Media Studies - TV Shows (The Killing and No Offence)

Dramatic Irony

The audience knows more than the characters

Flexi-narrative

There is more than one storyline per episode

Iconography

Typical features linked to a genre

Watershed

The time more violent episodes can be shown (9pm in the UK)

Production values

The quality of lighting, editing etc

Verisimilitude

Trying to make a story as real as possible so the audience feels more immersed

CGI

Computer Generated Imagery

Red herring

False clue

Some typical genre conventions in a Crime Drama

-low key lighting

-prop of guns

-tense non-diegtic music

-dispatcher

-vicitim

-witness

Noridic Noir

-a sub genre of crime drama

-began in Scandinavia

-uses noir genre conventions and is set in a Scandinavian location with a focus on rural and/or urban or industrial locations

Genre conventions of Nordic Noir

-Darker side of modern life: crime, violence and their impact

-Urban, rural or industrial settings

-Locations and crimes act as symbols for wider culture where external appearance of families and social institutions hide dark, violent and corrupt behaviour

Scandinavian countries

-known for their dark long winters

-known for their strong welfare state systems and low levels of wealth inequality

-region thought as socialy liberal with progressive attitudes to gender and sexuality

Nordic Noir Nunances

-engages with the idealisation of these countries and uses the crime drama genre to explore, and at time, critque ideas of national identity

Visual Codes of Nordic Noir

-symbolic montage in the title sequence and/or use of the melancholic music

-muted colours

-low key lighting

-long slow pans and tracking shots over landscapes and landmarks

-rural bland landscapes

-industrial urban landscapes

-wintery settings

Thematic codes of Nordic Noir

-story focus on crime and police investigations

-”lone wolf hero” investigator with issues

-investigator/protag may struggle with personal relationships

-complex and flawed characters

-lack of trust with authority

-focus on consequences of violent crime

-dramatic tension and suspense

The Killing's Reception

-broadcast in 2011 (4 years after og broadcast) on BBC4 and became a cult success even though it was subtitled

-won many international awards including BAFTA Best International TV programme

-shown in over 100 countries

The Killing - Original Broadcast

-joint funded by DR (Danish Broadcasting Corporation) and ZDF (German) Enterprises

-broadcasted on DR1 (mainstream, primary channel) in 2007

High art

High art has more capital than low art and is seen as having more of a purpose and needs specialist learning to understand it (TV is seen as low art)

Cultural capital

Term used by Bourdieu to describe the idea that certain things (knowledge, objects, etc) give a person status and power within social groups

Hesmondhalgh + The Killing

-Genre: Crime Drama → minimise risks as popular genre

-Star power→ famous Danish actors

-Use of DR and ZDF Enterprises collab → synergy

-Broadcasted in UK as well → risky as not og country and isn't dubbed

Livingstone and Lunt + The Killing

-UK DVD rating (BBFC) → 15

-Post-Watershed on TV (past 9pm)

Curran and Seaton + The Killing

-Lots of diversity and creativity: subtitled (UK), Danish culture, female protag → against C + S

-American remake → lack of creativity → follows C + S

General Narrative of The Killing

-Long-form serial drama

-Flexi-narrative with the main narrative on the investigation behind the disappearance of Nanna Birk Larsen

-Other strands: The Birk Larsen family, Troels Hartmann's campaign and Sarah Lund's personal life

The Killing - S1, Ep1 - Opening

-begins in media res

-starts at Disruption, not Equilibrium, which creates immediate enigma

-cold opening → nothing is explained → enigma

The Killing - S1, Ep1 - Ending

-ends with multiple open narrative strands

-engima maintained through narrative restriction (no dramatic irony)

-montage at end to act as a summary for the various narrative threads

The Killing - enigma codes

-Opening sequence

The Killing - action codes

-Nanna running in opening

-Lund investigating crime scene

The Killing - semantic codes

-Nanna running frantically in opening = she's in fear

The Killing - symbolic codes + binary opposition

-Nanna's white dress = purity, innocence → victim

-Vagn's silhouette in the dark = evil, threat → villain

Abercrombie, 1996

Television producers set out to exploit (use a lot of) genre conventions because it makes economic sense

