The detectives kids go missing and a man was seen staring at them 

Episode Three

• Hjörtur is revealed to be the one looking at the kids and taking pictures 
• Andri and Hinrika find a dead body and turned car
• Andri and Hinrika go looking for the other body parts 
• Andri and Ásgeir find Hjörtur while on door duty and start to chase 
• Andri finds the camera Hjörtor 
• Hjörtor gets arrested 
• Hjörtor was the surviver of the fire 

Episode Four

• Hjörtor is released from jail 
• Hinrika finds one of the girls with a phone that had to be taken for evidence 
• Hinrika searches for who had recently brought a similar phone 
• Hjörtor talks about his girlfriend he lost in the fire 
• An Avalanche is coming 

Episode Five

• The Avalanche consumes a few people injuring them
• The Avalanche was said to be cased by a bomb controlled by someone
• Hjörtur goes to a pool party 
• Andri finds the injured man but air ambulance refuse to help 
• The mayor was killed in a fire

Episode Six

• Something Is Wrong with Hinrika as she states after pulling over a man collection a child 
• Andri gives a speech in church  and says "the murderer is probably here, one of us"
•  Another body was found in the boat  

Episode Seven 

• Extra police staff arrive 
• Hjörtur finds out who the limbless body that he photographed was causing him to talk to Andri 
• The new officer interrogates Siggi after finding the chainsaw 
• New officer takes over and rushes a confession possibly leading to false imprisonment 
• Siggi is taken away with new detective 
• Sigurður jumps out the helicopter he was in, committing suicide. 
• They arrest the captain of the ship.

Episode Eight

•  They interrogate the captain.
• They find Sigurður's fingerprints on the autopsy, but they also find someone else's.
• Andre thinks the mayor had something to do with the murder.
• The captain of the ship he saw someone beating someone to half death and knows that person has other powerful people working for him.
• Andre sleeps with Agnes 

Episode Nine

• Andri finds a key in the trousers of Agnes farther, the key fits the lock that was used to trap the mayor in the burning shed.
• Agnes farther confesses and Andri leaves to tell the family.
• The mayor is the one that burnt the place at the beginning

Episode Ten

• Leifer  has Maggi 
• Guoni Has a gun shooting at Andri and Hinrika 
• Hinrika tries to help Maggi
• Leifer and Guoni have Andri and Leifer are locked in the fish freezer 
• Guoni goes to shoot Maggi and Hinrika but is pushed away by Hinrika 
• Guoni hots Hinrika with the gun knocking her down as Maggi runs away 
• Maggi escapes and is chased by Guoni who is stopped by Hinrika with a gun 
• Guoni takes Maggi as a human shield 
• Andri and Leifer escape and help Hinrika capture Guoni and save Maggi 
• They arrest Guoni and Eirikur 
• Andri takes off his ring and walks away 

Racism in homelands

During the course of Homelands, a large issue was the amount of racism towards the Muslim culture brought clear with Brodie's time away after going missing as well as Carrie's time in Baghdad. This does follow the theme of Americanization as it's made to seem patriotic the result of this wasn't the best as it isn't only viewed by the patriotic Americans referred to in the show but people of many cultures and races. Representation is fairly low although a female lead is present being a big step she had to be majorly flawed and made in some situations to use her sexuality to an advantage which isn't a big thing when working with a Male lead linking to the idea that female characters in film are there to appease the male viewers. 

With a story as captivating as homelands it is unfortunate to have such little representation and so many links in what seems like a pro racism position. The fact that Brodie going away and having the conversion from Christian to Muslim is all good until the show shows that the conversion also changed him from the lost war hero into the anti-government terrorist.

In an episode showing Brodie praying to Allah (god) he is caught by his daughter but when discovered by Dana is received in what seems to be a negative light as she starts off scared of her dad's conversion asking questions which link to it being a bad thing.

In a show with this many racist overtones there is bound to be some back lash in this case it was taken to more than just comments as an Arab artist decided to sneak some Anti-homelands graffiti into the set of the show. For a while this was not recognized by the crew as they could not distinguish the "hate art" from the real set design some of these pieces say in Arabic "Homeland is not a series" "black lives matter" "There is no Homeland" and "Homeland is racist" in a way the creators received a reaction they possibly craved as it leads to the show being talked about leading to extra publicity referring to the valid points, made by people who are wrongly represented, as "artistic sabotage."