The Killing + Schatz's Genre

Genre of Order:

-Female detective hero (non-typical)

-Unstable setting (supposed to be civilised)

-Crime investigation (conflict)

-Death of Vagn at end

Genre of Integration:

-set in contemporary society

-side narrative strands have internal and emotional conflict

Deconstruction of Crime Drama (Nordic Noir + Female protag)

The Killing + Neale's Genre

Reptition:

-Nanna's Murder + Female Victim

-Vagn = Male Villain

-Police iconography

-Multistranded narrative

Difference

-Female detective hero

Represention of Danish People - The Killing

Stereotypes:

-patriotic (Leaving Party, flag props)

-stotic and strong BUT Theis crying + Pernille

-unfriendly (serious facial expressions)

Family Interaction:

-strong family ties (Birk Larsen's) BUT Lund's poor relationship with son → not typical

The Killing + Boys to Men, 1999

Jan Meyers → the joker

Representations of Beliefs, Attitudes and Values - The Killing

Beliefs:

-non-religious/secular

Attitudes:

-distrust of police and government → non-hegemonic (against Marxism and The Media)

Values → hegemonic:

-family values, marriage and children are important

-hetreonormative and traditional

Crime porn

Violence against women is fetished, being presented as passive and beautiful in an extended rape fantasy, or used as a shock device, in TV dramas

The Killing + Crime Porn

-Nanna as the “ideal victim” (pretty, white, young and female), who is subjected to rape and murder → BUT it isn't shown

Against: Lund is a powerful female detective protagonist, HOWEVER this does little to undermine how Nanna is a victim of violence, with how prevalent the use of female victims in Crime Dramas are

The Killing + Representations of Gender Equality (For)

-Sarah Lund: could be seen as post-femininist

→investigator (taking on a traditionally male role)

→ not objectified (neutral costume, active narrative role, serious personality)

→ insightful (solves case)

The Killing + Representations of Gender Equality (Against)

-investigation focuses on the rape and murder of a young woman, Nanna → trad victim

-Pernille and Theis

→ trad gender roles

→Theis patronising Pernille “Calm down, sweetheart”

-Male polications → women are helpers

-Male villain and motive is sex-related (“crime porn”)

The Killing + Representation Theory (Hall)

Positive Stereotypes:

-Childish detective (Meyers)

Negative Stereotypes:

-Female victim (Nanna)

The Killling + Van Zoonen (+ Male Gaze)

-Nanna presented as a object of desire → torn white dress in opening

HOWEVER: Lund never objectified

The Killing - bell hooks’ feminist theory

Examples of the Patriachy:

-Mostly men in power → Cancelled debate scene, Lund's boss in her office

-Theis’ “Calm down, sweetheart” to Pernille

-Lund's masculine traits → could be because she's a woman, she isn't taken seriously otherwise

Naturalisation (Hall)

The repeated messages of stereotypes can suggest that groups have a natural tendency towards certain types of behaviour e.g. the angry black woman trope

Other (Hall)

Those groups who are excluded from social power or mainstream culture are "others"

Transcoding (Hall) (NOT Trans coding)

Refers to the representation strategies that contest stereotypical assumptions e.g. a black woman presented as calm

Abjection (Butler)

To cast off and separate from norms and rules, especially on the scale of society and morality

Adject is often used to describe the state of marginalized groups

Gender subverison (Butler)

When someone behaves, acts or dresses in a way that is not stereotypical to their gender identity

Intersectional media (bell hooks)

The way the piece of media talks and engages with race and racism

The Killing - Audience

-BBC4 Viewers → people who like deconstructions of genres or unconventional tv shows

-Those who seek culture capital by watching a critically lauded subtitled TV series

-Danish speakers

-Explorers (UK), Mainstream (Danish)

The Killing + End of Audience (Clay Shirky)