To conclude, the shows negative representation of the Muslim community is a large issue that is scraped over by the everyday patriotic American craving the spotlight of the hero and making any other race seem evil or in ways inferior. This is most probably done as an act of trying to make the shows main representation group (the straight, white, American) seem like the be all and end all of the world as that is the majority of their viewers and the show flips representation around to put this group (the majority) front and center in the good guy gone bad situation mixed with the idea that Americans are good, Muslims are bad and mixing the two leads to a case like Brodie the American terrorist when in fact a large problem in American society is Americans causing drama and pulling the white privilege card as their reinforcement overall this issue is one that is and has been on its way to a resolution for years the process only slowed by a curtain current president working opposite the cause possibly being one of America biggest threats.

Americanisation

America claims that this isn't possible as they haven't taken over any places like Britain once did but following their ownership throughout the world through the internet to their brands they own more in the world than things that made and stayed in the country such as the fact that there is more american stuff in Britain from america than there is Britain

Products

McDonalds are a huge example only 10 countries in the world don't have a McDonalds

Media

Youtube, one of the internets largest websites, is an american brand spread wide across the world but eventually brought from the original creators by google another even bigger website which is also american.

Film

The majority of music, film and tv is based in or on America and their culture is being a huge way to incorporate American ideas into the lives of people living anywhere other than america 

France removed American/Hollywood Films and cinemas from their culture 

Narrative Levi Strauss

Good vs evil

War vs peace 

Men vs women 

Black vs white 

Sanity vs madness 

Levi Strauss uses the idea of two different concepts clashing through social or moral reasoning such as the most basic being good vs evil this comes up in many ways during homeland with the idea of Black Vs White with the war on terrorism as homeland panders in the direction of racist as it uses the idea of terrorists being middle eastern and no one really takes the guess that it is Brodie. 

The idea of Men Vs Women is played with a fair bit as carrie being a female lead was also shown sleeping around with Brodie and hinted at others this holds a slight sexist view as it uses a females sexuality to exploit males through sexual favours.

Homelands differs from others as it holds the idea of Sanity Vs Madness using Carries mental illness to cause the curiosity of weather Carrie is braking down or being serious and is just convinced she is on to something. through the first season mental health is constantly revisited throughout as well as the possible chance of Brodie having PTSD it was shown as a thing during a dream in the first few episodes but barley referenced after so although the chance is there it has no 100% proof. 

Finally War Vs Peace a huge part of this specific crime drama the fight of whats right and the fight to find the perfect way to come to world peace little hint its possibly peace. this links in to the evolution of Neal. a huge link to this however isn't only the fact that a war is going on but it is the idea of america and their guns trade. 

Narrative Neal

How does it fit into Homeland 

Mise-en-scene

Guns
Blood
Detectives
CIA/Conference room
Families
Drugs
Explosions
Dark interrogation room, bright landscapes
Mid shots,Establishing shots,Over shoulder shots
Female lead detective with bipolar

Narrative

Family Affairs
Secretive
Crime
Interrogation
Dramatic
Unexpected
Political
Military
Phycological

Generic/stock characters 

Detectives
CIA
Police
Double agent
Politician

Theme

New York
Baghdad
CIA base

Evaluate the relevance of Neal's Genre Theory to long term television drama

Neals genre theory is the concept that genres have ideas shared through different platforms by producers and audience for example traditional props, settings, character types are shared although the genre theory leans to evolving these ideas to have a similar concept complicated by the evolved values. 

Neal's Genre Theory is used as well as evolved in homelands as it uses traditional blood, guns and agents but with its own twist in this case it is Carrie as they have a female head detective playing towards modern day gender roles who has Bipolar adding its own twist into the mix. A lot of the stereotypical strings are there for example the interrogation rooms with dark tones and a big bright city full of distractions and clues to cause some spin off episodes complicating the story further showing evolution. 

The narrative has changed a lot following less of the stereotypical theme with a pile of added genres such as political drama because of the reference to 9/11 and terrorism, Phycological drama due to Carries mental state and military drama because of Brodie's past as well as following the traditional crime drama. 

The themes are similar to traditional crime drama as it is based in a large city in this case New York but differs in the way that Baghdad was shown in the first episode but goes back to being at an average setting when it comes to the CIA bases.

Narrative Barthes

Theorists

Applying Todorov's Theory to a whole season

Easy Formula 

Intro

• one or two sentences explain the theory 
• state central arguments 
• Demonstrating you own argument relating to be the theory can be applied in the case studies 
• say what case studies you'll be referring to

Paragraph 1

• Discuss how equilibrium can be applied to TV Drama 
• Use lots of references 
• counter arguments. could be a disruption or a new equilibrium for each episode 
• link back to question, it is useful to compare it 

Paragraph 2

• Discuss Todorov's theory of disruption 
• Discuss how Tod's theory could be applied in episode one then compare disruption over the rest of the season 
• Conclude this linking to the question and how it is different to applying it to a film 
• own opinion does this make box sets better than film 

Paragraph 3 

• Resolution-what are they 
• How does this differ from film 
• No resolution= no equilibrium 

Conclusion 

• Showing which main types of theory can be applied and which can't 
• Links back to the question, how theory can be applied 

Applying Todorov's Theory to a whole season 

Todorov's Narrative theory is originally designed to applied to film. Todorov's theory consists of the main elements of film to ensure and audience enjoys it as much as possible this theory states "All narrative follows a three part structure starting with the equilibrium followed by at some point a disruption ending in a resolution." A key difference between Film and TV however is that Film contains one equilibrium where as TV and showcase more. I am applying Todorov's theory to season 1  of the show Homelands.

Multiple Equilibrium's throughout to keep an audience interested but Homelands,being a crime drama, starts with a disruption followed by the equilibrium 8 years later. The creators most probably went against Todorov's theory to capture the audience in Baghdad on the hunt for a lost "hero" as it throws us straight into the drama then taking us down to the equilibrium 8 years in the future when Carrie (The lead character) who was in Baghdad is seen in America back with the CIA after getting word of sergeant Brodie's rescue. The disruption starts fairly early as when Carrie first hears of Brodies return she's convinced somethings up this is the second disruption in the show and were barley half way through the first episode i a way this goes against Todorov's theory as there are multiple examples of each stage. This is similar through the rest of the series as every so often a new sub plot arises with minor characters coming and going breaking the theory more as it states one of each equilibrium, disruption and resolution. Trapped's key equilibrium was a distant stereotypical police officer attempting to get over his ex wife in a fairly peaceful town that was impacted by a huge fire just a few months prior. As a body washes up with no limbs this peaceful town was put in a state of confusion and panic leaving Andri, Hanrika and Ásgeir to track dow the murderer with the added challenge of having the boat stuck with the town. A second disruption was caused in the form of Trausti turning up and taking over the case seemingly coming in and shutting it down instantly but he was wrong. Trapped used one Equilibrium or two including the fire multiple disruptions all leading to one resolution unlike homelands with its many new sub plots.  

Throughout Homeland season one there is a lot of disruption from the start to carrie catching onto something about brodie all the way down to episode 11 when all of Carrie's research is taken by the CIA the show is full of twists and turns and extended versions of Todorov's theory. In general this makes sense as it was originally intended for film with a common running time of 2 hours where as this is a season of a TV series with an average running time of 9 hours so following the theory and not being short, repetitive and boring is impossible. In my opinion the series allows us to get to know the characters more with lots of sub plots by expanding on the theory this tends to make the outcome of the show more interesting as it is like nothing we have seen before as by this point we have followed the structure through most movies for years. Compared to Homelands Trapped seems like it was designed for a smarter audience with its plot twists and almost impossible cases where as in Homelands the answers where pretty much served on a plate. In my opinion Trapped follows Todorov's theory pretty closely possibly closer than Homelands did it was made better possibly showing that there formulas potentially work when creating a show. 

There are multiple resolutions throughout this show which differs from multiple movies but non of these resolutions were the end of the first season as it ends on a cliff hanger this is most probably because it was intended to carry on through multiple seasons. through Todorov's theory the resolution would be at the end which is why this strays from the theory's normative structure. TV itself isn't like movies its supposed to go on for longer its supposed to make you connect with characters and keep the audience wanting more the final resolution can't be met until the definitive end of the show which is a major way for it to stray from Todorov's Theory.