-The Guardian ran a week by week episode summary whilst The Killing was being broadcast on BB4

-Episode summaries were open for comments so audiences could dicuss the most recent events and share theories

The Killing + Gerbner's Cultivation Theory

-Corrupt government and police (non-typical)

-Importance of nuclear family unit

-Heteronormative

-Men are more likely to be in power

-Parents are imperfect (non-typical)

The Killing + Mean World Syndrome

-Violence against women is common

-Nanna's assaulter and murderer not found until last episode

-Corrupt government and police

The Killing + Hall's Reception Theory

Dominant: Like Lund as a character, entertained, appreciate the culture

Negotiated: Might not like the female victim trope, but like the transcoding of Lund and the deconstruction of the crime drama genre

Oppositional: Theis = abusive, hetreonormative, female victims (“crime porn”)

The Killing + Bandura

-Lund as protagonist → audience could see her as a role model → aspirational copying

-Immersive -> lots of resonance in visuals, aesthetics, even if the audience is British

HOWEVER, subtitles (UK) could make it less immersive as audience have to read to understand

No Offence - Original Broadcast

First episode was aired on Channel 4 on the 5th of May 2015 at 9pm, after the Watershed

No Offence + General Narrative

The first season consists of an 8 episode narrative arc investigating the serial murders of girls with Down syndrome and the disappearance of a missing, suspected further victim, Cathy Calvert

No Offence + Genre

-a hybrid of a police procedural and dark comedy, with the sub-genre of serial killer murder mystery

-subversive due to it's humour which intrigues audiences

No Offence + Audience Reaction

The Guardian's review: “Nooo, hahaha, I mean eurgh” → funny but also gross, and not knowing if to laugh or not due to fear of being seen as offensive

Pastiche

Where media producers are not looking for originality, but reproducing familiar tropes e.g. shared bike scenes set in Paris

Broadcast TV

Uses public airways that can be picked up by basically any TV, if you have a license, out there (The Killing and No Offence are on these)

No Offence - Representations of the police

-Abbott, the creator, has gone on to say that he likes people who are good at their jobs

-Nuanced police rep (embody the binary conflict between who they are as people and the rules and regulations they are supposed to follow) → Dianh, Deering

-Actions are morally or ethically ambiguous → serves to humanise them so the audience can ideologically align with them positively

No Offence - Representations of women (Detective Viv Deering)

-Partially influenced by artist, Beryl Cook's depictions of women

-Self-confident and unashamed → problematic (Opp reading) as that is a common trope for plus sized women

-Comedic relief → problematic (Opp reading) due to her being plus sized

-Struggles with who she is as a person and the regulations she is supposed to follow

-Morally ambiguous

No Offence - Representation of disability (Down Syndrome)

Nuanced and non-typical take as the characters are treated as people and not just tokens:

-Jocelyn Wade, one of the victims, has down syndrome and was involved in prostitution

-She also pimped-out her boyfriend, who also has down syndrome, and he enjoyed it, supposedly

No Offence - Representations of place

-filmed and set in Manchester → convention of cities being places of crime

-locations carefully constructed to mimic the ‘real’ world to create authenticity to the audience

-Toilet setting: humour, humanises the characters, resonance for viewers, subverts the usual protocol of transparency by being away from Deering

No Offence + Neale's Genre

Repetition:

-Female victims

-Male villain with sex-related crime as well as murder

-Morally ambiguous police

-Police iconography

Difference:

-Multiple main female detectives

-Female detective protagonist

-No tokenisation of people with down syndrome

-Dark humour and toilet humour

r/televisonsuggestions - Forbrydelsen - The best murder mystery drama shown I have ever seen (Example of Positive Reception)

“The main killer was kind of obvious to me”

“Is demanding but it's worth it”

The Danish Verison of “The Killing” is Even Better Than It's American Counterpart - Famous Brother

Troels Hartmann's actor's brother is Mad Mikkelsen, the star of cult classic, Hannibal (2013) → could lead to a resurgence of The Killing due to shadow star power