Homeland notes

 Homeland episode 1 

The first episode of Homeland broke Todorov's narrative theory as it started straight in with action in bacdad running through to get information from a prisoner on a missing solder going forward 10 months the solder has been found but when he comes back carrie suspects there is something wrong with him. the first few scenes didn't really start with slow build up its straight in this could be because it is a tv crime drama meaning it doesn't follow typical codes and conventions as it wants to captivate and audience and keep them interested.

in the middle of the episode there is the more family orientated bits with the reveal of the scars and the cctv cameras put up with no legal consent but the ending was cryptic as carrie spots something between nicks hand and the jam band playing she spots a possible message this is hanover thing that breaks the theory it ends on a cliff hanger.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Episode 2

• Nick wakes up after a night terror showing signs of ptsd he grabbed his wife are leaving bruises.
• News reporters are outside Nicks family house   
• Carries overviewing of Nick become legal for 4 weeks
• Carrie runs out of meds for her bipolar 
• Nick tells his wife his day was great after spending the whole day hiding in a coroner
• Nick hits a journalist who was hiding in woods near his house
• Linn tells Carry about a "surprise visiter" who came to america showing proof he is known as Abu Lazier
• Mike tries to convince Nick to tak an interview but he refuses 
• Carrie gets more meds from her sister Maggie
• Nick prays to islamic god 
• Nick goes outside to the press in full uniform 

Episode 3

• Lin and Abu lazier are together when Lin downloads all of Lazier's data for Carrie 
• Lin thinks the prince is genially nice
• Dana knows about Jessica and mikes affair 
• Jessica feels guilty about the affair 
• Lin was told to meet a friend of Abu Lazier
• Lin gets shot and her neckless stolen 
• the family go through with the interview
• 
  

Episode 4-5

• Brodie continues his trip in the media but his behaviour draws attention to himself 
• Saul and Carrie argue because they let someone kill themselves 

Episode 6

• Tom Walkers funeral 
• Carrie gets everyones to take a polygraph test to see who handed the razor over and to check for a mole 
• Saul runs out of his polygraph 
• Carrie tells Brodie why they need a polygraph test 
• Carrie and Brodie drink a little too much and end up in the back of the car 
• Rikeem got shot
• Brodie cheated the polygraph somehow 

Episode 7

• Rikeem's wife gets caught in Mexico
• Saul has to drive her 
• Carrie and Brodie meet again 

Episode 8

• Tom Walker on the streets being for food
• Tom Walker planing to turn on the country
• at the party everyone is nice to Brody and Jessica
• In pursuit of Tom Walker the FBI kills two innocent victims
• Walker finds a sniper gun in a safe

Episode 10

• Brodie's house gets searches as he gets asked to run for congress 

Episode 11

• Brodie takes his family out for the day 
• Brodie is seen being strapped into an explosive vest
• David and the CIA go to Carries house as Brodie reports what she's up to 
• The CIA remove Carries evidence 

Episode 12

• Tom Walker breaks into a woman car without her knowing 
• The woman drives into a guarded are 
• Walker ties up the woman and lines a shot up from her flat 
• Brodie tells his daughter he converted to Islam 
• Brodie pulled or something wrapped from the closet 
• The wrapped object was the bomb vest 
• Dana telles Brodie she doesn't think its safe to go 
• Walker aims his shot 
• Walker shoots but misses the vice president 3 times leading to him and many others to be taken to to a small space where Brodie was supposed to set off his explosive vest and kill them all 
• Brodies vest doesn't work 
• Carrie goes to Brodie's house and Dana lets her in 
• Carrie tells Dana that her dad is working with Walker 
• Dana calls the police 
• Brodie fixes the vest 
• Dana calles Brodie causing him stop not kill everyone 
• Brodie shoots Walker 
• Saul tries to get Carrie out of the hospital hinting that he's beginning to believe her 
• Carrie goes through with the electro therapy and has flashbacks

Intro- say your going to analyse homelands and link to question 

P1- Industries who placed homeland Budgets , Adventures, Viewing figures 

P2- Narrative- how narrative links cultural social, political economic, context USA 

How it would be received by middle east 

P3 Discussions of gender, Carries representation, Flawed female lead Received by middle east?